Source: CNN - Larry King
Did government cover up UFOs?
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/07/20/lkl.ufo.long.cnn
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Robert Fisk: 'Europe has a duty to educate the US about Middle East'
Foreign Minister Walid Moallem says Syria is ready to co-operate with the
West
Walid Moallem leans forward in the armchair of the Paris Intercontinental
Opera. "It's all on the record," he snaps. It usually is. The Syrians can be
up- front when you least expect it. Syria's Foreign Minister is one of their
top negotiators, a man who knows Israel's diplomats almost as well as they
know themselves, who understands all the traps of the Middle East.
Tell me who murdered Rafiq Hariri, I ask him. And Mr Moallem grins bleakly
and reaches into his jacket pocket. His beefy hand emerges clutching a wad
of pale green Syrian hundred-pound notes. "Tell me the answer and you can
take all my money," he says.
He may see evil among Syria's enemies but he will speak no evil, certainly
not of the French. "We are building trust with the French," he says. Syria
is ready to co-operate on the prevention of illegal immigration, against
"what you in the West call 'terrorism'" and opening a developed economic
partnership. And Mr Moallem can be a bit preachy into the bargain.
"You in the West have a moral duty in Europe to educate the United States
more about the Middle East. If they don't listen to you, they will not
listen to us. They will continue with their mistakes." I don't think they're
going to listen, I mutter. But Mr Moallem is in full flow.
"When we announced our position in the Security Council against the invasion
of Iraq, the Americans adopted a policy of isolating Syria. We know that the
United States is a superpower and many countries prefer to follow its
policies without question. We say: 'We differ ... we belong to a region
where we are in the middle of the eye of the storm. The United States is
10,000km far away from us. We are directly involved and influenced by
regional issues. We consider dialogue, despite differences, is the most
important in diplomacy. The message of President Assad to France is that the
old policies are wrong, that only dialogue can solve difficult issues."
So, what about the opening of a Syrian embassy in Beirut and a Lebanese
embassy in Damascus? "We reached agreement in principle to establish
diplomatic relations. Unfortunately, after that, relations between the
Syrian and Lebanese government were negative. A lot of Lebanese leaders
tried publicly to accuse Syria of many issues [sic] of which Syria is
innocent." Were these issues, I ask Mr Moallem, perhaps - well - were they
assassinations? "Innocent!" he thunders. "At least, they provide no proof of
their accusation. In a negative atmosphere, you cannot establish diplomatic
relations. But after the Doha agreement [which called for a unity government
in Lebanon and a veto over cabinet decisions by the pro-Syrian opposition]
we hope that a positive atmosphere will be created. So now we are talking
about two states, two independent sovereign states on an equal footing. The
will of each side is to be respected."
And the Hariri tribunal to find his murderers? What did Assad and Sarkozy
say about this? "Never mentioned - not once," Mr Moallem replies.
"The French President asked President Assad to help, through his relations
with Iran, in inviting international public opinion to understand that the
Iranian nuclear programme is a peaceful one ... We stand firmly against the
race of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons in our region."
So what was the mysterious target of Israel's bombing raid on Syria? "It was
a military location," Mr Moallem said slowly. "I can assure you that if it
was a nuclear site, it would - after bombing - leave radiation. Do you
really think, if our intention was to do this [develop nuclear weapons], we
would allow the IAEA inspector to come from Vienna to examine the site?"
Mr Moallem's pound notes remain on the table. But for how long?
West
Walid Moallem leans forward in the armchair of the Paris Intercontinental
Opera. "It's all on the record," he snaps. It usually is. The Syrians can be
up- front when you least expect it. Syria's Foreign Minister is one of their
top negotiators, a man who knows Israel's diplomats almost as well as they
know themselves, who understands all the traps of the Middle East.
Tell me who murdered Rafiq Hariri, I ask him. And Mr Moallem grins bleakly
and reaches into his jacket pocket. His beefy hand emerges clutching a wad
of pale green Syrian hundred-pound notes. "Tell me the answer and you can
take all my money," he says.
He may see evil among Syria's enemies but he will speak no evil, certainly
not of the French. "We are building trust with the French," he says. Syria
is ready to co-operate on the prevention of illegal immigration, against
"what you in the West call 'terrorism'" and opening a developed economic
partnership. And Mr Moallem can be a bit preachy into the bargain.
"You in the West have a moral duty in Europe to educate the United States
more about the Middle East. If they don't listen to you, they will not
listen to us. They will continue with their mistakes." I don't think they're
going to listen, I mutter. But Mr Moallem is in full flow.
"When we announced our position in the Security Council against the invasion
of Iraq, the Americans adopted a policy of isolating Syria. We know that the
United States is a superpower and many countries prefer to follow its
policies without question. We say: 'We differ ... we belong to a region
where we are in the middle of the eye of the storm. The United States is
10,000km far away from us. We are directly involved and influenced by
regional issues. We consider dialogue, despite differences, is the most
important in diplomacy. The message of President Assad to France is that the
old policies are wrong, that only dialogue can solve difficult issues."
So, what about the opening of a Syrian embassy in Beirut and a Lebanese
embassy in Damascus? "We reached agreement in principle to establish
diplomatic relations. Unfortunately, after that, relations between the
Syrian and Lebanese government were negative. A lot of Lebanese leaders
tried publicly to accuse Syria of many issues [sic] of which Syria is
innocent." Were these issues, I ask Mr Moallem, perhaps - well - were they
assassinations? "Innocent!" he thunders. "At least, they provide no proof of
their accusation. In a negative atmosphere, you cannot establish diplomatic
relations. But after the Doha agreement [which called for a unity government
in Lebanon and a veto over cabinet decisions by the pro-Syrian opposition]
we hope that a positive atmosphere will be created. So now we are talking
about two states, two independent sovereign states on an equal footing. The
will of each side is to be respected."
And the Hariri tribunal to find his murderers? What did Assad and Sarkozy
say about this? "Never mentioned - not once," Mr Moallem replies.
"The French President asked President Assad to help, through his relations
with Iran, in inviting international public opinion to understand that the
Iranian nuclear programme is a peaceful one ... We stand firmly against the
race of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons in our region."
So what was the mysterious target of Israel's bombing raid on Syria? "It was
a military location," Mr Moallem said slowly. "I can assure you that if it
was a nuclear site, it would - after bombing - leave radiation. Do you
really think, if our intention was to do this [develop nuclear weapons], we
would allow the IAEA inspector to come from Vienna to examine the site?"
Mr Moallem's pound notes remain on the table. But for how long?
'Breakthrough' in malaria fight
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney
Australian scientists have identified a potential treatment to combat malaria.
Researchers in Melbourne believe their discovery could be a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease.
The malaria parasite produces a glue-like substance which makes the cells it infects sticky, so they cannot be flushed through the body.
The researchers have shown removing a protein responsible for the glue can destroy its stickiness, and undermine the parasite's defence.
The malaria parasite produces the "glue" when it infects target red blood cells, enabling them to stick to the walls of blood vessels.
This stops them being pased through the spleen, where the parasites would usually be destroyed by the immune system.
Using genetic tests of the parasite, the Australian scientists identified eight proteins responsible for the production of the "glue".
Removing just one of these proteins stopped the cell from attaching itself to the walls of blood vessels.
Professor Alan Cowman, a member of the research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, said targeting the protein with drugs could be a key to fighting malaria.
"If we block the stickiness we essentially block the virulence or the capacity of the parasite to cause disease," he said.
Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. The disease kills more than a million people each year. Many of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
BBC News, Sydney
Australian scientists have identified a potential treatment to combat malaria.
Researchers in Melbourne believe their discovery could be a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease.
The malaria parasite produces a glue-like substance which makes the cells it infects sticky, so they cannot be flushed through the body.
The researchers have shown removing a protein responsible for the glue can destroy its stickiness, and undermine the parasite's defence.
The malaria parasite produces the "glue" when it infects target red blood cells, enabling them to stick to the walls of blood vessels.
This stops them being pased through the spleen, where the parasites would usually be destroyed by the immune system.
Using genetic tests of the parasite, the Australian scientists identified eight proteins responsible for the production of the "glue".
Removing just one of these proteins stopped the cell from attaching itself to the walls of blood vessels.
Professor Alan Cowman, a member of the research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, said targeting the protein with drugs could be a key to fighting malaria.
"If we block the stickiness we essentially block the virulence or the capacity of the parasite to cause disease," he said.
Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. The disease kills more than a million people each year. Many of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
[with Rael's comment] Happiness 'immune to life events'
Rael's comment: the only way to raise permanently the level of happiness is through a conscious and continuous process of meditation.
Momentous events in your life such as having children, or getting married, may make you happier, but only temporarily, say researchers.
Our basic happiness level essentially stays the same throughout adult life, the Economic Journal reports.
Economists from the UK, US and France based their conclusions on a 20-year analysis of the life satisfaction of hundreds of people from Germany.
Even after traumatic events, overall mood dipped but then recovered.
There is the concept of a 'thermostat' of happiness - when a big event happens to you, whether it is positive or negative, the spring stretches, but returns back to its former state quite quickly
Francois Moscovici
White Water Strategies
The study looked at a psychological process called "adaptation" - the way in which humans adjust to new circumstances, good or bad.
The German volunteers, aged between 18 and 60 at the start of the study, were then questioned again regularly over the following two decades and asked to rate their own happiness.
They were also asked to report any major events so that the researchers could plot the relationship between the event and overall levels of satisfaction.
They found that only unemployment gave a long-lasting decline in overall mood in the five years after the event.
In other traumatic events, such as widowhood or divorce, overall mood dipped, but then recovered.
Negative events
For positive events, such as marriage or childbirth, the effect was equally transient - the researchers calculated that the happiness increase delivered by the birth of a child lasted for two years before the volunteers ratings were back to normal.
Dr Yannis Georgellis, a senior lecturer at Brunel University, and co-author of the report, said that it suggested that old adages such as "time heals" were true in many cases.
He said: "It's consistent with other findings that people recover from negative events very quickly - there was some literature on people who became paraplegic, who, when interviewed a few years later, had similar levels of happiness to those who had not been affected this way.
"Likewise, there are studies of lottery winners who are no happier in the long term."
Francois Moscovici, director of psychological consultancy firm White Water Strategies, said that there was plenty of evidence that people had a fixed, underlying "range" of happiness, which could be temporarily affected by major events, but not usually for long periods.
"There is the concept of a 'thermostat' of happiness - when a big event happens to you, whether it is positive or negative, the spring stretches, but returns back to its former state quite quickly."
Momentous events in your life such as having children, or getting married, may make you happier, but only temporarily, say researchers.
Our basic happiness level essentially stays the same throughout adult life, the Economic Journal reports.
Economists from the UK, US and France based their conclusions on a 20-year analysis of the life satisfaction of hundreds of people from Germany.
Even after traumatic events, overall mood dipped but then recovered.
There is the concept of a 'thermostat' of happiness - when a big event happens to you, whether it is positive or negative, the spring stretches, but returns back to its former state quite quickly
Francois Moscovici
White Water Strategies
The study looked at a psychological process called "adaptation" - the way in which humans adjust to new circumstances, good or bad.
The German volunteers, aged between 18 and 60 at the start of the study, were then questioned again regularly over the following two decades and asked to rate their own happiness.
They were also asked to report any major events so that the researchers could plot the relationship between the event and overall levels of satisfaction.
They found that only unemployment gave a long-lasting decline in overall mood in the five years after the event.
In other traumatic events, such as widowhood or divorce, overall mood dipped, but then recovered.
Negative events
For positive events, such as marriage or childbirth, the effect was equally transient - the researchers calculated that the happiness increase delivered by the birth of a child lasted for two years before the volunteers ratings were back to normal.
Dr Yannis Georgellis, a senior lecturer at Brunel University, and co-author of the report, said that it suggested that old adages such as "time heals" were true in many cases.
He said: "It's consistent with other findings that people recover from negative events very quickly - there was some literature on people who became paraplegic, who, when interviewed a few years later, had similar levels of happiness to those who had not been affected this way.
"Likewise, there are studies of lottery winners who are no happier in the long term."
Francois Moscovici, director of psychological consultancy firm White Water Strategies, said that there was plenty of evidence that people had a fixed, underlying "range" of happiness, which could be temporarily affected by major events, but not usually for long periods.
"There is the concept of a 'thermostat' of happiness - when a big event happens to you, whether it is positive or negative, the spring stretches, but returns back to its former state quite quickly."
We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed
UN report finds life is getting better for people worldwide – but that governments are failing to grasp the opportunities offered at 'a unique time'. Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen report
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.
So says a massive new international report, due to be published late this month, and obtained by The Independent on Sunday. Backed by organisations ranging from Unesco to the US army, the World Bank to the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2008 State of the Future report runs to 6,300 pages and draws on contributions from 2,500 experts around the globe.
Its warning is all the more stark for eschewing doom and gloom. "The future continues to get better for most of the world," it concludes, "but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects."
It goes on. "This is a unique time in history. Mobile phones, the internet, international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies to improve [its] prospects. It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve [them]."
What is more, say the authors of the report, produced by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of the United Nations Associations, many important things are already getting better. Life expectancy and literacy rates are increasing worldwide, while infant mortality and the number of armed conflicts have been falling fast. Per capita income has been growing strongly enough to cut poverty by more than half by 2015 – except, importantly, in Africa.
Even better, it says, "advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today".
Medical breakthroughs, for example, are offering the hope of defeating inherited diseases, tailoring cures to individual patients, and even creating replacement body parts. And computers are spreading even to remote villages in developing countries and dramatically increasing in power to provide "collective intelligence for just-in-time knowledge to inform decisions".
The report reserves its greatest enthusiasm for the internet, which it says is "already the most powerful force for globalisation, democratisation, economic growth and education in history.
"The internet allows self-organisation around common ideals, independent of conventional institutional controls and regardless of nationalities or languages. Injustices in different parts of the world become the concern of thousands or millions of people who then pressure local, regional or international governing systems to find solutions.
"This unparalleled social power is reinventing citizens' roles in the political process and changing institutions, policy-making and governance."
And this is happening in a world that is already becoming freer and more democratic. Over the past 30 years, the number of free countries has more than doubled from 43 to 90, it reports, while those that are partly free increased from 46 to 60. Just over one-third of humanity still lives in the 43 countries with authoritarian regimes, but half of these people are in China.
On the other hand, the report warns "half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations due to political, environmental and economic conditions".
These – and other threats such as increasing terrorism, corruption and organised crime – threaten to undo the improvements of recent years and blight the chance of a better future.
Food prices have more than doubled in a year and have already plunged 37 countries into crisis, greatly increasing hunger and poverty. And price rises seem set to continue because food production needs to increase 50 per cent by 2013 and double in 30 years.
"With nearly three billion people making $2 or less per day, long-term global social conflict seems inevitable without more serious food policies, useful scientific breakthroughs and dietary changes," says the report.
Global warming is occurring faster than expected. This could cause southern Africa to "lose more than 30 per cent of its maize crop by 2030" and help to increase the number of people facing water scarcity fourfold to a massive three billion by 2025.
The rate at which the world's ice is melting, it says, "has doubled over the last two years", and it quotes a US military report which predicts that global warming "can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism".
Yet nuclear power – the solution increasingly favoured by governments, which are planning to add another 350 reactors to the 438 already operating around the world – will not do the job. "For nuclear energy to eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, about 2,000 nuclear power plants would have to be built, at $5-15bn per plant, over 15 years – and possibly an additional 8,000 plants beyond that to 2050."
