Clipmarks | tabsey's clips

Greenpeace uncover 'hidden trade in whale meat'

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:53:12 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: So iy was true about the whale burgers.

Greenpeace says it has uncovered a hidden trade in whale meat from Japan's Antarctic hunt.

On their return to Japan from the Antarctic last month, crew from the factory ship Nisshin Maru were documented by Greenpeace activists taking away boxes of salted whale meat for selling in apparent violation of the country's "research" permit.

A crew member of the Nisshin Maru factory ship interviewed by Greenpeace said dozens of factory hands took salted meat for resale that were not included in official whaling statistics.

Greenpeace Japan's whales campaigner Junichi Sato said the scale of the trade was so well organised that the ship's operators, the Government-backed Institute of Cetacean Research, had to know that it was occurring.

"They are turning their back on large-scale corruption and theft of taxpayers' money," Mr Sato said. "What we need to know now, through a full public inquiry, is who else is profiting from the whaling programme? Who else has allowed this fraud to continue?"

Tags: murdering, wasteful, corrupt

Gecko in chicken egg may be salmonella breakthrough

Thu, 15 May 2008 12:29:25 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Which came first - the chicken, the egg or the gecko?

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

How this gecko found its way into this egg remains a mystery. (Jack Kerr)

The Northern Territory president of the Australian Medical Association says he may have accidentally discovered how the potentially deadly salmonella bacteria gets inside chicken eggs.

Dr Peter Beaumont was cooking when he discovered a dead gecko between the inner shell and the membrane of a chicken egg he cracked open.

He believes the discovery is a world first and has handed the egg shell over to health authorities who will look for the presence of bacteria in the yolk and try to work out how the gecko got into the egg.

Dr Beaumont says he suspects the gecko entered the chicken before it entered the egg.

"Eggs are made inside chooks up this tube from their bottom.

"Now obviously this tube is in contact with the whole outside world.

"It has to be that the gecko climbed up inside the chook and died up there while the egg was being formed before the shell was put on it."

Tags: nature

Undergraduates develop 'dirt-powered' microbial fuel cells to light Africa

Thu, 15 May 2008 12:10:48 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Great story - worth a visit to the site to read.

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – May 14, 2008 – A team composed of Harvard students and alumni was among the winners of the World Bank’s Lighting Africa 2008 Development Marketplace competition, held in Accra, Ghana from May 6 to 8, 2008. The innovation, microbial fuel cell-based lighting systems suitable for Sub-Saharan Africa, netted the group a $200,000 prize.

According to the World Bank, as only 26 percent of Africa’s population has access to grid-based electricity most residents rely upon dangerous kerosene lamps and candles for illumination. To encourage the development of cheaper and safer lighting technologies, the organizers of Lighting Africa 2008 sought practical solutions from around the world, ultimately funding 16 of the original 400 proposals.

Tags: science, ethics

Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope delivers the universe

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:13:00 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Looks great

Clip Source: www.astronomy.com

WorldWide Telescope immerses you in astronomical imagery. WWT [View Larger Image]

May 13,2008

Microsoft took the wraps off its much-anticipated WorldWide Telescope program today. This rich web application merges imagery from the world's best ground- and space-based observatories into a detailed desktop cosmos. The platform also gives scientists and educators a tool for teaching astronomy and the process of scientific discovery.

With WorldWide Telescope, users pan left, right, up, down, back, and forward seamlessly — down to the full resolution of the available data. Users can view the stars and planets at any time and date from any point on Earth, explore the sky in dozens of different wavelengths, zoom into images by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, or see Mars from the Opportunity rover's point of view.

Game meets universe

Tags: astronomy

2 men gas themselves to death in hotel, guests and workers forced to flee

Thu, 15 May 2008 08:49:34 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: I wonder what they had been eating.

Clip Source: mdn.mainichi.jp

FUNABASHI, Chiba -- Two men apparently gassed themselves to death by producing toxic hydrogen sulfide in a hotel room, forcing 16 other guests and employees to flee, police said.

At around 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday, an employee at the Sun White hotel in Funabashi called for an ambulance saying that a room where two guests were staying was giving off a smell like rotten eggs. Paramedics found the two men dead in the bathroom of the room.

