Al Gore, UN Panel Share Nobel for Peace
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore, newly named co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said Friday he hopes the honor will "elevate global consciousness" about the challenges of global warming.
Gore, whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award earlier this year, was awarded the prize earlier in the day along with an international network of scientists for spreading awareness of man- made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.
Shortly after the announcement, he pledged to donate his share of the $1.5 million prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan nonprofit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion worldwide about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
And another thing...
Let's face it. Gore's interest in climate change is very personal. No global warming, less heat, less humidity. Less humidity and suddenly the chads don't hang. We think you can connect the dots of enlightened self interest from there.
Maybe we should let’em smoke
Study reveals stressed out 7-11 year-olds
Polly Curtis, education editor
Friday October 12, 2007
The Guardian
National tests for seven and 11-year-olds are putting children under stress and feeding into a "pervasive anxiety" about their lives and the world they are growing up in, according to an intimate portrait of primary school life published today.
Primary-aged children worry daily about global warming and terrorism as well as their friendships and passing the next exam, according to a report based on 700 in-depth interviews with children, their teachers and parents, which will feed into the biggest independent review of primary education in 40 years.
The findings echo a report from Unicef which this year placed Britain at the bottom of a league table charting the well-being of children across the developed world. This week a survey by the Howard League for Penal Reform revealed that 95% of 10 to 15-year-olds in the country have experienced crime at least once.
Today's Cambridge University report, Community Soundings, says national tests leave most children stressed and some middle class parents paying for a "parallel" education system employing tutors to get children through their exams even before the age of 11.
Some pupils said the tests were "scary" and made them nervous.
"These findings do build up to a sense that important changes are needed within the primary sector," said Robin Alexander, a fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and a former professor of education at Leeds and Warwick, who is heading the Primary Review. Today's research will feed into the review, which reports in a year's time and is expected to have a significant influence on education policy.
He said: "The surprise is that although we made considerable efforts to tap a wide range of opinions inside and outside of schools ... there was a large degree of consensus on what are the big issues."
Many adults questioned for the study voiced concerns over the influence of the media on children and pressures of consumerism while more suggested that they believed that there is a break down in family life and community.
"The responses reveal a pervasive anxiety about the current educational and social contexts ... and a deeper pessimism about the world in which today's children are growing up," the report says.
Pupils feared the world outside their school gate - those in urban areas were particularly worried about violent crime although parents' biggest fear for their children was traffic accidents.
Researchers found that pupils in schools which tackled the problems they worried about, such as those with eco-clubs and recycling schemes to teach children about environmental problems, were happier.
"Where schools had started engaging children with global and local realities as aspects of their education they were noticeably more upbeat. In several schools children were involved in environmental projects and the sense that 'we can do something about it' seemed to make all the difference," they write.
School staff told the researchers that some parents were not involved enough, while others were too "pushy" and demanding of their children academically. The General Teaching Council for England opposes national tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-olds, the results of which are published in league tables and scrutinised by parents when choosing a school. Wales has scrapped them. Ministers in England are adamant that they will remain.
Prof Alexander said the tests would be addressed in the review: "After what we've heard it would be perverse if we didn't do something on them," he said.
But he added: "Although there is a strong vein of concern that childhood used to be better it's important not to indulge in nostalgia for childhood, it has always been under stress in one way or the other and poverty was much more prevalent in the 1950s. Every generation has its nightmares and problems to contend with."
Success—it's a cruel mistress. Before you know it, little Jason and Jessica will be knockin' back lo-fat YooHoos, two at a time.
Welders might think this is good news
Welders At Risk For Loss Of Sense Of Smell
Science Daily — Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that professional welders who work in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation may be at risk for loss of sense of smell."This is the first study to clearly demonstrate that welders who work in confined spaces without adequate respiratory protection are at risk for damaging their sense of smell," says Richard Doty, PhD, Director, Smell & Taste Center, Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, and senior study author. "Although underappreciated, loss of smell function significantly alters quality of life. This important sense not only determines the flavors of foods and beverages, but serves as an early warning system for the detection of fire, dangerous fumes, leaking gas, spoiled foods, and polluted environments."
Using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) -- a self-administered standardized test incorporating 40 "scratch-and-sniff" odors with multiple choice options to identify the odor -- the researchers quantitatively evaluated the olfactory function of 43 professional welders who worked in confined spaces on the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, and compared their test scores with those of matched normal controls.