The report says that there is not enough uranium in the world to fuel all those reactors, that another Chernobyl-type accident could halt the expansion in its tracks, and that the rapid spread of the atom around the world increases the chances of nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
It estimates that there is a 75 per cent chance that terrorists will have acquired nuclear weapons within the next 10 years, adding: "Links between terrorists and organised crime are worrisome, especially considering that, on average, there were 150 reports of unauthorised use of nuclear or radioactive materials to the International Atomic Energy Authority per year between 2004 and 2007."
Organised crime, it adds, "continues to grow in the absence of a comprehensive, integrated global counterstrategy". It reckons that it is now worth some $2 trillion a year.
There are grounds for hope, however. The use of renewable energy is growing, and China's largest car maker plans for half its cars to be hybrids within two years. But the report's authors say that governments are not up to the job: "Many of the world's decision-making processes are inefficient, slow and ill-informed, especially when given the new demands from increasing complexity [and] globalisation." They call on world leaders to do more long-term planning, and to join in global approaches to the interlocking crises. "Climate change cannot be turned around without a global strategy. International organised crime cannot be stopped without a global strategy. Individuals creating designer diseases and causing massive deaths cannot be stopped without a global strategy. It is time for global strategic systems to be upgraded."
Jerome Glenn, the report's main author added: "There seems to be an interest in creating global strategies, but it needs a little push. There's more within us now to collaborate in the face of shared problems."
Computer power
25 years until a computer's capacity equals the power of the human brain. After another 25 years, everyone will be able to access processing power greater than that of all the brains on Earth combined.
The great melt
5 years before the Arctic could be ice-free in summer. Sea-ice last year shrank to 22 per cent below the previous record low, a level that had not been expected to be reached until 2030-50, opening up the Northwest Passage.
Fossil fuel
850 coal-fired power stations are planned to go into operation across the US, China and India over the next four years. Each station would operate for about 20 years, greatly accelerating global warming.
Solar energy
25% of Europe's electricity could come from solar-powered stations in North Africa by 2050. African leaders and aid organisations are to invest $10bn (£5bn) a year in renewable energy over the next five years.
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted.
So says a massive new international report, due to be published late this month, and obtained by The Independent on Sunday. Backed by organisations ranging from Unesco to the US army, the World Bank to the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2008 State of the Future report runs to 6,300 pages and draws on contributions from 2,500 experts around the globe.
Its warning is all the more stark for eschewing doom and gloom. "The future continues to get better for most of the world," it concludes, "but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects."
It goes on. "This is a unique time in history. Mobile phones, the internet, international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies to improve [its] prospects. It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve [them]."
What is more, say the authors of the report, produced by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of the United Nations Associations, many important things are already getting better. Life expectancy and literacy rates are increasing worldwide, while infant mortality and the number of armed conflicts have been falling fast. Per capita income has been growing strongly enough to cut poverty by more than half by 2015 – except, importantly, in Africa.
Even better, it says, "advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today".
Medical breakthroughs, for example, are offering the hope of defeating inherited diseases, tailoring cures to individual patients, and even creating replacement body parts. And computers are spreading even to remote villages in developing countries and dramatically increasing in power to provide "collective intelligence for just-in-time knowledge to inform decisions".
The report reserves its greatest enthusiasm for the internet, which it says is "already the most powerful force for globalisation, democratisation, economic growth and education in history.
"The internet allows self-organisation around common ideals, independent of conventional institutional controls and regardless of nationalities or languages. Injustices in different parts of the world become the concern of thousands or millions of people who then pressure local, regional or international governing systems to find solutions.
"This unparalleled social power is reinventing citizens' roles in the political process and changing institutions, policy-making and governance."
And this is happening in a world that is already becoming freer and more democratic. Over the past 30 years, the number of free countries has more than doubled from 43 to 90, it reports, while those that are partly free increased from 46 to 60. Just over one-third of humanity still lives in the 43 countries with authoritarian regimes, but half of these people are in China.
On the other hand, the report warns "half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations due to political, environmental and economic conditions".
These – and other threats such as increasing terrorism, corruption and organised crime – threaten to undo the improvements of recent years and blight the chance of a better future.
Food prices have more than doubled in a year and have already plunged 37 countries into crisis, greatly increasing hunger and poverty. And price rises seem set to continue because food production needs to increase 50 per cent by 2013 and double in 30 years.
"With nearly three billion people making $2 or less per day, long-term global social conflict seems inevitable without more serious food policies, useful scientific breakthroughs and dietary changes," says the report.
Global warming is occurring faster than expected. This could cause southern Africa to "lose more than 30 per cent of its maize crop by 2030" and help to increase the number of people facing water scarcity fourfold to a massive three billion by 2025.
The rate at which the world's ice is melting, it says, "has doubled over the last two years", and it quotes a US military report which predicts that global warming "can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism".
Yet nuclear power – the solution increasingly favoured by governments, which are planning to add another 350 reactors to the 438 already operating around the world – will not do the job. "For nuclear energy to eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, about 2,000 nuclear power plants would have to be built, at $5-15bn per plant, over 15 years – and possibly an additional 8,000 plants beyond that to 2050."
The report says that there is not enough uranium in the world to fuel all those reactors, that another Chernobyl-type accident could halt the expansion in its tracks, and that the rapid spread of the atom around the world increases the chances of nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
It estimates that there is a 75 per cent chance that terrorists will have acquired nuclear weapons within the next 10 years, adding: "Links between terrorists and organised crime are worrisome, especially considering that, on average, there were 150 reports of unauthorised use of nuclear or radioactive materials to the International Atomic Energy Authority per year between 2004 and 2007."
Organised crime, it adds, "continues to grow in the absence of a comprehensive, integrated global counterstrategy". It reckons that it is now worth some $2 trillion a year.
There are grounds for hope, however. The use of renewable energy is growing, and China's largest car maker plans for half its cars to be hybrids within two years. But the report's authors say that governments are not up to the job: "Many of the world's decision-making processes are inefficient, slow and ill-informed, especially when given the new demands from increasing complexity [and] globalisation." They call on world leaders to do more long-term planning, and to join in global approaches to the interlocking crises. "Climate change cannot be turned around without a global strategy. International organised crime cannot be stopped without a global strategy. Individuals creating designer diseases and causing massive deaths cannot be stopped without a global strategy. It is time for global strategic systems to be upgraded."
Jerome Glenn, the report's main author added: "There seems to be an interest in creating global strategies, but it needs a little push. There's more within us now to collaborate in the face of shared problems."
Computer power
25 years until a computer's capacity equals the power of the human brain. After another 25 years, everyone will be able to access processing power greater than that of all the brains on Earth combined.
The great melt
5 years before the Arctic could be ice-free in summer. Sea-ice last year shrank to 22 per cent below the previous record low, a level that had not been expected to be reached until 2030-50, opening up the Northwest Passage.
Fossil fuel
850 coal-fired power stations are planned to go into operation across the US, China and India over the next four years. Each station would operate for about 20 years, greatly accelerating global warming.
Solar energy
25% of Europe's electricity could come from solar-powered stations in North Africa by 2050. African leaders and aid organisations are to invest $10bn (£5bn) a year in renewable energy over the next five years.
[video] Church Group Prays For Lower Gas Prices
Source: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bce_1215886326
France rejects veiled Muslim wife
A French court has denied citizenship to a Muslim woman from Morocco, ruling that her practice of "radical" Islam is not compatible with French values.
The 32-year-old woman, known as Faiza M, has lived in France since 2000 with her husband - a French national - and their three French-born children.
Social services reports said the burqa-wearing Faiza M lived in "total submission to her male relatives".
Faiza M said she has never challenged the fundamental values of France.
Her initial application for French citizenship was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France.
She appealed, and late last month the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative body which also acts as a high court, upheld the decision to deny her citizenship.
The 32-year-old woman, known as Faiza M, has lived in France since 2000 with her husband - a French national - and their three French-born children.
Social services reports said the burqa-wearing Faiza M lived in "total submission to her male relatives".
Faiza M said she has never challenged the fundamental values of France.
Her initial application for French citizenship was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France.
She appealed, and late last month the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative body which also acts as a high court, upheld the decision to deny her citizenship.
Italian wins gay driving ban case
An Italian court has ordered the government to pay 100,000 euros (£79,919) to a man who had to retake his driving test because he was gay.
Danilo Giuffrida, now 26, told doctors he was homosexual during a medical examination for military service.
The information was passed to the defence and transport ministries.
Mr Giuffrida was told to repeat his driving test or have his licence suspended because of his "sexual identity disturbance".
Mr Giuffrida passed his test for the second time but his licence was renewed for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.
A court in Catania, Sicily, ordered the ministries to pay damages on the basis that Mr Giuffrida's constitutional rights had been breached and that homosexuality could not be considered a "mental illness".
The judge said the actions of the ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination".
Mr Giuffrida welcomed the sentence as "a step forwards for civil rights."
Danilo Giuffrida, now 26, told doctors he was homosexual during a medical examination for military service.
The information was passed to the defence and transport ministries.
Mr Giuffrida was told to repeat his driving test or have his licence suspended because of his "sexual identity disturbance".
Mr Giuffrida passed his test for the second time but his licence was renewed for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.
A court in Catania, Sicily, ordered the ministries to pay damages on the basis that Mr Giuffrida's constitutional rights had been breached and that homosexuality could not be considered a "mental illness".
The judge said the actions of the ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination".
Mr Giuffrida welcomed the sentence as "a step forwards for civil rights."
Comment on alleged new water fuel cars in Japan
This is a typical example of how urban legends are born, and can be spread by uneducated journalists. However, it is not a typical hoax since the company Genepax actually exists. But cars running on water don't exist and can not exist. Water is not a fuel. Genepax's car runs on hydrogen, not on water. The hydrogen is used by a fuel cell to generate electricity, producing water as a by-product. The hydrogen is produced from a chemical reaction between water and a metallic material, which is oxidized in the process. The global balance of water is zero. As much water is produced from the fuel cell as it is used by the oxidation reaction. In this process, water is nothing more than a catalyst, definitely not a fuel! The real fuel here is the metallic material which oxidation allows the production of hydrogen. After this material is completely oxidized, the car stops, no matter how much water you add. The car needs a continuous supply of this metallic material in order to keep running.
Original video: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8304856&ch=4226714&src=news
Follow-up :
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080616/153301/
Original video: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=8304856&ch=4226714&src=news
Follow-up :
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080616/153301/
New water fuel cars in Japan - debate
Skepticism:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/15/is-genepax-for-real-a-car-that-runs-on-water-highly-unlikely/
Open-minded skepticism:
http://greenboyblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/genepax-hoax-rush-to-judgement/
Follow-up :
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080616/153301/
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/06/15/is-genepax-for-real-a-car-that-runs-on-water-highly-unlikely/
Open-minded skepticism:
http://greenboyblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/genepax-hoax-rush-to-judgement/
Follow-up :
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080616/153301/
Human Embryonic Stem Cells Developed From Four-cell Embryo; World First May Lessen Ethical Concerns
ScienceDaily (July 9, 2008) — For the first time in the world
scientists have succeeded in developing human embryonic stem cells
(hESCs) from a single cell, or blastomere, of a 4-cell stage embryo,
the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human
Reproduction and Embryology heard on July 9. Dr. Hilde Van de Velde,
from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium, said
that their research meant that it might be possible in the future to
produce hESC lines at an earlier stage without destroying the embryo.
Blastomeres are formed in the very early stages of embryonic
development. About 24 hours after fertilisation the egg divides into
two cells. Division into four cells occurs after 48 hours. After 96
hours, at the morula stage, the fertilized egg has divided four to
five times. During this time the size of the embryo does not increase,
so the cells become smaller and smaller and they are strongly attached
to each other which makes them more difficult to manipulate. At this
early stage important decisions are taken: inner cells will become the
foetus (including germ cells) and outer cells will become trophoblast
(the outermost layer of the embryo that attaches to the wall of the
uterus and serves as a nutritive pathway). There was, until now,
uncertainty about which stage of early development the blastomeres
ceased to be totipotent, i.e. able to develop into all cell types of
the body.
Worldwide, the majority of established hESC lines have been derived
from the inner cells at the blastocyst stage; these are said to be
pluripotent. "Previously, scientists have been able to derive hESC
lines at the 8-cell stage," said Dr. Van de Velde, "but success rates
were variable and it was necessary to culture them by mixing with
established hESC lines. We have been able to derive hESCs at an
earlier stage of embryonic development, and without the need for
co-culture with established hESC lines. Now we have derived a second
hESC from one cell of a 4-cell stage embryo. Given the complex nature
of earlier attempts, we were pleased that we could develop a technique
that seemed simple and was also reproducible."
The scientists used mature eggs donated by couples being treated at
the University's IVF centre. Embryos were obtained after ICSI using
sperm from a consenting donor. Three, good quality 4-cell stage
embryos were split into 12 single blastomeres and allowed to grow in
vitro to produce twelve morulas that were cultured in the conventional
way for hESC derivation. From these twelve, one resulted in a stable
hESC line. The scientists concluded that at least one cell was
pluripotent.
These new data confirm their recent report that at the 4-cell stage
the cells are equal and totipotent. "Now we will try to derive four
hESC lines from the same embryo in order to compare the potency
capacity of all four cells," said Dr. Van de Velde.
The work could have major ramifications for preimplantation genetic
diagnosis (PGD), by enabling the biopsy of one cell from a 4-cell
stage embryo, allowing the remaining three cells to develop into a
blastocyst (five day embryo) which could be transferred into the
uterus and develop into a healthy baby. "Currently, PGD is performed
at the 8-cell stage, when one or two cells are removed; others have
derived stable hESC lines at this stage but with low efficiency. If
hESC derivation at the 4-cell stage turns out to be more efficient
then at the 8-cell stage, we might consider to change our PGD policy
in cases where we perform human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing," said
Dr. Van de Velde.
HLA molecules play an important role in the immune system by ensuring
that our bodies recognise their own cells as their own. By being able
to select an HLA-identical embryo, the cord blood of the 'saviour
siblings' could help cure an older brother or sister suffering from a
genetic disease affecting the production and/or function of
hematopoietic (blood producing) stem cells. "We could also combine the
pregnancy of an HLA-matched healthy baby with the derivation of a
personal hESC line that could be used to generate in vitro
hematopoietic stem cells as an additional source of hematopietic stem
cells," she said.
"We need to determine whether the removal of one cell at the 4-cell
stage impairs the capacity of the embryo to develop into a healthy
child in comparison with the removal of one/two cells at the 8-cell
stage. We understand that some people may have ethical concerns about
the production of hESCs," said Dr. Van de Velde, "but we already know
from cryopreserved embryos that the loss of one cell from a 4-cell
stage embryo does not affect its capacity to implant in the womb. We
believe that by making it possible to intervene at an earlier stage,
and without destruction of the embryo, these ethical concerns will be
diminished."
In fact, opinion among the public is very much in favour of stem cell
research, another researcher told the conference. Ms Jaclyn Friedman,
a clinical embryologist at Reproductive Biology Associates, Atlanta,
Georgia, USA, undertook an on-line survey looking at attitudes towards
IVF around the world. Two questions related specifically to human
embryonic stem cell research and use in therapy.
"This is the first time an on-line questionnaire has been used to
establish a cross-sectional view of ethical opinion in the global
community," said Ms. Friedman. "Because stem cell research is
increasingly important, we felt that we needed to gauge opinion among
members of the public, as well as IVF patients, doctors and scientists
working in the field."
The researchers analysed the following two questions:
* "I believe that it is morally wrong to use embryonic stem cells
for research"
and
* "I believe that it is morally wrong to use embryonic stem cells
for medical treatment."