Following the incident, a female employee of the hotel complained of a headache and received treatment.

Tags: true, story

The Da Vinci Tower - Video of The World's 1st Dynamic, Shape-Shifting Architecture

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:33:14 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Won't be the likes of me that will be able to get closer than a documentary.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The innovative Da Vinci Tower (also known as Dynamic Architecture Building), a proposed 68-story tower in Abu Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will have unique independently rotating floors, which will result in a constantly changing shape of the tower. Each floor will rotate a maximum of one full rotation in 90 minutes.

The entire tower will be powered from turbines and solar panels, and five other buildings in the vicinity will also be provided with electricity. The turbines will be located between each of the rotating floors.They will generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy from the movement of the floors, and the solar panels will be located on the roof. Construction of the Da Vinci Tower is expected to be completed in 2009. The video is about 7 minutes.

Da Vinci Tower Video

Tags: architecture

How does gene therapy work?

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:27:57 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Interesting.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Gene therapy is the addition of new genes to a patient's cells to replace missing or malfunctioning genes. Researchers typically do this using a virus to carry the genetic cargo into cells, because that’s what viruses evolved to do with their own genetic material.

The treatment, which was first tested in humans in 1990, can be performed inside or outside of the body. When it’s done inside the body, doctors may inject the virus carrying the gene in question directly into the part of the body that has defective cells. This is useful when only certain populations of cells need to be “fixed.” For example, researchers are using it to try to treat Parkinson's disease, because only part of the brain must be targeted. This approach is also being used to treat eye diseases and hemophilia, an inherited disease that leads to a high risk for excess bleeding, even from minor cuts.

Tags: science

Can HGH Reverse Brain Damage in Drug Addicts?

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:22:33 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Couldn't clip all the relevant stuff. More at the website.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Abuse of opiates such as heroin, methadone and morphine destroy brain cells, reducing attention span and memory. But new research shows there may be a way to regain some lost patience and recall.

Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that brain cells targeted for early death by continued opiate use may be salvaged by injections of synthetic human growth hormone (HGH). HGH is a chemical naturally secreted by the pituitary gland at the base of the brain that stimulates cell growth and reproduction. The scientists say their findings open the door to new ways to treat and prevent damage from abuse of opiates in addicts as well as patients undergoing chronic pain management.

Tags: drugs, hgh

Architecture For Fundamental Processes Of Life Discovered

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:18:15 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The pic is of Yeast cells (Sacharomyces cerevisiae) seen using DIC microscopy.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (May 14, 2008) — A team of Canadian researchers has completed a massive survey of the network of protein complexes that orchestrate the fundamental processes of life. In the online edition of the journal Science, researchers from the Université de Montréal describe protein complexes and networks of complexes never before observed -- including two implicated in the normal mechanisms by which cells divide and proliferate and another that controls recycling of the molecular building blocks of life called autophagy.

These processes are implicated in diseases such as cancers and autophagy has recently been shown to be involved in degenerative neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. The discovery will fill gaps in basic knowledge about the workings and evolutionary origins of the living cell and provide new avenues to explore in linking these fundamental processes to human disease.

Tags: science

UK releases classified UFO files.

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:05:34 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Files on something that didn't exist.

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Eight UFO-related files have so far been made public - the four-year project will ultimately release 160 files

The UK is making decades' worth of classified files relating to UFOs freely available to the public.

On Monday, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) began a four-year-long project to transfer the files to the UK's National Archives, which will post them for public perusal. The announcement comes about one year after France made its UFO files available online.

The project is a response to massive public interest and numerous Freedom of Information (FOI) requests about UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects, that have been filed over the years. Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator at the MOD, called the release "a great day for open government and freedom of information".

When complete, the National Archive will contain some 160 UFO-related MOD files from the 1950s to 2007, representing the single largest release of records in the ministry's history.

Rejected abductee

Tags: aliens, want, to, grill, you, literally, cept, patriots

‘Billion Tree Campaign’ blossoms to seven times its size, UN agency says

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:16:28 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Opening paragraph wouldn't clip, so this is it. 13 May 2008 – A grassroots campaign to plant trees around the globe has announced that it is raising its target from 1 billion trees to 7 billion trees, the United Nations announced today.