573 people responded to these questions. The researchers found that
47.1% strongly disagreed with the viewpoint posed in question 1,
whereas only 4.5% strongly agreed. 4.1% agreed, 10% were neutral, and
31.2% disagreed, meaning that in total 78.3% of respondents disagreed
with the view that it is wrong to use hESCs in research.
For the second question, the results were broadly similar, although
fewer people (3.1%) felt that it was morally wrong to use ESCs in
medical treatment than in research. "We found no difference between
male and female attitudes towards using hESCs for research, but when
it came to medical treatment, men showed significantly more support
than women. "We found no significant differences when we looked at
particular age groups, but a higher level education of respondents
correlated with greater support for the use of hESCs, both in research
and medical treatment. There were no important differences among
regions of the world.
"We hope that this questionnaire might act as a pilot study for
something much larger and more representative of the views of the
international community. But even with our existing numbers, we found
enough difference between the views of people working in the field,
the general public, and patients, to know that the results have
statistical significance. Our study shows that public, patient, and
scientific opinion is very much in favour of both stem cell research
and the therapeutic use of stem cells in medical treatment. This is
different from the perceived equal distribution for and against hESC
use reported in the news media," she said.
Adapted from materials provided by European Society for Human
Reproduction and Embryology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
scientists have succeeded in developing human embryonic stem cells
(hESCs) from a single cell, or blastomere, of a 4-cell stage embryo,
the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human
Reproduction and Embryology heard on July 9. Dr. Hilde Van de Velde,
from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium, said
that their research meant that it might be possible in the future to
produce hESC lines at an earlier stage without destroying the embryo.
Blastomeres are formed in the very early stages of embryonic
development. About 24 hours after fertilisation the egg divides into
two cells. Division into four cells occurs after 48 hours. After 96
hours, at the morula stage, the fertilized egg has divided four to
five times. During this time the size of the embryo does not increase,
so the cells become smaller and smaller and they are strongly attached
to each other which makes them more difficult to manipulate. At this
early stage important decisions are taken: inner cells will become the
foetus (including germ cells) and outer cells will become trophoblast
(the outermost layer of the embryo that attaches to the wall of the
uterus and serves as a nutritive pathway). There was, until now,
uncertainty about which stage of early development the blastomeres
ceased to be totipotent, i.e. able to develop into all cell types of
the body.
Worldwide, the majority of established hESC lines have been derived
from the inner cells at the blastocyst stage; these are said to be
pluripotent. "Previously, scientists have been able to derive hESC
lines at the 8-cell stage," said Dr. Van de Velde, "but success rates
were variable and it was necessary to culture them by mixing with
established hESC lines. We have been able to derive hESCs at an
earlier stage of embryonic development, and without the need for
co-culture with established hESC lines. Now we have derived a second
hESC from one cell of a 4-cell stage embryo. Given the complex nature
of earlier attempts, we were pleased that we could develop a technique
that seemed simple and was also reproducible."
The scientists used mature eggs donated by couples being treated at
the University's IVF centre. Embryos were obtained after ICSI using
sperm from a consenting donor. Three, good quality 4-cell stage
embryos were split into 12 single blastomeres and allowed to grow in
vitro to produce twelve morulas that were cultured in the conventional
way for hESC derivation. From these twelve, one resulted in a stable
hESC line. The scientists concluded that at least one cell was
pluripotent.
These new data confirm their recent report that at the 4-cell stage
the cells are equal and totipotent. "Now we will try to derive four
hESC lines from the same embryo in order to compare the potency
capacity of all four cells," said Dr. Van de Velde.
The work could have major ramifications for preimplantation genetic
diagnosis (PGD), by enabling the biopsy of one cell from a 4-cell
stage embryo, allowing the remaining three cells to develop into a
blastocyst (five day embryo) which could be transferred into the
uterus and develop into a healthy baby. "Currently, PGD is performed
at the 8-cell stage, when one or two cells are removed; others have
derived stable hESC lines at this stage but with low efficiency. If
hESC derivation at the 4-cell stage turns out to be more efficient
then at the 8-cell stage, we might consider to change our PGD policy
in cases where we perform human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing," said
Dr. Van de Velde.
HLA molecules play an important role in the immune system by ensuring
that our bodies recognise their own cells as their own. By being able
to select an HLA-identical embryo, the cord blood of the 'saviour
siblings' could help cure an older brother or sister suffering from a
genetic disease affecting the production and/or function of
hematopoietic (blood producing) stem cells. "We could also combine the
pregnancy of an HLA-matched healthy baby with the derivation of a
personal hESC line that could be used to generate in vitro
hematopoietic stem cells as an additional source of hematopietic stem
cells," she said.
"We need to determine whether the removal of one cell at the 4-cell
stage impairs the capacity of the embryo to develop into a healthy
child in comparison with the removal of one/two cells at the 8-cell
stage. We understand that some people may have ethical concerns about
the production of hESCs," said Dr. Van de Velde, "but we already know
from cryopreserved embryos that the loss of one cell from a 4-cell
stage embryo does not affect its capacity to implant in the womb. We
believe that by making it possible to intervene at an earlier stage,
and without destruction of the embryo, these ethical concerns will be
diminished."
In fact, opinion among the public is very much in favour of stem cell
research, another researcher told the conference. Ms Jaclyn Friedman,
a clinical embryologist at Reproductive Biology Associates, Atlanta,
Georgia, USA, undertook an on-line survey looking at attitudes towards
IVF around the world. Two questions related specifically to human
embryonic stem cell research and use in therapy.
"This is the first time an on-line questionnaire has been used to
establish a cross-sectional view of ethical opinion in the global
community," said Ms. Friedman. "Because stem cell research is
increasingly important, we felt that we needed to gauge opinion among
members of the public, as well as IVF patients, doctors and scientists
working in the field."
The researchers analysed the following two questions:
* "I believe that it is morally wrong to use embryonic stem cells
for research"
and
* "I believe that it is morally wrong to use embryonic stem cells
for medical treatment."
573 people responded to these questions. The researchers found that
47.1% strongly disagreed with the viewpoint posed in question 1,
whereas only 4.5% strongly agreed. 4.1% agreed, 10% were neutral, and
31.2% disagreed, meaning that in total 78.3% of respondents disagreed
with the view that it is wrong to use hESCs in research.
For the second question, the results were broadly similar, although
fewer people (3.1%) felt that it was morally wrong to use ESCs in
medical treatment than in research. "We found no difference between
male and female attitudes towards using hESCs for research, but when
it came to medical treatment, men showed significantly more support
than women. "We found no significant differences when we looked at
particular age groups, but a higher level education of respondents
correlated with greater support for the use of hESCs, both in research
and medical treatment. There were no important differences among
regions of the world.
"We hope that this questionnaire might act as a pilot study for
something much larger and more representative of the views of the
international community. But even with our existing numbers, we found
enough difference between the views of people working in the field,
the general public, and patients, to know that the results have
statistical significance. Our study shows that public, patient, and
scientific opinion is very much in favour of both stem cell research
and the therapeutic use of stem cells in medical treatment. This is
different from the perceived equal distribution for and against hESC
use reported in the news media," she said.
Adapted from materials provided by European Society for Human
Reproduction and Embryology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
A cold fish
Fish species swap genes in a way that looks a bit like genetic engineering
SOME fish have special proteins in their blood to stop them from freezing to death—a remarkable evolutionary trait made no less so by the fact that biologists have known about it for some time. How this trait spread, though, turns out to be even more remarkable. If Peter Davies of Queen’s University in Ontario and his colleagues are right, it demonstrates in fish an evolutionary mechanism hitherto seen mainly in bacteria, viruses and genetic-engineering laboratories.
As sea-ice develops, the briny water beneath it cools to -2°C. Whales, seals and penguins cope with the consequent danger of freezing up by burning vast amounts of food to keep their bodies warm and by insulating themselves with thick layers of fat. Fish, however, are not warm blooded, and are usually too small to support substantial fat layers, so they have found a different way round the problem. Many species that live in cold waters have special proteins in their blood which attach themselves to small crystals of ice and prevent these from growing to a size at which they would be dangerous.
Normally, such an advantageous trait would start as a chance mutation that gave its possessor an advantage in the struggle for life. The mutant’s descendants would first take over their own species. Then, as that species diversified to occupy new ecological niches with the assistance of the mutation in question, it would come to be found in a group of species that had a common ancestor. At the same time, the mutant gene would undergo its own process of evolutionary refinement, and would end up slightly different in each of the daughter species. In animals, at least, this is the way evolution normally proceeds.
As Dr Davies reports in the Public Library of Science, however, that is not what seems to have happened with at least one piscine antifreeze gene. He and his colleagues analysed the antifreeze of diverse species and found that three—herring, smelt and sea raven—have nearly identical antifreeze proteins, even though they do not share a recent common ancestor. The chance of such similar proteins emerging in unrelated species is so vanishingly small that the team propose another option. They think the genes for antifreeze proteins jumped from one species to another.
If fish were bacteria, this would not be an outrageous suggestion. Bacteria (and viruses) regularly swap DNA. Viruses also, though more rarely, swap DNA with animals. But animals swapping DNA directly with one another is previously unheard of.
Dr Davies suggests that it may have happened here because fish have external fertilisation. In other words, males squirt sperm over eggs that have already been laid. That process allows sperm to go astray and, potentially, to end up attached to the wrong egg.
If a stray sperm actually fertilised the wrong egg, the result would be a hybrid that would almost certainly die. But if the egg were already fertilised then perhaps a lesser form of gene transfer might happen, with only a small amount of the foreign DNA being incorporated into the new creature. In this case, an advantageous gene transfer might be preserved.
Given the number of ice ages over the past 20m years, an antifreeze gene would be of great advantage. But exactly how common such “horizontal” gene transfer is in fish remains to be seen. Until this piece of work was done, it was thought impossible, so no one has looked. Now they will start doing so. And, if you want to find something, there is nothing like looking.
SOME fish have special proteins in their blood to stop them from freezing to death—a remarkable evolutionary trait made no less so by the fact that biologists have known about it for some time. How this trait spread, though, turns out to be even more remarkable. If Peter Davies of Queen’s University in Ontario and his colleagues are right, it demonstrates in fish an evolutionary mechanism hitherto seen mainly in bacteria, viruses and genetic-engineering laboratories.
As sea-ice develops, the briny water beneath it cools to -2°C. Whales, seals and penguins cope with the consequent danger of freezing up by burning vast amounts of food to keep their bodies warm and by insulating themselves with thick layers of fat. Fish, however, are not warm blooded, and are usually too small to support substantial fat layers, so they have found a different way round the problem. Many species that live in cold waters have special proteins in their blood which attach themselves to small crystals of ice and prevent these from growing to a size at which they would be dangerous.
Normally, such an advantageous trait would start as a chance mutation that gave its possessor an advantage in the struggle for life. The mutant’s descendants would first take over their own species. Then, as that species diversified to occupy new ecological niches with the assistance of the mutation in question, it would come to be found in a group of species that had a common ancestor. At the same time, the mutant gene would undergo its own process of evolutionary refinement, and would end up slightly different in each of the daughter species. In animals, at least, this is the way evolution normally proceeds.
As Dr Davies reports in the Public Library of Science, however, that is not what seems to have happened with at least one piscine antifreeze gene. He and his colleagues analysed the antifreeze of diverse species and found that three—herring, smelt and sea raven—have nearly identical antifreeze proteins, even though they do not share a recent common ancestor. The chance of such similar proteins emerging in unrelated species is so vanishingly small that the team propose another option. They think the genes for antifreeze proteins jumped from one species to another.
If fish were bacteria, this would not be an outrageous suggestion. Bacteria (and viruses) regularly swap DNA. Viruses also, though more rarely, swap DNA with animals. But animals swapping DNA directly with one another is previously unheard of.
Dr Davies suggests that it may have happened here because fish have external fertilisation. In other words, males squirt sperm over eggs that have already been laid. That process allows sperm to go astray and, potentially, to end up attached to the wrong egg.
If a stray sperm actually fertilised the wrong egg, the result would be a hybrid that would almost certainly die. But if the egg were already fertilised then perhaps a lesser form of gene transfer might happen, with only a small amount of the foreign DNA being incorporated into the new creature. In this case, an advantageous gene transfer might be preserved.
Given the number of ice ages over the past 20m years, an antifreeze gene would be of great advantage. But exactly how common such “horizontal” gene transfer is in fish remains to be seen. Until this piece of work was done, it was thought impossible, so no one has looked. Now they will start doing so. And, if you want to find something, there is nothing like looking.
'This is like apartheid': ANC veterans visit West Bank
By Donald Macintyre in Hebron
Friday, 11 July 2008
Veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle said last night that the restrictions endured by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories was in some respects worse than that imposed on the black majority under white rule in South Africa.
Members of a 23-strong human-rights team of prominent South Africans cited the impact of the Israeli military's separation barrier, checkpoints, the permit system for Palestinian travel, and the extent to which Palestinians are barred from using roads in the West Bank.
After a five-day visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories, some delegates expressed shock and dismay at conditions in the Israeli-controlled heart of Hebron. Uniquely among West Bank cities, 800 settlers now live there and segregation has seen the closure of nearly 3,000 Palestinian businesses and housing units. Palestinian cars (and in some sections pedestrians) are prohibited from using the once busy streets.
"Even with the system of permits, even with the limits of movement to South Africa, we never had as much restriction on movement as I see for the people here," said an ANC parliamentarian, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge of the West Bank. "There are areas in which people would live their whole lifetime without visiting because it's impossible."
Mrs Madlala-Routledge, a former deputy health minister in President Thabo Mbeki's government, added: "While I want to be careful not to characterise everything that I see here as apartheid, I just do find comparisons in a number of places. I also find differences."
Comparisons with apartheid have long been anathema to majority Israeli opinion, though they have been somewhat less taboo since the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, last year warned that without an early two-state agreement Israel could face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights.
Fatima Hassan, a leading South African human rights lawyer, said: "The issue of separate roads, [different registration] of cars driven by different nationalities, the indignity of producing a permit any time a soldier asks for it, and of waiting in long queues in the boiling sun at checkpoints just to enter your own city, I think is worse than what we experienced during apartheid." She was speaking after the tour, which included a visit to the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem and a meeting with Israel's Chief Justice, Dorit Beinisch.
One prominent member of the delegation, who declined to be named, said South Africa had been "much poorer" both during and after apartheid than the Palestinian territories. But he added: "The daily indignity to which the Palestinian population is subjected far outstrips the apartheid regime. And the effectiveness with which the bureaucracy implements the repressive measures far exceed that of the apartheid regime."
Members of the delegation – the first of its kind – visited Nablus as well as towns and villages bordering the separation barrier, including Na'alin where a temporary curfew was imposed after joint Israeli-Palestinian demonstrations against the barrier.
The visit was organised by Israeli human rights groups which co-operate with Palestinians committed to non-violent campaigns against Israeli occupation.
In Hebron's main Shuhada Street, the South African delegation was plunged into a confrontation after one of the local settlers' leaders disrupted the tour by unleashing a barrage of abuse through a megaphone at one of the Israeli guides. Amid angry arguments, police arrested three of the Israeli guides.
Mrs Madlala Routledge exclaimed: "This is ridiculous. Why are they arresting our guides and leaving the man with the megaphone?"
Dennis Davis, a high court judge and one of the South African delegation's several Jewish members, told the extreme right-wing Hebron settlers' leader Baruch Marzel: "These provocations didn't come from us. I'm Jewish and I look at this and I say to myself, how can I feel fear from other Jews?"
Andrew Feinstein, a former ANC parliament member, said that the visit to Yad Vashem had been "extremely moving" because his mother had been a Holocaust survivor who lost many members of her family. "As you walk into Yad Vashem you see a quote that says in effect you should know a country not only by what it does but what it tolerates," he said. "So I found it very shocking to then come and here and see footage of teenagers heaping abuse on Palestinian children as they come out of school, and throwing stones at them. And that this should be done in the name of Judaism I find totally reprehensible.
"What the Holocaust teaches us more than anything else is that we must never turn our heads away in the face of injustice."
The delegation's final formal statement made no mention of comparisons with apartheid and Judge Davis said he thought the use of the term in the Middle East context was "very unhelpful".
He added: "The level of social control I've seen here, separate roads, different number plates [between Palestinian and Israeli cars] may well be more cynically pernicious than what we have ever had. But this is a country that is really about how there is going to be divorce and we were always a marriage." Ms Hassan herself said she thought the apartheid comparison was a potential "red herring".
Israelis point out there are no South-African-style laws segregating Israeli and East Jerusalem Arabs from Israeli Jews in public spaces.
The delegation yesterday urged international support for the "new and small movement of Palestinian-Israeli joint non-violent struggle". And its members stressed their understanding of Israeli security needs. Mr Feinstein said: "I completely understand the fears of Israelis ... but at the same time we have seen for ourselves and been told about all sorts of measures that don't seem to be in terms of security and in some instances could if anything undermine security of state."
The delegation also visited the Parents' Circle – a joint organisation of Israeli and Palestinian families bereaved by the conflict. Ms Hassan said this had been at once the most "depressing and inspiring" visit of the trip.
Friday, 11 July 2008
Veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle said last night that the restrictions endured by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories was in some respects worse than that imposed on the black majority under white rule in South Africa.
Members of a 23-strong human-rights team of prominent South Africans cited the impact of the Israeli military's separation barrier, checkpoints, the permit system for Palestinian travel, and the extent to which Palestinians are barred from using roads in the West Bank.
After a five-day visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories, some delegates expressed shock and dismay at conditions in the Israeli-controlled heart of Hebron. Uniquely among West Bank cities, 800 settlers now live there and segregation has seen the closure of nearly 3,000 Palestinian businesses and housing units. Palestinian cars (and in some sections pedestrians) are prohibited from using the once busy streets.
"Even with the system of permits, even with the limits of movement to South Africa, we never had as much restriction on movement as I see for the people here," said an ANC parliamentarian, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge of the West Bank. "There are areas in which people would live their whole lifetime without visiting because it's impossible."
Mrs Madlala-Routledge, a former deputy health minister in President Thabo Mbeki's government, added: "While I want to be careful not to characterise everything that I see here as apartheid, I just do find comparisons in a number of places. I also find differences."
Comparisons with apartheid have long been anathema to majority Israeli opinion, though they have been somewhat less taboo since the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, last year warned that without an early two-state agreement Israel could face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights.
Fatima Hassan, a leading South African human rights lawyer, said: "The issue of separate roads, [different registration] of cars driven by different nationalities, the indignity of producing a permit any time a soldier asks for it, and of waiting in long queues in the boiling sun at checkpoints just to enter your own city, I think is worse than what we experienced during apartheid." She was speaking after the tour, which included a visit to the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem and a meeting with Israel's Chief Justice, Dorit Beinisch.
One prominent member of the delegation, who declined to be named, said South Africa had been "much poorer" both during and after apartheid than the Palestinian territories. But he added: "The daily indignity to which the Palestinian population is subjected far outstrips the apartheid regime. And the effectiveness with which the bureaucracy implements the repressive measures far exceed that of the apartheid regime."
Members of the delegation – the first of its kind – visited Nablus as well as towns and villages bordering the separation barrier, including Na'alin where a temporary curfew was imposed after joint Israeli-Palestinian demonstrations against the barrier.
The visit was organised by Israeli human rights groups which co-operate with Palestinians committed to non-violent campaigns against Israeli occupation.
In Hebron's main Shuhada Street, the South African delegation was plunged into a confrontation after one of the local settlers' leaders disrupted the tour by unleashing a barrage of abuse through a megaphone at one of the Israeli guides. Amid angry arguments, police arrested three of the Israeli guides.
Mrs Madlala Routledge exclaimed: "This is ridiculous. Why are they arresting our guides and leaving the man with the megaphone?"
Dennis Davis, a high court judge and one of the South African delegation's several Jewish members, told the extreme right-wing Hebron settlers' leader Baruch Marzel: "These provocations didn't come from us. I'm Jewish and I look at this and I say to myself, how can I feel fear from other Jews?"
Andrew Feinstein, a former ANC parliament member, said that the visit to Yad Vashem had been "extremely moving" because his mother had been a Holocaust survivor who lost many members of her family. "As you walk into Yad Vashem you see a quote that says in effect you should know a country not only by what it does but what it tolerates," he said. "So I found it very shocking to then come and here and see footage of teenagers heaping abuse on Palestinian children as they come out of school, and throwing stones at them. And that this should be done in the name of Judaism I find totally reprehensible.
"What the Holocaust teaches us more than anything else is that we must never turn our heads away in the face of injustice."
The delegation's final formal statement made no mention of comparisons with apartheid and Judge Davis said he thought the use of the term in the Middle East context was "very unhelpful".
He added: "The level of social control I've seen here, separate roads, different number plates [between Palestinian and Israeli cars] may well be more cynically pernicious than what we have ever had. But this is a country that is really about how there is going to be divorce and we were always a marriage." Ms Hassan herself said she thought the apartheid comparison was a potential "red herring".
Israelis point out there are no South-African-style laws segregating Israeli and East Jerusalem Arabs from Israeli Jews in public spaces.
The delegation yesterday urged international support for the "new and small movement of Palestinian-Israeli joint non-violent struggle". And its members stressed their understanding of Israeli security needs. Mr Feinstein said: "I completely understand the fears of Israelis ... but at the same time we have seen for ourselves and been told about all sorts of measures that don't seem to be in terms of security and in some instances could if anything undermine security of state."
The delegation also visited the Parents' Circle – a joint organisation of Israeli and Palestinian families bereaved by the conflict. Ms Hassan said this had been at once the most "depressing and inspiring" visit of the trip.
Skin-whitening adverts ignite race row in India
The actors are beautiful, the sets are stylish and the message could not be clearer – the woman with the paler skin gets the man.
In recent weeks, Indians have been treated to an eye-catching television advert "mini-series" featuring three of Bollywood's hottest talents in a moody love-triangle. All in the name of skin-whitening cream.
The whitening market in India is worth millions of pounds, with men as well as women routinely buying bleaching lotions in an effort to "improve" their complexion. But the mini-series advert featuring Saif Ali Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Neha Dhupia has reopened a debate about India's obsession with pale skin and triggered an angry reaction from some who think the advert is discriminatory and outdated.
"It is strange. There is such a premium placed on pale skin," said Urvashi Butalia, a historian and director of Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house. "I am not sure where it comes from. It may have something to do with India's history of being colonised by various people and that there is a hangover of the idea that Aryan people are superior and Dravidian people – those who were already here – are inferior."
The new advert, being shown in mini-episodes, features Khan, with Dhupia as his girlfriend. But a chance encounter with an old sweetheart, played by Chopra, triggers the prospect of a possible revival of their relationship. For all the stolen glances and glossy production, there is nothing subtle about the advert; Dhupia's skin looks snow white while Chopra appears dusky.
At the conclusion of the first episode, a lovelorn Chopra is seen gazing at an advert for a cream that promises to provide a "pinkish white glow" complexion. In case anyone did not get the point, the product is called White Beauty.
"Priyanka is said to be the epitome of dusky beauty and her dusky skin was said to be sexy, yet she became so cheap as to ridicule her own dark skin to make money," said one of the more printable comments on YouTube.
The cream is produced by Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), the biggest consumer products company in India and a subsidiary of Unilever, based in London and Rotterdam. The company failed to respond to inquiries about the advert.
The desire for pale skin over dark is also highlighted by a new television drama, Bidaai. The show features two sisters, one adopted and dark-skinned and the other pale. There are no prizes for guessing which one is the first to snag a husband.
Not all women believe the promotion of paler skin is discriminatory or that the Unilever advert is patronising. "I don't think it's racist, I just think that everyone thinks they can look better," said Mallika Makhija, 18, a student. "People want to look good and there is this idea that a paler complexion is ideal."
Ms Makhija said she did not use a whitening cream but she estimated that 60 per cent of Indian women did.
In recent weeks, Indians have been treated to an eye-catching television advert "mini-series" featuring three of Bollywood's hottest talents in a moody love-triangle. All in the name of skin-whitening cream.
The whitening market in India is worth millions of pounds, with men as well as women routinely buying bleaching lotions in an effort to "improve" their complexion. But the mini-series advert featuring Saif Ali Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Neha Dhupia has reopened a debate about India's obsession with pale skin and triggered an angry reaction from some who think the advert is discriminatory and outdated.
"It is strange. There is such a premium placed on pale skin," said Urvashi Butalia, a historian and director of Kali for Women, India's first feminist publishing house. "I am not sure where it comes from. It may have something to do with India's history of being colonised by various people and that there is a hangover of the idea that Aryan people are superior and Dravidian people – those who were already here – are inferior."
The new advert, being shown in mini-episodes, features Khan, with Dhupia as his girlfriend. But a chance encounter with an old sweetheart, played by Chopra, triggers the prospect of a possible revival of their relationship. For all the stolen glances and glossy production, there is nothing subtle about the advert; Dhupia's skin looks snow white while Chopra appears dusky.
At the conclusion of the first episode, a lovelorn Chopra is seen gazing at an advert for a cream that promises to provide a "pinkish white glow" complexion. In case anyone did not get the point, the product is called White Beauty.
"Priyanka is said to be the epitome of dusky beauty and her dusky skin was said to be sexy, yet she became so cheap as to ridicule her own dark skin to make money," said one of the more printable comments on YouTube.
The cream is produced by Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), the biggest consumer products company in India and a subsidiary of Unilever, based in London and Rotterdam. The company failed to respond to inquiries about the advert.
The desire for pale skin over dark is also highlighted by a new television drama, Bidaai. The show features two sisters, one adopted and dark-skinned and the other pale. There are no prizes for guessing which one is the first to snag a husband.
Not all women believe the promotion of paler skin is discriminatory or that the Unilever advert is patronising. "I don't think it's racist, I just think that everyone thinks they can look better," said Mallika Makhija, 18, a student. "People want to look good and there is this idea that a paler complexion is ideal."
Ms Makhija said she did not use a whitening cream but she estimated that 60 per cent of Indian women did.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Sex Really Does Get Better With Age (Just Ask A 70 Year Old)
ScienceDaily (July 9, 2008) — An increasing number of 70 year olds are
having good sex and more often, and women in this age group are
particularly satisfied with their sex lives, according to a study
published on the British Medical Journal website.
Knowledge about sexual behaviour in older people (70 year olds) is
limited and mainly focuses on sexual problems, less is known about
"normal" sexual behaviour in this age group.
Nils Beckman and colleagues from the University of Gothenburg in
Sweden, studied attitudes to sex in later life among four
representative population samples of 70 year olds in Sweden, who they
interviewed in 1971-2, 1976-7, 1992-3, and 2000-1. In total, over 1
500 people aged 70 years were interviewed about different aspects of
their sex lives including sexual dysfunctions, marital satisfaction
and sexual activity.
The authors found that over the thirty year period the number of 70
year olds of both sexes reporting sexual intercourse increased:
married men from 52% to 68%, married women from 38% to 56%, unmarried
men from 30% to 54%, and unmarried women from 0.8% to 12%.
In addition, the number of women reporting high sexual satisfaction
increased, more women reported having an orgasm during sex and fewer
reported never having had an orgasm.
While the proportion of women reporting low satisfaction with their
sex lives decreased, the proportion of men reporting low satisfaction
increased. The authors suggest that this might be because it is now
more acceptable for men to admit "failure" in sexual matters.
They also note that the number of men reporting erectile dysfunction
deceased, whereas the proportion reporting ejaculation dysfunction
increased, but the proportion reporting premature ejaculation did not
change.
Interestingly, both men and women blame men when sexual intercourse
stops between them. This finding replicates the results of other
studies in the 1950s and 2005-06.
"Our study...shows that most elderly people consider sexual activity
and associated feelings a natural part of later life", they conclude.
These findings emphasise the important and positive part sex plays in
the lives of 70 year olds and is a welcome contribution to the limited
literature about sexual behaviour in older people, writes Professor
Peggy Kleinplatz from the University of Ottawa in Canada.
It will hopefully highlight the need for doctors to be trained to ask
all patients, regardless of age, about their sexual concerns, she
adds.
Adapted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via
EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
having good sex and more often, and women in this age group are
particularly satisfied with their sex lives, according to a study
published on the British Medical Journal website.
Knowledge about sexual behaviour in older people (70 year olds) is
limited and mainly focuses on sexual problems, less is known about
"normal" sexual behaviour in this age group.
Nils Beckman and colleagues from the University of Gothenburg in
Sweden, studied attitudes to sex in later life among four
representative population samples of 70 year olds in Sweden, who they
interviewed in 1971-2, 1976-7, 1992-3, and 2000-1. In total, over 1
500 people aged 70 years were interviewed about different aspects of
their sex lives including sexual dysfunctions, marital satisfaction
and sexual activity.
The authors found that over the thirty year period the number of 70
year olds of both sexes reporting sexual intercourse increased:
married men from 52% to 68%, married women from 38% to 56%, unmarried
men from 30% to 54%, and unmarried women from 0.8% to 12%.
In addition, the number of women reporting high sexual satisfaction
increased, more women reported having an orgasm during sex and fewer
reported never having had an orgasm.
While the proportion of women reporting low satisfaction with their
sex lives decreased, the proportion of men reporting low satisfaction
increased. The authors suggest that this might be because it is now
more acceptable for men to admit "failure" in sexual matters.
They also note that the number of men reporting erectile dysfunction
deceased, whereas the proportion reporting ejaculation dysfunction
increased, but the proportion reporting premature ejaculation did not
change.
Interestingly, both men and women blame men when sexual intercourse
stops between them. This finding replicates the results of other
studies in the 1950s and 2005-06.
"Our study...shows that most elderly people consider sexual activity
and associated feelings a natural part of later life", they conclude.
These findings emphasise the important and positive part sex plays in
the lives of 70 year olds and is a welcome contribution to the limited
literature about sexual behaviour in older people, writes Professor
Peggy Kleinplatz from the University of Ottawa in Canada.
It will hopefully highlight the need for doctors to be trained to ask
all patients, regardless of age, about their sexual concerns, she
adds.
Adapted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via
EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
China approves transgenic species development program
China's State Council, or cabinet, on Wednesday approved a program for the development of transgenic species to shore up the country's sustainable agricultural development.
The State Council agreed at an executive meeting that the program is of strategic importance in strengthening the country's capacity for agricultural technological innovation, increasing farmers' income and enhance the agriculture sector's global competitiveness.
The program aims to gain genes of great commercial value whose intellectual property rights belong to China, and develop high-quality, high-yield and pest-resistant genetically-modified new species, according to the meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The meeting urged relevant authorities to fully understand the importance and urgency of the program and waste no time implementing it.
The meeting also reviewed and approved a guideline on the deepening of economic system reforms in 2008.
[...]
Copyright 2004 China Securities Journal. All Rights Reserved.