Clip Source: www.un.org

Primary school pupils planting trees at a Wilderness Education Centre in Kenya

The campaign, which is under the patronage of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder Professor Wangari Maathai and Prince Albert II of Monaco, also announced today that in 18 months it has seen two billion trees planted, double its original target.

The campaign was launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in 2006 as a response to the threat of global warming.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said today: “Having exceeded every target that has been set for the campaign, we are now calling on individuals, communities, business and industry, civil society organizations and governments to evolve this initiative on to a new and even higher level by the crucial climate change conference in Copenhagen in late 2009.”

Tags: climate, control

Prisons for Profit

Wed, 14 May 2008 11:53:27 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: More at the source, with links, if you want to do a little research of the prison system in America.

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Should incarceration be incorporated?

Corporations are running many US prisons, but are they putting profits before prisoners? America passed a grim milestone this year: One in every one hundred Americans is now behind bars. This week, NOW on PBS investigates the government's trend to outsource prisons and prisoners to the private sector and examines the controversy it's causing. We travel to Colorado, where the debate over prison privatization is boiling over.

See the video RIGHT NOW at: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/index.html

Exclusively on NOW Online:

In Your State: Prison Costs

Use our interactive link below to find your state's prison population, how much corrections cost your state, and the ratio of corrections to higher education spending. http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/states-prisons.html

Tags: privatisation, is, supposed, to, save, money

Chemical used in plastic products a threat to babies

Wed, 14 May 2008 10:59:36 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Even babies bottles are made from plastic.

Clip Source: mdn.mainichi.jp

A potential hormone-damaging chemical used in plastic products could affect fetuses and newborn babies even though it meets safety standards, a study has found.

Researchers at the National Institute of Health Sciences have found the chemical substance -- bisphenol A -- could disrupt the central nerve system of fetuses and children, after they conducted experiments on rats.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is looking into consulting the Food Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office over the finding.

According to researchers at the institute, they administered different amounts of bisphenol A to five groups of mother rats every day since the sixth day of their conception until 20 days after they gave birth to baby rats.

They then compared the estradiol cycle of their offspring with their counterparts born from rats that were not administered with bisphenol A to see how the chemical substance affected baby rats through the placenta and breast milk of the mother rats.

Tags: medical, babies, are, lab, rats

How to Add a Video to YouTube

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:51:50 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: I bookmarked this as I have no idea. There may be a couple of others who haven't been taught formally.

Clip Source: computer.howstuffworks.com

Inside This Article

Introduction to How to Add a Video to YouTube

Broadcasting Yourself on YouTube

Let's say you want to make a music video for your band. After coming up with a great concept, shooting all the angles with a digital camcorder, "logging and capturing," or importing, the footage onto a computer and painstakingly editing the video, you're ready to share your vision with the YouTube community. Where do you begin?

Look! Even the Queen of England's added her own videos to YouTube!

Tags: computer.

The Five Heaviest Buildings Ever Moved

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:32:15 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Inside This Article
1.
Introduction to The Top Five Heaviest Buildings Ever Moved
2.
Building 5: The Shubert Theater (2,908 tons)
3.
Building 4: The Hotel Montgomery (4,816 tons)
4.
Building 3: Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (4,830 tons)
5.
Building 2: Newark International Airport Building 51 (7,400 tons)
6.
Building 1: Fu Gang Building (15,140 tons)
7.
Lots More Information
8.
See all Buildings & Structures articles

Clip Source: science.howstuffworks.com

Building 1: Fu Gang Building (15,140 tons)

When it comes to big moves, it's only a matter of time before a record is broken. The current record holder in the book of Guinness World Records for heaviest structure moved intact is a building in China. The Fu Gang building weighs in at 15,140 tons, or 33.3 million pounds. It had to be moved over about 118 feet (36 meters), and it took 11 days to move it [source: Guinness World Records]. As this writer doesn't speak Chinese and all of the research written on this building is in Chinese, it's difficult for her to tell you much else about this historic move. So let's just take a moment to appreciate again that the Chinese moved a building that weighed 15,140 tons. How long will it take to break the record? The big moves on this list show that it's only a matter of time and determination.

Tags: moving, house, got, nothing, on, these