The State Council agreed at an executive meeting that the program is of strategic importance in strengthening the country's capacity for agricultural technological innovation, increasing farmers' income and enhance the agriculture sector's global competitiveness.
The program aims to gain genes of great commercial value whose intellectual property rights belong to China, and develop high-quality, high-yield and pest-resistant genetically-modified new species, according to the meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The meeting urged relevant authorities to fully understand the importance and urgency of the program and waste no time implementing it.
The meeting also reviewed and approved a guideline on the deepening of economic system reforms in 2008.
[...]
Copyright 2004 China Securities Journal. All Rights Reserved.
Intuition Can Be Explained
ScienceDaily (July 2, 2008) — Intuition, or tacit knowledge, is
difficult to measure, so it is often denigrated. A new dissertation in
education research from Linköping University in Sweden shows that
there is a neurobiological explanation for how experience-based
knowledge is created.
"Can't 'splain sump'n to somebody who doesn't understand it"; "my legs
think faster than I do" (Swedish alpine skiing champion Ingemar
Stenmark). "Skate where the puck´s going, not where it´s been" (Wayne
Gretsky).
Lars-Erik Björklund uses these quotations in his dissertation to
illustrate what we mean by intuition, tacit knowledge, hands-on
knowledge, or practical wisdom. It is based on experience and is
something that experts in many fields possess.
"In studies from the 1980s on nurses, it was shown that those who had
been in the profession for a long time saw more and made better
judgments more quickly. It was referred to as an intuitive ability,"
says Lars-Erik Björklund, who devoted his thesis to a review of
research in various fields involving this knowledge.
In the 1990s similar studies were done on physicians and business
people, with similar results. The fact that people with long
experience are often better at what they do, that practice makes
perfect, is nothing new. But no good explanations have been put
forward as to why this is the case.
A few years ago neuroscientists discovered that the human brain has
dual systems for receiving and analyzing sensory impressions, one
conscious and one unconscious. In the unconscious, that is the
non-declarative system, our sensory impressions are compared with
previously stored images. We all have an inner picture book of stored
experiences based on what has happened to us previously in life. We
also remember the outcome -¬ did it end well or badly? With the aid of
these stored sensory impressions, we unconsciously assess the
situation at hand and can predict the outcome. This capacity is
especially helpful in complex and information-rich situations with a
great deal of noise.
The more variations of a situation we have experienced, the richer our
picture book will be and the more probable it will be that we
recognize the situation at hand.
"It can be a matter of smells, gestures, an ineffable combination of
impressions that makes what we call intuition tell us something," says
Lars-Erik Björklund. "We have a memory that needs to be filled up with
sensory impressions."
However, these memories are stored only if they affect us. In other
words, for experience to be built up, there must be commitment.
This means, according to Lars-Erik Björklund, that we can never read
or calculate our way to all the knowledge and abilities we need in our
professional life. Practical experience is indispensable and needs to
be revaluated. An uncertified teacher with ten years of experience in
the profession can be a much better teacher, assuming that this person
is committed to the job, than a newly certified teacher, no matter how
knowledgeable he or she is in terms of subject matter knowledge.
He also argues that components involving practice and lab work need to
be expanded rather than cut in professional programs for engineers,
teachers, and physicians. "We need to see, feel, smell, hear, taste,
and experience with our senses. This collection of data can't be
replaced by studying course literature," he writes.
"Experience is under-evaluated today, and this is perhaps because we
haven't understood this type of tacit knowledge. Now we know, thanks
to brain researchers."
"They (experts) may not be as hungry or energetic as a young recently
certified associate, but they have a superior ability to see and judge
what should and what can be done," he writes in his conclusion.
Adapted from materials provided by Linköping University.
MLA
Linköping University (2008, July 2). Intuition Can Be Explained.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 3, 2008, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/07/080701135820.htm
difficult to measure, so it is often denigrated. A new dissertation in
education research from Linköping University in Sweden shows that
there is a neurobiological explanation for how experience-based
knowledge is created.
"Can't 'splain sump'n to somebody who doesn't understand it"; "my legs
think faster than I do" (Swedish alpine skiing champion Ingemar
Stenmark). "Skate where the puck´s going, not where it´s been" (Wayne
Gretsky).
Lars-Erik Björklund uses these quotations in his dissertation to
illustrate what we mean by intuition, tacit knowledge, hands-on
knowledge, or practical wisdom. It is based on experience and is
something that experts in many fields possess.
"In studies from the 1980s on nurses, it was shown that those who had
been in the profession for a long time saw more and made better
judgments more quickly. It was referred to as an intuitive ability,"
says Lars-Erik Björklund, who devoted his thesis to a review of
research in various fields involving this knowledge.
In the 1990s similar studies were done on physicians and business
people, with similar results. The fact that people with long
experience are often better at what they do, that practice makes
perfect, is nothing new. But no good explanations have been put
forward as to why this is the case.
A few years ago neuroscientists discovered that the human brain has
dual systems for receiving and analyzing sensory impressions, one
conscious and one unconscious. In the unconscious, that is the
non-declarative system, our sensory impressions are compared with
previously stored images. We all have an inner picture book of stored
experiences based on what has happened to us previously in life. We
also remember the outcome -¬ did it end well or badly? With the aid of
these stored sensory impressions, we unconsciously assess the
situation at hand and can predict the outcome. This capacity is
especially helpful in complex and information-rich situations with a
great deal of noise.
The more variations of a situation we have experienced, the richer our
picture book will be and the more probable it will be that we
recognize the situation at hand.
"It can be a matter of smells, gestures, an ineffable combination of
impressions that makes what we call intuition tell us something," says
Lars-Erik Björklund. "We have a memory that needs to be filled up with
sensory impressions."
However, these memories are stored only if they affect us. In other
words, for experience to be built up, there must be commitment.
This means, according to Lars-Erik Björklund, that we can never read
or calculate our way to all the knowledge and abilities we need in our
professional life. Practical experience is indispensable and needs to
be revaluated. An uncertified teacher with ten years of experience in
the profession can be a much better teacher, assuming that this person
is committed to the job, than a newly certified teacher, no matter how
knowledgeable he or she is in terms of subject matter knowledge.
He also argues that components involving practice and lab work need to
be expanded rather than cut in professional programs for engineers,
teachers, and physicians. "We need to see, feel, smell, hear, taste,
and experience with our senses. This collection of data can't be
replaced by studying course literature," he writes.
"Experience is under-evaluated today, and this is perhaps because we
haven't understood this type of tacit knowledge. Now we know, thanks
to brain researchers."
"They (experts) may not be as hungry or energetic as a young recently
certified associate, but they have a superior ability to see and judge
what should and what can be done," he writes in his conclusion.
Adapted from materials provided by Linköping University.
MLA
Linköping University (2008, July 2). Intuition Can Be Explained.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 3, 2008, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/07/080701135820.htm
Brain grows when older workers learn new tricks, study shows
Hamburg- When older workers learn new skills, their brain cells develop, German scientists said Wednesday after a study that used computer tomography to peer deep inside the brain. The study, in which people aged 50 to 67 were taught to juggle, disproved a previous assumption that brain growth ends during young adulthood. It was conducted by Eppendorf University Hospital in Hamburg and the University Hospital in Jena, Germany.
After three months of learning, parts of the brain grew. When the subjects stopped juggling for another three months, their brains shrank again. The study, with lead author Arne May, was reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"This shows how important it is for older people to keep taking on new challenges and learning new things," May said.
After three months of learning, parts of the brain grew. When the subjects stopped juggling for another three months, their brains shrank again. The study, with lead author Arne May, was reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"This shows how important it is for older people to keep taking on new challenges and learning new things," May said.
Scientists Prevent Brain-Cell Suicide to Keep Birds Singing
Some birds, caged or not, only sing when they really need to, namely, during the breeding season. After it's over, their musical neurons die-off, and they are left tune-less.
But now, scientists at the University of Washington have shown they can keep the birds singing, temporarily, by stopping the action of an enzyme key to their brains' natural cell-death processes. As cell-death mechanisms are similar across species, the research could open up new avenues of research on degenerative and age-related diseases like Alzheimer's.
Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is common in multicellular organisms and aids important biological processes, like maintaining homeostasis and acting as the chisel in skeletal development. While there are many reasons that a cell could sense it is supposed to die, the actual suicide process is generally the same: A group of enzymes called caspases execute on the order for cellular degeneration.
What the researchers have shown in work to be published tomorrow in the Journal of Neuroscience is that inhibiting the caspases preserves neurons and brain-region function; in this case, singing.
"In the future, physicians might be able to stabilize people who have suffered a stroke using these inhibitors," said Eliot Brenowitz, a University of Washington professor of psychology and zoology, in a release.
[...]
© 2008 CondéNet, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
But now, scientists at the University of Washington have shown they can keep the birds singing, temporarily, by stopping the action of an enzyme key to their brains' natural cell-death processes. As cell-death mechanisms are similar across species, the research could open up new avenues of research on degenerative and age-related diseases like Alzheimer's.
Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is common in multicellular organisms and aids important biological processes, like maintaining homeostasis and acting as the chisel in skeletal development. While there are many reasons that a cell could sense it is supposed to die, the actual suicide process is generally the same: A group of enzymes called caspases execute on the order for cellular degeneration.
What the researchers have shown in work to be published tomorrow in the Journal of Neuroscience is that inhibiting the caspases preserves neurons and brain-region function; in this case, singing.
"In the future, physicians might be able to stabilize people who have suffered a stroke using these inhibitors," said Eliot Brenowitz, a University of Washington professor of psychology and zoology, in a release.
[...]
© 2008 CondéNet, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
Scientists learn how food affects the brain
In addition to helping protect us from heart disease and cancer, a balanced diet and regular exercise can also protect the brain and ward off mental disorders.
"Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain," said Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science who has spent years studying the effects of food, exercise and sleep on the brain. "Diet, exercise and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. This raises the exciting possibility that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage and counteracting the effects of aging."
Gómez-Pinilla analyzed more than 160 studies about food's affect on the brain; the results of his analysis appear in the July issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience and are available online at www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n7/abs/nrn2421.html.
Omega-3 fatty acids — found in salmon, walnuts and kiwi fruit — provide many benefits, including improving learning and memory and helping to fight against such mental disorders as depression and mood disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia, said Gómez-Pinilla, a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center.
Synapses in the brain connect neurons and provide critical functions; much learning and memory occurs at the synapses, Gómez-Pinilla said.
"Omega-3 fatty acids support synaptic plasticity and seem to positively affect the expression of several molecules related to learning and memory that are found on synapses," Gómez-Pinilla said. "Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for normal brain function.
"Dietary deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in humans has been associated with increased risk of several mental disorders, including attention-deficit disorder, dyslexia, dementia, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia," he said. "A deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in rodents results in impaired learning and memory."
Children who had increased amounts of omega-3 fatty acids performed better in school, in reading and in spelling and had fewer behavioral problems, he said.
Preliminary results from a study in England show that school performance improved among a group of students receiving omega-3 fatty acids. In an Australian study, 396 children between the ages 6 and 12 who were given a drink with omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients (iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamins A, B6, B12 and C) showed higher scores on tests measuring verbal intelligence and learning and memory after six months and one year than a control group of students who did not receive the nutritional drink. This study was also conducted with 394 children in Indonesia. The results showed higher test scores for boys and girls in Australia, but only for girls in Indonesia.
Getting omega-3 fatty acids from food rather than from capsule supplements can be more beneficial, providing additional nutrients, Gómez-Pinilla said.
Scientists are learning which omega-3 fatty acids seem to be especially important. One is docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, which is abundant in salmon. DHA, which reduces oxidative stress and enhances synaptic plasticity and learning and memory, is the most abundant omega-3 fatty acid in cell membranes in the brain.
"The brain and the body are deficient in the machinery to make DHA; it has to come through our diet," said Gómez-Pinilla, who was born and raised in salmon-rich Chile and eats salmon three times a week, along with a balanced diet. "Omega-3 fatty acids are essential."
A healthy diet and exercise can also reduce the effect of brain injury and lead to a better recovery, he said.
Recent research also supports the hypothesis that health can be passed down through generations, and a number of innovative studies point to the possibility that the effects of diet on mental health can be transmitted across generations, Gómez-Pinilla said.
A long-term study that included more than 100 years of birth, death, health and genealogical records for 300 Swedish families in an isolated village showed that an individual's risk for diabetes and early death increased if his or her paternal grandparents grew up in times of food abundance rather than food shortage.
"Evidence indicates that what you eat can affect your grandchildren's brain molecules and synapses," Gómez-Pinilla said. "We are trying to find the molecular basis to explain this."
Controlled meal-skipping or intermittent caloric restriction might provide health benefits, he said.
Excess calories can reduce the flexibility of synapses and increase the vulnerability of cells to damage by causing the formation of free radicals. Moderate caloric restriction could protect the brain by reducing oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, Gómez-Pinilla said.
The brain is highly susceptible to oxidative damage. Blueberries have been shown to have a strong antioxidant capacity, he noted.
In contrast to the healthy effects of diets that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, diets high in trans fats and saturated fats adversely affect cognition, studies indicate.
Junk food and fast food negatively affect the brain's synapses, said Gómez-Pinilla, who eats fast food less often since conducting this research. Brain synapses and several molecules related to learning and memory are adversely affected by unhealthy diets, he said.
Emerging research indicates that the effects of diet on the brain, combined with the effects of exercise and a good night's sleep, can strengthen synapses and provide other cognitive benefits, he added.
In Okinawa, an island in Japan where people frequently eat fish and exercise, the lifespan is one of the world's longest, and the population has a very low rate of mental disorders, Gómez-Pinilla noted.
Folic acid is found in various foods, including spinach, orange juice and yeast. Adequate levels of folic acid are essential for brain function, and folate deficiency can lead to neurological disorders such as depression and cognitive impairment. Folate supplementation, either by itself or in conjunction with other B vitamins, has been shown to be effective in preventing cognitive decline and dementia during aging and enhancing the effects of antidepressants. The results of a recent randomized clinical trial indicate that a three-year folic acid supplementation can help reduce the age-related decline in cognitive function.
[...]
Copyright, Science Blog.
Think. It's not illegal yet. Read our Privacy Policy.
"Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain," said Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science who has spent years studying the effects of food, exercise and sleep on the brain. "Diet, exercise and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. This raises the exciting possibility that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage and counteracting the effects of aging."
Gómez-Pinilla analyzed more than 160 studies about food's affect on the brain; the results of his analysis appear in the July issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience and are available online at www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n7/abs/nrn2421.html.
Omega-3 fatty acids — found in salmon, walnuts and kiwi fruit — provide many benefits, including improving learning and memory and helping to fight against such mental disorders as depression and mood disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia, said Gómez-Pinilla, a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center.
Synapses in the brain connect neurons and provide critical functions; much learning and memory occurs at the synapses, Gómez-Pinilla said.
"Omega-3 fatty acids support synaptic plasticity and seem to positively affect the expression of several molecules related to learning and memory that are found on synapses," Gómez-Pinilla said. "Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for normal brain function.
"Dietary deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in humans has been associated with increased risk of several mental disorders, including attention-deficit disorder, dyslexia, dementia, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia," he said. "A deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in rodents results in impaired learning and memory."
Children who had increased amounts of omega-3 fatty acids performed better in school, in reading and in spelling and had fewer behavioral problems, he said.
Preliminary results from a study in England show that school performance improved among a group of students receiving omega-3 fatty acids. In an Australian study, 396 children between the ages 6 and 12 who were given a drink with omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients (iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamins A, B6, B12 and C) showed higher scores on tests measuring verbal intelligence and learning and memory after six months and one year than a control group of students who did not receive the nutritional drink. This study was also conducted with 394 children in Indonesia. The results showed higher test scores for boys and girls in Australia, but only for girls in Indonesia.
Getting omega-3 fatty acids from food rather than from capsule supplements can be more beneficial, providing additional nutrients, Gómez-Pinilla said.
Scientists are learning which omega-3 fatty acids seem to be especially important. One is docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, which is abundant in salmon. DHA, which reduces oxidative stress and enhances synaptic plasticity and learning and memory, is the most abundant omega-3 fatty acid in cell membranes in the brain.
"The brain and the body are deficient in the machinery to make DHA; it has to come through our diet," said Gómez-Pinilla, who was born and raised in salmon-rich Chile and eats salmon three times a week, along with a balanced diet. "Omega-3 fatty acids are essential."
A healthy diet and exercise can also reduce the effect of brain injury and lead to a better recovery, he said.
Recent research also supports the hypothesis that health can be passed down through generations, and a number of innovative studies point to the possibility that the effects of diet on mental health can be transmitted across generations, Gómez-Pinilla said.
A long-term study that included more than 100 years of birth, death, health and genealogical records for 300 Swedish families in an isolated village showed that an individual's risk for diabetes and early death increased if his or her paternal grandparents grew up in times of food abundance rather than food shortage.
"Evidence indicates that what you eat can affect your grandchildren's brain molecules and synapses," Gómez-Pinilla said. "We are trying to find the molecular basis to explain this."
Controlled meal-skipping or intermittent caloric restriction might provide health benefits, he said.
Excess calories can reduce the flexibility of synapses and increase the vulnerability of cells to damage by causing the formation of free radicals. Moderate caloric restriction could protect the brain by reducing oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, Gómez-Pinilla said.
The brain is highly susceptible to oxidative damage. Blueberries have been shown to have a strong antioxidant capacity, he noted.
In contrast to the healthy effects of diets that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, diets high in trans fats and saturated fats adversely affect cognition, studies indicate.
Junk food and fast food negatively affect the brain's synapses, said Gómez-Pinilla, who eats fast food less often since conducting this research. Brain synapses and several molecules related to learning and memory are adversely affected by unhealthy diets, he said.
Emerging research indicates that the effects of diet on the brain, combined with the effects of exercise and a good night's sleep, can strengthen synapses and provide other cognitive benefits, he added.
In Okinawa, an island in Japan where people frequently eat fish and exercise, the lifespan is one of the world's longest, and the population has a very low rate of mental disorders, Gómez-Pinilla noted.
Folic acid is found in various foods, including spinach, orange juice and yeast. Adequate levels of folic acid are essential for brain function, and folate deficiency can lead to neurological disorders such as depression and cognitive impairment. Folate supplementation, either by itself or in conjunction with other B vitamins, has been shown to be effective in preventing cognitive decline and dementia during aging and enhancing the effects of antidepressants. The results of a recent randomized clinical trial indicate that a three-year folic acid supplementation can help reduce the age-related decline in cognitive function.
[...]
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Four artificial new letters for the DNA alphabet
A NEW type of artificial DNA may form the basis of minuscule electronic devices.
Natural DNA is constructed using four bases, which form the "letters" of the genetic code. Now Masahiko Inouye and his colleagues at the University of Toyama in Japan have used DNA synthesis equipment to stitch together four new artificial bases inside the sugar-based backbone of a DNA molecule (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ja801058h).
The artificial DNA is more stable than natural DNA, which may make it a good candidate for turning into molecular electronic wires, able to conduct electrons along their length.
[...]
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd. Vacancies
Natural DNA is constructed using four bases, which form the "letters" of the genetic code. Now Masahiko Inouye and his colleagues at the University of Toyama in Japan have used DNA synthesis equipment to stitch together four new artificial bases inside the sugar-based backbone of a DNA molecule (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ja801058h).
The artificial DNA is more stable than natural DNA, which may make it a good candidate for turning into molecular electronic wires, able to conduct electrons along their length.
[...]
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd. Vacancies
Friday, July 18, 2008
Love really is blind, or at least blinkered
Love is blind, said Shakespeare. Now it seems there may be some truth in the bard's words.
Researchers have found that people who are in love pay less visual attention to attractive people of the opposite sex.
Jon Maner at Florida State University in Tallahassee, US, and colleagues asked 57 students in heterosexual relationships to write about occasions they felt extreme love towards their partner. Another 56 students wrote about feeling extreme happiness.
The students then viewed 500 microsecond flashes of 60 photos, comprising equal numbers of highly attractive men, highly attractive women, average-looking men, and average-looking women.
As the faces disappeared, a square or a circle appeared elsewhere on the screen. The students were instructed to identify the object as quickly as possible – a measure of a person's visual attention at a subconscious level.
Students primed with thoughts of love took significantly less time to identify shapes after viewing an attractive face of the opposite sex, compared with those who had written essays on happiness.
Repulsive beauty
"We found that when people just thought about being in love with their current partner, their visual attention got repelled, rather than grabbed, by an attractive member of the opposite sex," says Maner. The finding may help explain why those in love do not seek out other, perhaps better, mates.
"[The repulsion] happens at the very initial stages of visual processing, at the very first moment they are aware of the photo," says Maner.
Previous studies had suggested that people in committed relationships put less value on potential alternative partners. For example, they will claim to find potential alternative partners less attractive than single people do.
But what has been unclear – until now – is whether that is what they really think, or whether they are trying to convince themselves that they have made the right choice. In the current study, the repulsive affect was so rapid, that the students would not have been able to exert conscious control over it.
[...]
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Researchers have found that people who are in love pay less visual attention to attractive people of the opposite sex.
Jon Maner at Florida State University in Tallahassee, US, and colleagues asked 57 students in heterosexual relationships to write about occasions they felt extreme love towards their partner. Another 56 students wrote about feeling extreme happiness.
The students then viewed 500 microsecond flashes of 60 photos, comprising equal numbers of highly attractive men, highly attractive women, average-looking men, and average-looking women.
As the faces disappeared, a square or a circle appeared elsewhere on the screen. The students were instructed to identify the object as quickly as possible – a measure of a person's visual attention at a subconscious level.
Students primed with thoughts of love took significantly less time to identify shapes after viewing an attractive face of the opposite sex, compared with those who had written essays on happiness.
Repulsive beauty
"We found that when people just thought about being in love with their current partner, their visual attention got repelled, rather than grabbed, by an attractive member of the opposite sex," says Maner. The finding may help explain why those in love do not seek out other, perhaps better, mates.
"[The repulsion] happens at the very initial stages of visual processing, at the very first moment they are aware of the photo," says Maner.
Previous studies had suggested that people in committed relationships put less value on potential alternative partners. For example, they will claim to find potential alternative partners less attractive than single people do.
But what has been unclear – until now – is whether that is what they really think, or whether they are trying to convince themselves that they have made the right choice. In the current study, the repulsive affect was so rapid, that the students would not have been able to exert conscious control over it.
[...]
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Brain implant helps stroke victim speak again
An implant and specialised software have been used to interpret a paralysed man's brain signals and produce recognisable sounds
Watch the full-size video
Nine years ago, a brain-stem stroke left Erik Ramsey almost totally paralysed, but with his mental faculties otherwise intact. Today he is learning to talk again – although so far he can only manage basic vowel sounds.
In 2004, Ramsey had an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex by Philip Kennedy's team at Neural Signals, a company based in Duluth, Georgia, US, who hoped the signal from Ramsey's cortex could be used to restore his speech.
Interpreting these signals proved tricky, however. Fortunately, another team headed by Frank Guenther at Boston University, Massachusetts, US, has been working on the same problem from the opposite direction.
Guenther and his colleagues have used information from brain scans of healthy patients to monitor neural activity during speech. These studies show that the brain signals don't code for words, but instead control the position of the lips, tongue, jaw and larynx to produce basic sounds.
Guenther's research group then developed software that could recognise and translate the patterns of brain activity during speech.
Quick learner
When they teamed up with Kennedy, they could use their software to interpret the signals from Ramsey's implanted electrode and work out the shape of the vocal tract that Ramsey is attempting to form. This information can then be fed to a vocal synthesiser that produces the corresponding sound.
The software is now translating Ramsey's thoughts into sounds in real time, so Ramsey hears his "voice" as he makes a sound, effectively bypassing the damaged region of his brain stem.
This gives Ramsey immediate feedback on his pronunciation, which he can use to rapidly hone his speaking skills in the same way infants do when learning to talk. Initially, when prompted to produce a vowel sound such as "ee" or "oh", he hit the correct sound around 45% of the time. Over the course of a few weeks, Ramsey's accuracy has risen to 80%.
Tricky consonants
In the future, Guenther says that the goal is to give Ramsey the ability to speak complete words with fluency, but that will require software and hardware improvements.
"The synthesiser is good for vowels, but not for consonants," he says. "We're going to move to a synthesiser with better consonant capabilities, where the patient would have more control over jaw height, for instance."
But a more complicated system would be harder to control, says Guenther. "Right now, Erik is controlling two dimensions to create vowels," he says. "But for consonants he would need seven dimensions – three to control tongue movement, two for lip movement, and one each for jaw and larynx height."
Klaus-Robert Müller at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany is intrigued by the study, but wonders whether it will come at a price for Ramsey.
[...]
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Watch the full-size video
Nine years ago, a brain-stem stroke left Erik Ramsey almost totally paralysed, but with his mental faculties otherwise intact. Today he is learning to talk again – although so far he can only manage basic vowel sounds.
In 2004, Ramsey had an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex by Philip Kennedy's team at Neural Signals, a company based in Duluth, Georgia, US, who hoped the signal from Ramsey's cortex could be used to restore his speech.
Interpreting these signals proved tricky, however. Fortunately, another team headed by Frank Guenther at Boston University, Massachusetts, US, has been working on the same problem from the opposite direction.
Guenther and his colleagues have used information from brain scans of healthy patients to monitor neural activity during speech. These studies show that the brain signals don't code for words, but instead control the position of the lips, tongue, jaw and larynx to produce basic sounds.
Guenther's research group then developed software that could recognise and translate the patterns of brain activity during speech.
Quick learner
When they teamed up with Kennedy, they could use their software to interpret the signals from Ramsey's implanted electrode and work out the shape of the vocal tract that Ramsey is attempting to form. This information can then be fed to a vocal synthesiser that produces the corresponding sound.
The software is now translating Ramsey's thoughts into sounds in real time, so Ramsey hears his "voice" as he makes a sound, effectively bypassing the damaged region of his brain stem.
This gives Ramsey immediate feedback on his pronunciation, which he can use to rapidly hone his speaking skills in the same way infants do when learning to talk. Initially, when prompted to produce a vowel sound such as "ee" or "oh", he hit the correct sound around 45% of the time. Over the course of a few weeks, Ramsey's accuracy has risen to 80%.
Tricky consonants
In the future, Guenther says that the goal is to give Ramsey the ability to speak complete words with fluency, but that will require software and hardware improvements.
"The synthesiser is good for vowels, but not for consonants," he says. "We're going to move to a synthesiser with better consonant capabilities, where the patient would have more control over jaw height, for instance."
But a more complicated system would be harder to control, says Guenther. "Right now, Erik is controlling two dimensions to create vowels," he says. "But for consonants he would need seven dimensions – three to control tongue movement, two for lip movement, and one each for jaw and larynx height."
Klaus-Robert Müller at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany is intrigued by the study, but wonders whether it will come at a price for Ramsey.
[...]
© Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.
Microwave ray gun controls crowds with noise
A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to
beam sounds directly into people's heads.
The device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) –
exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses
rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be
detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce
recognisable sounds.
The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but
may have other uses.
Lev Sadovnik of the Sierra Nevada Corporation in the US is working on
the system, having started work on a US navy research contract. The
navy's report states that the effect was shown to be effective.
Scarecrow beam?
MEDUSA involves a microwave auditory effect "loud" enough to cause
discomfort or even incapacitation. Sadovnik says that normal audio
safety limits do not apply since the sound does not enter through the
eardrums.
"The repel effect is a combination of loudness and the irritation
factor," he says. "You can't block it out."
Sadovnik says the device will work thanks to a new reconfigurable
antenna developed by colleague Vladimir Manasson. It steers the beam
electronically, making it possible to flip from a broad to a narrow
beam, or aim at multiple targets simultaneously.
Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications.
Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it
might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.
Sadovnik has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to
people with outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing.
Brain damage risk
James Lin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the
University of Illinois in Chicago says that MEDUSA is feasible in
principle.
He has carried out his own work on the technique, and was even
approached by the music industry about using microwave audio to
enhance sound systems, he told New Scientist.
"But is it going to be possible at the power levels necessary?" he
asks. Previous microwave audio tests involved very "quiet" sounds that
were hard to hear, a high-power system would mean much more powerful –
and potentially hazardous – shockwaves.
"I would worry about what other health effects it is having," says
Lin. "You might see neural damage."
Sierra Nevada says that a demonstration version could be built in a
year, with a transportable system following within 18 months. They are
currently seeking funding for the work from the US Department of
Defence.
beam sounds directly into people's heads.
The device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) –
exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses
rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be
detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce
recognisable sounds.
The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but
may have other uses.
Lev Sadovnik of the Sierra Nevada Corporation in the US is working on
the system, having started work on a US navy research contract. The
navy's report states that the effect was shown to be effective.
Scarecrow beam?
MEDUSA involves a microwave auditory effect "loud" enough to cause
discomfort or even incapacitation. Sadovnik says that normal audio
safety limits do not apply since the sound does not enter through the
eardrums.
"The repel effect is a combination of loudness and the irritation
factor," he says. "You can't block it out."
Sadovnik says the device will work thanks to a new reconfigurable
antenna developed by colleague Vladimir Manasson. It steers the beam
electronically, making it possible to flip from a broad to a narrow
beam, or aim at multiple targets simultaneously.
Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications.
Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it
might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.
Sadovnik has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to
people with outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing.
Brain damage risk
James Lin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the
University of Illinois in Chicago says that MEDUSA is feasible in
principle.
He has carried out his own work on the technique, and was even
approached by the music industry about using microwave audio to
enhance sound systems, he told New Scientist.
"But is it going to be possible at the power levels necessary?" he
asks. Previous microwave audio tests involved very "quiet" sounds that
were hard to hear, a high-power system would mean much more powerful –
and potentially hazardous – shockwaves.
"I would worry about what other health effects it is having," says
Lin. "You might see neural damage."
Sierra Nevada says that a demonstration version could be built in a
year, with a transportable system following within 18 months. They are
currently seeking funding for the work from the US Department of
Defence.
Tap Into the 12-Million-Teraflop Handheld Megacomputer
Never mind Web 3.0: The next stage in technological evolution is a single worldwide computer. Collectively, we are already assembling this megacomputer from our billions of Net-connected PCs, cell phones, PDAs, and the like. As an increasing number and variety of devices are lashed to one another via the Internet and other communication systems, they form the components of what we might call the One Machine.
Its circuit board encompasses the million copper wires and radio connections linking all the chips contained in the gadgets in your pocket, office, and car. Instead of being powered by a mere billion tiny transistors, as your typical personal desktop is, it runs on a billion PC chips, each with its own billion transistors. Its memory is the collective hard disks and flash drives of the world. Its RAM is the sum of all memory chips online. Every second, a Library of Congress worth of data flows through it. The program it runs — its initial OS — is the World Wide Web.
Just as the One Machine's hardware is assembled from our myriad devices, its software is written by our collective online behavior. Each time a person clicks on a search result or creates a link to a Web page, the Machine is being programmed. Each new link wires up a subroutine, creates a loop, and unleashes a cascade of impulses. As waves of links surge around the world, they resemble the thought patterns of a very large brain.
Indeed, a hyperlink is much like a synapse in the brain. Both work by making associations between nodes. Each unit of thinking in the brain — an idea, for example — grows by gaining links to other thoughts. The greater the number of synapses connecting to an idea, the stronger it becomes. Similarly, the more heavily linked a Web node is, the greater its value to the Machine. Moreover, the number of hyperlinks in the World Wide Web is approaching that of synapses in the human brain. But the Machine contains a million times more transistors than you have neurons in your head. And, unlike your brain, it's growing at a rate that outpaces Moore's law. By 2040, the planetary computer will attain as much processing power as all 7 billion human brains on Earth.
But the Machine also includes us. After all, our brains are programming and underpinning it. As much as we will come to depend on the One Machine (who needs memory when you've got Google?), it will depend on our minds for a sustaining river of input. We are headed toward a singular destiny: one vast computer composed of billions of chips and billions of brains, enveloping the planet in a single sphere of intelligence.
Its circuit board encompasses the million copper wires and radio connections linking all the chips contained in the gadgets in your pocket, office, and car. Instead of being powered by a mere billion tiny transistors, as your typical personal desktop is, it runs on a billion PC chips, each with its own billion transistors. Its memory is the collective hard disks and flash drives of the world. Its RAM is the sum of all memory chips online. Every second, a Library of Congress worth of data flows through it. The program it runs — its initial OS — is the World Wide Web.
Just as the One Machine's hardware is assembled from our myriad devices, its software is written by our collective online behavior. Each time a person clicks on a search result or creates a link to a Web page, the Machine is being programmed. Each new link wires up a subroutine, creates a loop, and unleashes a cascade of impulses. As waves of links surge around the world, they resemble the thought patterns of a very large brain.
Indeed, a hyperlink is much like a synapse in the brain. Both work by making associations between nodes. Each unit of thinking in the brain — an idea, for example — grows by gaining links to other thoughts. The greater the number of synapses connecting to an idea, the stronger it becomes. Similarly, the more heavily linked a Web node is, the greater its value to the Machine. Moreover, the number of hyperlinks in the World Wide Web is approaching that of synapses in the human brain. But the Machine contains a million times more transistors than you have neurons in your head. And, unlike your brain, it's growing at a rate that outpaces Moore's law. By 2040, the planetary computer will attain as much processing power as all 7 billion human brains on Earth.
But the Machine also includes us. After all, our brains are programming and underpinning it. As much as we will come to depend on the One Machine (who needs memory when you've got Google?), it will depend on our minds for a sustaining river of input. We are headed toward a singular destiny: one vast computer composed of billions of chips and billions of brains, enveloping the planet in a single sphere of intelligence.
Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination
Pentagon official: Complaints about evangelizing are "relatively rare"
KANSAS CITY, Kansas (CNN) -- Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist.
Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, who was raised Baptist but is now an atheist, says the military violated his religious freedom.
Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.
He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.
Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.
His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. Watch why Hall says his lack of faith almost got him killed »
In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.
"I think it's utterly and totally wrong. Unconstitutional," Hall said.
Hall said there is a pattern of discrimination against non-Christians in the military.
Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus now?"
Hall isn't seeking compensation in his lawsuit -- just the guarantee of religious freedom in the military. Eventually, Hall was sent home early from Iraq and later returned to Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, to complete his tour of duty.
He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.
"I was told because I can't put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn't make a good leader," Hall said.
Michael Weinstein, a retired senior Air Force officer and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is suing along with Hall. Weinstein said he's been contacted by more than 8,000 members of the military, almost all of them complaining of pressure to embrace evangelical Christianity.
"Our Pentagon, our Pentacostalgon, is refusing to realize that when you put the uniform on, there's only one religious faith: patriotism," Weinstein said.
Religious discrimination is a violation of the First Amendment and is also against military policy. The Pentagon refused to discuss specifics of Hall's case -- citing the litigation. But Deputy Undersecretary Bill Carr said complaints of evangelizing are "relatively rare." He also said the Pentagon is not pushing one faith among troops.
"If an atheist chose to follow their convictions, absolutely that's acceptable," said Carr. "And that's a point of religious accommodation in department policy, one may hold whatever faith, or may hold no faith."
Weinstein said he doesn't buy it and points to a promotional video by a group called Christian Embassy. The video, which shows U.S. generals in uniform, was shot inside the Pentagon. The generals were subsequently reprimanded.
Another group, the Officers' Christian Fellowship, has representatives on nearly all military bases worldwide. Its vision, which is spelled out on the organization's Web site, reads, "A spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform empowered by the Holy Spirit."
Weinstein has a different interpretation.
"Their purpose is to have Christian officers exercise Biblical leadership to raise up a godly army," he says.
But Carr said the military's position is clear.
"Proselytizing or advancing a religious conviction is not what the nation would have us do and it's not what the military does," Carr said.
The U.S. Justice Department is expected to respond to Hall's lawsuit this week. In the meantime, he continues to work in the military police unit at Fort Riley and plans to leave as soon as his tour of duty expires next year.
World's smallest state aims to become the first smoke-free paradise island
ALTRENDO/GETTYAuthorities in the South Pacific island of Niue ? population 1,400 ? say the cost of treating smoking-related illness is putting a severe strain on its resources
It is the world's smallest self-governing state, with a population of just 1,400 and few resources other than fish and coconuts. But the South Pacific island of Niue believes it can set an example by becoming the first country in the world to go smoke-free.
There are about 250 smokers on Niue, a speck of coral with a GDP of barely NZ$6,000 (£2,280) per person, and local officials say the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses is placing a heavy strain on the health budget.
Sitaleki Finau, Niue's director of health, is backing a bill to prohibit smoking and the sale of tobacco in public areas and private homes. The bill has been presented to parliament, but the government has not yet signed up to it. Dr Finau said he expected a ban to face stiff opposition from the tobacco industry and other commercial interests. But he urged MPs to be bold and vote for it.
"Small countries are allowed to be ambitious," he said yesterday. "If a small country can do this, then big countries will start thinking. Imagine what that means." The government would lose revenue from tobacco taxes but that would be more than offset by savings in the health budget, he said.
Like many countries, Niue – which translates as "behold the coconut" – has banned smoking in government offices and public buildings. But outlawing tobacco would be a radical step – particularly on an island so relaxed that, according to one saying, the dogs chase the cats at walking pace.
One village, Tuapa, has already declared itself smoke-free. Tobacco is not sold there, and villagers refrain from smoking in public and during ceremonies.
Dr Finau said the government would have to consider whether a ban infringed smokers' rights. "There has been mixed reaction," he said. "It's one of those difficult political issues, because there are commercial interests against it, and the government has to look at it in relation to tax. A tobacco-free country sounds pretty straightforward and simple, but there are some complex issues involved."
No date has been set for a vote, which could be two years away. Niue, 1,375 miles north-east of Auckland and 312 miles from Tonga, its nearest neighbour, is a former British protectorate. Britain gave it to New Zealand as a reward for the latter's contribution to the Anglo-Boer War, but since 1974 it has been independent "in free association" with Wellington.
Those who live on the island, 100 miles square, regard it as a South Pacific paradise. Beaches are heavenly, crime is non-existent, and the plentiful seafood includes crabs so large that people walk them on leashes. The locals serenade each other on guitars while watching tropical sunsets.
Niue's problem is that, despite all that, everyone is leaving. The population is in steep decline, and some believe it has dropped below a sustainable level.
When Niue was granted independence, its people were given New Zealand citizenship and the chance to emigrate – an offer that now threatens Niue's survival. There are 20,000 Niueans in New Zealand, and those left behind intermittently debate whether the island should rejoin its former colonial ruler.
Successive governments have failed to lure expatriate Niueans home. The island's isolation and lack of resources make for a fragile economy and Niue is heavily dependent on New Zealand aid and foreign remittances. Its main export is taro, a root vegetable. The capital, Alofi, has two shops.
If Niue becomes smoke-free, it may lose another 250 residents. New Zealand's anti-smoking laws are not quite so draconian.
It is the world's smallest self-governing state, with a population of just 1,400 and few resources other than fish and coconuts. But the South Pacific island of Niue believes it can set an example by becoming the first country in the world to go smoke-free.
There are about 250 smokers on Niue, a speck of coral with a GDP of barely NZ$6,000 (£2,280) per person, and local officials say the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses is placing a heavy strain on the health budget.
Sitaleki Finau, Niue's director of health, is backing a bill to prohibit smoking and the sale of tobacco in public areas and private homes. The bill has been presented to parliament, but the government has not yet signed up to it. Dr Finau said he expected a ban to face stiff opposition from the tobacco industry and other commercial interests. But he urged MPs to be bold and vote for it.
"Small countries are allowed to be ambitious," he said yesterday. "If a small country can do this, then big countries will start thinking. Imagine what that means." The government would lose revenue from tobacco taxes but that would be more than offset by savings in the health budget, he said.
Like many countries, Niue – which translates as "behold the coconut" – has banned smoking in government offices and public buildings. But outlawing tobacco would be a radical step – particularly on an island so relaxed that, according to one saying, the dogs chase the cats at walking pace.
One village, Tuapa, has already declared itself smoke-free. Tobacco is not sold there, and villagers refrain from smoking in public and during ceremonies.
Dr Finau said the government would have to consider whether a ban infringed smokers' rights. "There has been mixed reaction," he said. "It's one of those difficult political issues, because there are commercial interests against it, and the government has to look at it in relation to tax. A tobacco-free country sounds pretty straightforward and simple, but there are some complex issues involved."
No date has been set for a vote, which could be two years away. Niue, 1,375 miles north-east of Auckland and 312 miles from Tonga, its nearest neighbour, is a former British protectorate. Britain gave it to New Zealand as a reward for the latter's contribution to the Anglo-Boer War, but since 1974 it has been independent "in free association" with Wellington.
Those who live on the island, 100 miles square, regard it as a South Pacific paradise. Beaches are heavenly, crime is non-existent, and the plentiful seafood includes crabs so large that people walk them on leashes. The locals serenade each other on guitars while watching tropical sunsets.
Niue's problem is that, despite all that, everyone is leaving. The population is in steep decline, and some believe it has dropped below a sustainable level.
When Niue was granted independence, its people were given New Zealand citizenship and the chance to emigrate – an offer that now threatens Niue's survival. There are 20,000 Niueans in New Zealand, and those left behind intermittently debate whether the island should rejoin its former colonial ruler.
Successive governments have failed to lure expatriate Niueans home. The island's isolation and lack of resources make for a fragile economy and Niue is heavily dependent on New Zealand aid and foreign remittances. Its main export is taro, a root vegetable. The capital, Alofi, has two shops.
If Niue becomes smoke-free, it may lose another 250 residents. New Zealand's anti-smoking laws are not quite so draconian.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Kyoto prof creates bird flu antibodies from ostrich egg
A Kyoto university professor has developed a technique to create a large amount of antibodies for avian influenza using an ostrich egg, it has been learned. According to Prof. Yasuhiro Tsukamoto of Kyoto Prefectural University, the technique, which can create enough antibodies from one egg to treat 80,000 surgical masks, will be useful in preparing for a possible outbreak of a new strain of bird flu. The professor and others have started making masks treated with the antibodies to be sold from this autumn. A bird's immune system stores antibodies from its blood in eggs to protect their chicks. Tsukamoto had noted that ostriches have a strong resistance to viruses and that their eggs are 25 to 30 times heavier than those of chickens. His team developed the technique to create large quantities of antibodies that counter bird flu and human flu viruses. Test drugs for 20,000 people can be obtained from antibodies created from one egg. Another benefit is that ostriches can bear eggs for about 40 years, making it possible to stably provide antibodies of the same quality for an extended period of time, Tsukamoto said.
'Mind's Eye' Influences Visual Perception
Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagerywhat we see with the "mind's eye"directly impacts our visual perception."We found that imagery leads to a short-term memory trace that can bias future perception," says Joel Pearson, research associate in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychology. and lead author of the study. "This is the first research to definitively show that imagining something changes vision both while you are imagining it and later on.""These findings are important because they suggest a potential mechanism by which top-down expectations or recollections of previous experiences might shape perception itself," Pearson and his co-authors write.It is well known that a powerful perceptual experience can change the way a person sees things later. Just think of what can happen if you discover an unwanted pest in your kitchen, such as a mouse. Suddenly you see mice in every dust ball and dark corneror think you do. Is it possible that imagining something, just once, might also change how you perceive things?"You might think you need to imagine something 10 times or 100 times before it has an impact," says Frank Tong, associate professor of psychology and co-author of the study. "Our results show that even a single instance of imagery can tilt how you see the world one way or another, dramatically, if the conditions are right."To test how imagery affects perception, Pearson, Tong and co-author Colin Clifford of the University of Sydney had subjects imagine simple patterns of vertical or horizontal stripes, which are strongly represented in the primary visual areas of the brain. They then presented a green horizontal grated pattern to one eye and a red vertical grated pattern to the other to induce what is called binocular rivalry. During binocular rivalry, an individual will often alternately perceive each stimulus, with the images appearing to switch back and forth before their eyes. The subjects generally reported they had seen the image they had been imagining, proving the researcher's hypothesis that imagery would influence the binocular rivalry battle.Additional experiments found that the effect of imagery on perception was approximately the same as showing the research subject a faint representation of one of the patterns between trials. Stronger shifts in perception were found if subjects either viewed or imagined a particular pattern for longer periods of time. They found that both imagery and perception can lead to a build-up of a "perceptual trace" that influences subsequent perception.Pearson, Clifford and Tong also discovered that changing the orientation of the image from what had been imagined greatly reduced the impact of imagery on perception. Because orientation is processed in early visual areas, this suggests that imagery's interaction with perception may occur at early stages of visual processing.The new findings offer an objective tool to assess the often-slippery concept of imagination."It has been very hard to pin down in the laboratory what exactly someone is experiencing when it comes to imagery, because it is so subjective," Tong says. "We found that the imagery effect, while found in all of our subjects, could differ a lot in strength across subjects. So this might give us a metric to measure the strength of mental imagery in individuals and how that imagery may influence perception."The findings may also help settle a longstanding debate in the research community over whether mental imagery is visualthat one imagines something just as one sees itor more abstract."More recently, with advances in human brain imaging, we now know that when you imagine something parts of the visual brain do light up and you see activity there," Pearson says. "So there's more and more evidence suggesting that there is a huge overlap between mental imagery and seeing the same thing. Our work shows that not only are imagery and vision related, but imagery directly influences what we see."The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant and an Australia National Health and Mental Research Council Martin Fellowship. Pearson is a member of the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center. Tong is a member of the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center and the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Journal reference:
Pearson et al. The Functional Impact of Mental Imagery on Conscious Perception. Current Biology, 2008; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.05.048 Adapted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University. A graphic depiction of the sequence of events in the experiment from top left to bottom right. First, a person looks at a blank screen and imagines a green pattern. Next, she puts on the red-green glasses and looks at a screen with two superimposed patterns: one green and one red. The green pattern is visible to one eye and the red image is visible to the other eye. The longer she has spent imagining the green pattern, the more likely it is that she will see the green pattern, demonstrating that what people imagine can influence what they see later in time. (Credit: Joel Pearson)
Journal reference:
Pearson et al. The Functional Impact of Mental Imagery on Conscious Perception. Current Biology, 2008; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.05.048 Adapted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University. A graphic depiction of the sequence of events in the experiment from top left to bottom right. First, a person looks at a blank screen and imagines a green pattern. Next, she puts on the red-green glasses and looks at a screen with two superimposed patterns: one green and one red. The green pattern is visible to one eye and the red image is visible to the other eye. The longer she has spent imagining the green pattern, the more likely it is that she will see the green pattern, demonstrating that what people imagine can influence what they see later in time. (Credit: Joel Pearson)
Was Jesus' Resurrection a Sequel?
When David Jeselsohn, a Swiss-Israeli collector, bought this ancient tablet from a Jordanian antiquities dealer, he was unaware of its significance
Dominic Buettner / The New York Times / Redux
A 3-ft.-high tablet romantically dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation" could challenge the uniqueness of the idea of the Christian Resurrection. The tablet appears to date authentically to the years just before the birth of Jesus and yet — at least according to one Israeli scholar — it announces the raising of a messiah after three days in the grave. If true, this could mean that Jesus' followers had access to a well-established paradigm when they decreed that Christ himself rose on the third day — and it might even hint that they they could have applied it in their grief after their master was crucified. However, such a contentious reading of the 87-line tablet depends on creative interpretation of a smudged passage, making it the latest entry in the woulda/coulda/shoulda category of possible New Testament artifacts; they are useful to prove less-spectacular points and to stir discussion on the big ones, but probably not to settle them nor shake anyone's faith.
The ink-on-stone document, which is owned by a Swiss-Israeli antiques collector and reportedly came to light about a decade ago, has been dated by manuscript and chemical experts to a period just before Jesus' birth. Some scholars think it may originally have been part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a trove of religious texts found in caves on the West Bank that were possibly associated with John the Baptist. The tablet is written in the form of an end-of-the-world prediction in the voice of the angel Gabriel; one line, for instance, predicts that "in three days you will know evil will be defeated by justice."
Such "apocalypses," often featuring a triumphant military figure called a messiah (literally, anointed one), were not uncommon in the religious and politically tumultuous Jewish world of 1st century B.C. Palestine. But what may make the Gabriel tablet unique is its 80th line, which begins with the words "In three days" and includes some form of the verb "to live." Israel Knohl, an expert in Talmudic and biblical language at Jerusalem's Hebrew University who was not involved in the first research on the artifact, claims that it refers to a historic 1st-century Jewish rebel named Simon who was killed by the Romans in 4 B.C., and should read "In three days, you shall live. I Gabriel command you." If so, Jesus-era Judaism had begun to explore the idea of a three-day resurrection before Jesus was born.
This, in turn, undermines one of the strongest literary arguments employed by Christians over centuries to support the historicity of the Resurrection (in which they believe on faith): the specificity and novelty of the idea that the Messiah would die on a Friday and rise on a Sunday. Who could make such stuff up? But, as Knohl told TIME, maybe the Christians had a model to work from. The idea of a "dying and rising messiah appears in some Jewish texts, but until now, everyone thought that was the impact of Christianity on Judaism," he says. "But for the first time, we have proof that it was the other way around. The concept was there before Jesus." If so, he goes on, "this should shake our basic view of Christianity. ... What happens in the New Testament [could have been] adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."
Not so fast, say some Christian academics. "It is certainly not perfectly clear that the tablet is talking about a crucified and risen savior figure called Simon," says Ben Witherington, an early-Christianity expert at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. The verb that Knohl translates as "rise!," Witherington says, could also mean "there arose," and so one can ask "does it mean 'he comes to life,' i.e., a resurrection, or that he just 'shows up?' " Witherington also points out that gospel texts are far less reliant on the observed fact of the Resurrection (there is no angelic command in them like the line in the Gabriel stone) than on the testimony of eyewitnesses to Jesus' post-Resurrection self. Finally, Witherington notes that if he is wrong and Knohl's reading is right, it at least sets to rest the notion that the various gospel quotes attributed to Christ foreshadowing his death and Resurrection were textual retrojections put in his mouth by later believers — Jesus the Messianic Jew, as Knohl sees him, would have been familiar with the vocabulary for his own fate.
Knohl stands by his reading. "The spelling and the phrasing is unique," he told TIME, "but it is similar to to other texts found around the Dead Sea." Yet for now, at least, Gabriel's Revelation must take its place among a slew of recently discovered or rediscovered objects from around the time of Jesus that are claimed to either support or undermine Scripture but are themselves sufficiently, logically or archaeologically compromised to prevent their being definitive. In 2002, a bone-storage box with the legend "James Son of Joseph Brother of Jesus" bobbed up that seemed to buttress Jesus' historicity while at the same time suggest that the Catholic teaching that he had no true brothers was false — but the Israeli Antiquities Authority declared the inscription as a forgery (although various experts continue to disagree). In 2007 the Discovery Channel aired a documentary (funded by Titanic director James Cameron) that purported to have located the "Jesus Family Tomb" in the Israeli suburb of Talpiot, with bone boxes with the names "Jesus Son of Joseph," "Mary" and one of the names of Mary Magdalene. If the ossuaries were for the gospel Jesus, his mother and Mary Magdalene, then the implications for Christianity would be dire; but despite considerable initial hoopla, the idea is regarded by many as speculation.
It remains to be seen whether Gabriel's Revelation, and especially Knohl's interpretation, will weather the hot lights of fame. Even the authors of its initial research seem a little dubious about his claims that it is a dry run for the Easter story. But, as often happens in such cases, they seem better disposed to a slightly toned-down assertion: in this case, that the Gabriel tablet does indicate a very rare instance of the idea that a messiah might suffer — a notion introduced in Judaic thought centuries before by the prophet Isaiah but which supposedly went out of style by Jesus' time. If that more modest theory gains traction, it will forge a link between a trend in first-century Judaism and one of Christianity's galvanizing thoughts — that God might throw in his lot with a suffering or even murdered man — that could contribute to a growing mutual understanding.
Dominic Buettner / The New York Times / Redux
A 3-ft.-high tablet romantically dubbed "Gabriel's Revelation" could challenge the uniqueness of the idea of the Christian Resurrection. The tablet appears to date authentically to the years just before the birth of Jesus and yet — at least according to one Israeli scholar — it announces the raising of a messiah after three days in the grave. If true, this could mean that Jesus' followers had access to a well-established paradigm when they decreed that Christ himself rose on the third day — and it might even hint that they they could have applied it in their grief after their master was crucified. However, such a contentious reading of the 87-line tablet depends on creative interpretation of a smudged passage, making it the latest entry in the woulda/coulda/shoulda category of possible New Testament artifacts; they are useful to prove less-spectacular points and to stir discussion on the big ones, but probably not to settle them nor shake anyone's faith.
The ink-on-stone document, which is owned by a Swiss-Israeli antiques collector and reportedly came to light about a decade ago, has been dated by manuscript and chemical experts to a period just before Jesus' birth. Some scholars think it may originally have been part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a trove of religious texts found in caves on the West Bank that were possibly associated with John the Baptist. The tablet is written in the form of an end-of-the-world prediction in the voice of the angel Gabriel; one line, for instance, predicts that "in three days you will know evil will be defeated by justice."
Such "apocalypses," often featuring a triumphant military figure called a messiah (literally, anointed one), were not uncommon in the religious and politically tumultuous Jewish world of 1st century B.C. Palestine. But what may make the Gabriel tablet unique is its 80th line, which begins with the words "In three days" and includes some form of the verb "to live." Israel Knohl, an expert in Talmudic and biblical language at Jerusalem's Hebrew University who was not involved in the first research on the artifact, claims that it refers to a historic 1st-century Jewish rebel named Simon who was killed by the Romans in 4 B.C., and should read "In three days, you shall live. I Gabriel command you." If so, Jesus-era Judaism had begun to explore the idea of a three-day resurrection before Jesus was born.
This, in turn, undermines one of the strongest literary arguments employed by Christians over centuries to support the historicity of the Resurrection (in which they believe on faith): the specificity and novelty of the idea that the Messiah would die on a Friday and rise on a Sunday. Who could make such stuff up? But, as Knohl told TIME, maybe the Christians had a model to work from. The idea of a "dying and rising messiah appears in some Jewish texts, but until now, everyone thought that was the impact of Christianity on Judaism," he says. "But for the first time, we have proof that it was the other way around. The concept was there before Jesus." If so, he goes on, "this should shake our basic view of Christianity. ... What happens in the New Testament [could have been] adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."
Not so fast, say some Christian academics. "It is certainly not perfectly clear that the tablet is talking about a crucified and risen savior figure called Simon," says Ben Witherington, an early-Christianity expert at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. The verb that Knohl translates as "rise!," Witherington says, could also mean "there arose," and so one can ask "does it mean 'he comes to life,' i.e., a resurrection, or that he just 'shows up?' " Witherington also points out that gospel texts are far less reliant on the observed fact of the Resurrection (there is no angelic command in them like the line in the Gabriel stone) than on the testimony of eyewitnesses to Jesus' post-Resurrection self. Finally, Witherington notes that if he is wrong and Knohl's reading is right, it at least sets to rest the notion that the various gospel quotes attributed to Christ foreshadowing his death and Resurrection were textual retrojections put in his mouth by later believers — Jesus the Messianic Jew, as Knohl sees him, would have been familiar with the vocabulary for his own fate.
Knohl stands by his reading. "The spelling and the phrasing is unique," he told TIME, "but it is similar to to other texts found around the Dead Sea." Yet for now, at least, Gabriel's Revelation must take its place among a slew of recently discovered or rediscovered objects from around the time of Jesus that are claimed to either support or undermine Scripture but are themselves sufficiently, logically or archaeologically compromised to prevent their being definitive. In 2002, a bone-storage box with the legend "James Son of Joseph Brother of Jesus" bobbed up that seemed to buttress Jesus' historicity while at the same time suggest that the Catholic teaching that he had no true brothers was false — but the Israeli Antiquities Authority declared the inscription as a forgery (although various experts continue to disagree). In 2007 the Discovery Channel aired a documentary (funded by Titanic director James Cameron) that purported to have located the "Jesus Family Tomb" in the Israeli suburb of Talpiot, with bone boxes with the names "Jesus Son of Joseph," "Mary" and one of the names of Mary Magdalene. If the ossuaries were for the gospel Jesus, his mother and Mary Magdalene, then the implications for Christianity would be dire; but despite considerable initial hoopla, the idea is regarded by many as speculation.
It remains to be seen whether Gabriel's Revelation, and especially Knohl's interpretation, will weather the hot lights of fame. Even the authors of its initial research seem a little dubious about his claims that it is a dry run for the Easter story. But, as often happens in such cases, they seem better disposed to a slightly toned-down assertion: in this case, that the Gabriel tablet does indicate a very rare instance of the idea that a messiah might suffer — a notion introduced in Judaic thought centuries before by the prophet Isaiah but which supposedly went out of style by Jesus' time. If that more modest theory gains traction, it will forge a link between a trend in first-century Judaism and one of Christianity's galvanizing thoughts — that God might throw in his lot with a suffering or even murdered man — that could contribute to a growing mutual understanding.
Study: Gays in military don't hurt ability to fight
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress should repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" law because the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win, according to a new study released by a California-based research center.
Protests in 2007 against a high ranking military official's comments that being gay is "immoral."
The study was conducted by four retired military officers, including the three-star Air Force lieutenant general who in early 1993 was tasked with implementing President Clinton's policy that the military stop questioning recruits on their sexual orientation.
"Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion," the officers states.
To support its contention, the panel points to the British and Israeli militaries, where it says gay people serve openly without hurting the effectiveness of combat operations.
Undermining unit cohesion was a determining factor when Congress passed the 1993 law, intended to keep the military from asking recruits their sexual orientation. In turn, service members can't say they are gay or bisexual, engage in homosexual activity or marry a member of the same sex.
Supporters of the ban contend there is still no empirical evidence that allowing gays to serve openly won't hurt combat effectiveness.
"The issue is trust and confidence" among members of a unit, said Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, who retired in 1993 after working on the issue for the Army. When some people with a different sexual orientation are "in a close combat environment, it results in a lack of trust," he said.
The study was sponsored by the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which said it picked the panel members to portray a bipartisan representation of the different service branches.
According to its Web site, the Palm Center "is committed to keeping researchers, journalists and the general public informed of the latest developments in the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy debate."
Two of the officers on the panel have endorsed Democratic candidates since leaving the military -- Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, who supports Barack Obama, and Marine Corps Gen. Hugh Aitken, who backed Clinton in 1996.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Minter Alexander, a Republican, was assigned in 1993 to a high-level panel established by the Defense Department to examine the issue of gays in the military. At one point, he signed an order that prohibited the military from asking a recruit's sexual orientation.
Alexander said at the time he was simply trying to carry out the president's orders and not take a position. But he now believes the law should be repealed because it assumes the existence of gays in the military is disruptive to units even though cultural attitudes are changing.
Further, the Defense Department and not Congress should be in charge of regulating sexual misconduct within the military, he said.
"Who else can better judge whether it's a threat to good order and discipline?" Alexander asked.
Navy Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan said he had no opinion on the issue when he joined the panel, having never confronted it in his 35-year military career. A self-described Republican who opposes the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war, Shanahan said he was struck by the loss of personal integrity required by individuals to carry out "don't ask, don't tell."
"Everyone was living a big lie -- the homosexuals were trying to hide their sexual orientation and the commanders were looking the other way because they didn't want to disrupt operations by trying to enforce the law," he said.
Protests in 2007 against a high ranking military official's comments that being gay is "immoral."
The study was conducted by four retired military officers, including the three-star Air Force lieutenant general who in early 1993 was tasked with implementing President Clinton's policy that the military stop questioning recruits on their sexual orientation.
"Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion," the officers states.
To support its contention, the panel points to the British and Israeli militaries, where it says gay people serve openly without hurting the effectiveness of combat operations.
Undermining unit cohesion was a determining factor when Congress passed the 1993 law, intended to keep the military from asking recruits their sexual orientation. In turn, service members can't say they are gay or bisexual, engage in homosexual activity or marry a member of the same sex.
Supporters of the ban contend there is still no empirical evidence that allowing gays to serve openly won't hurt combat effectiveness.
"The issue is trust and confidence" among members of a unit, said Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, who retired in 1993 after working on the issue for the Army. When some people with a different sexual orientation are "in a close combat environment, it results in a lack of trust," he said.
The study was sponsored by the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which said it picked the panel members to portray a bipartisan representation of the different service branches.
According to its Web site, the Palm Center "is committed to keeping researchers, journalists and the general public informed of the latest developments in the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy debate."
Two of the officers on the panel have endorsed Democratic candidates since leaving the military -- Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, who supports Barack Obama, and Marine Corps Gen. Hugh Aitken, who backed Clinton in 1996.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Minter Alexander, a Republican, was assigned in 1993 to a high-level panel established by the Defense Department to examine the issue of gays in the military. At one point, he signed an order that prohibited the military from asking a recruit's sexual orientation.
Alexander said at the time he was simply trying to carry out the president's orders and not take a position. But he now believes the law should be repealed because it assumes the existence of gays in the military is disruptive to units even though cultural attitudes are changing.
Further, the Defense Department and not Congress should be in charge of regulating sexual misconduct within the military, he said.
"Who else can better judge whether it's a threat to good order and discipline?" Alexander asked.
Navy Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan said he had no opinion on the issue when he joined the panel, having never confronted it in his 35-year military career. A self-described Republican who opposes the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war, Shanahan said he was struck by the loss of personal integrity required by individuals to carry out "don't ask, don't tell."
"Everyone was living a big lie -- the homosexuals were trying to hide their sexual orientation and the commanders were looking the other way because they didn't want to disrupt operations by trying to enforce the law," he said.
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