Dr. Doty and colleagues found that the mean UPSIT scores of the welders were, on average, seven points lower than those of their matched controls (29.62 and 36.90). Thirty eight (88%) performed more poorly than their controls, although only 3 (7%) had a total loss of their sense of smell. The percentages of those with mild, moderate, or severe loss of the sense of smell were 30.2, 18.6, and 16.3. The researchers report that interestingly, of the 42 subjects who provided information regarding their sense of smell before being tested, more than half were unaware of a problem.
Blood tests were administered to test for blood levels of chemicals found in welding fumes. The blood tests revealed that 40.5% of the welders had abnormally elevated levels of manganese (Mn). Although this suggests that the welders were exposed mainly to Mn, it is not entirely clear whether Mn is the basis of their olfactory problems. In fact, the welders with the highest Mn blood levels exhibited better olfactory function than those with the lowest Mn blood levels.
The welders also underwent a neuropsychological test battery. Dr. Doty notes, however, that, "The results of this study suggest that exposure to the fumes of welding can alter the ability to smell, and that changes in this important sensory system are not correlated with alterations in cognitive function, which also can be induced by toxins in welding fumes."
The researchers conclude that the basis of the smell loss among the welders is not entirely clear. They suggest that although the research shows that the welders had smell dysfunction in relation to the matched controls, additional groups, such as ones consisting of non-welder industrial workers, might be of value in better defining the causality.
Marcelo B. Antunes, Penn, and Rosemarie Bowler, San Francisco State University are co-authors on this study.
This study was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Disclosure: Dr. Doty is a major shareholder in Sensonics, Inc., the manufacturer of the olfactory test used in this study.
Let's see; small space, poor ventilation, a welding torch and I get to stand next to Mrs. Kajorski's son, Walter, all day. Nah, you hang on to that olfactory thing. Oh yeah, who paid for that research?
If they can sell this as a good thing, they can sell us anything
Benefits Of 80 Million Years Without Sex
Science Daily — Scientists have discovered how a microscopic organism has benefited from nearly 80 million years without sex.
Bdelloid rotifers are asexual organisms, meaning that they reproduce without males. Without sex, these animals lack many of the ways in which sexual animals adapt over generations to survive in their natural environment.
Although other asexual organisms are known, they are thought to become extinct after relatively short time periods because they are unable to adapt. Therefore, how bdelloid rotifers have survived for tens of millions of years has been a mystery to scientists.
Bdelloids typically live in freshwater pools. However, if deprived of water they enter a dehydrated state in which they can remain for many years, surviving almost complete water loss. They then revive, having suffered no ill effect, once water becomes available again.
The new research shows how Adineta ricciae, a species of bdelloid rotifer, has evolved without sex to cope with dry conditions. The research, led by Dr. Alan Tunnacliffe from the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, was published recently in the journal Science.
Humans and most other types of organisms reproduce sexually - resulting in two copies (or a pair) of each chromosome within a cell, one copy inherited from each parent. The chromosomes contain genes, so there are usually two copies of each gene in the cell. As a result, the two nearly identical copies of each gene in each cell will create two proteins which are also often nearly identical.
However, the researchers discovered that the two copies of the gene lea in Adineta ricciae are different and therefore generate proteins with different functions which protect the animal during dehydration. One copy protects essential proteins from clumping together as the animal dries out, while the other helps to maintain the fragile membranes that surround its cells.
This is the first time that this evolutionary trick has been shown in any asexual animal.
Dr. Alan Tunnacliffe commented on the findings: "We've known for a few years that gene copies that would have the same DNA sequence in sexual creatures can be quite different from each other in asexuals. But this is the first time we've been able to show that these gene copies in asexuals can have different functions.
"It's particularly exciting that we've found different, but complementary, functions in genes which help bdelloid rotifers survive desiccation. Evolution of gene function in this way can't happen in sexual organisms, which means there could be some benefit to millions of years without sex after all."
The research, funded by the The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and The Leverhulme Trust, was conducted as part of a collaboration with academics from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, as well as from France and Germany.
The paper “Functional divergence of former alleles in an ancient asexual invertebrate” can be found in the 12 October 2007 edition of Science.
Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by University of Cambridge.
They're mother says they're not asexual, just shy.
You’re going to need a real long cord
Power from space? Pentagon likes the idea
Frontline soldiers could use energy beamed from orbit, study says
By Alan Boyle
Science editor
MSNBC
A new Pentagon study lays out the roadmap for a multibillion-dollar push to the final frontier of energy: a satellite system that collects gigawatts’ worth of solar power and beams it down to Earth.
The military itself could become the “anchor tenant” for such a power source, due to the current high cost of fueling combat operations abroad, the study says.
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The 75-page report, released Wednesday, says new economic incentives would have to be put in place to “close the business case” for space-based solar power systems — but it suggests that the technology could be tested in orbit by as early as 2012.
"I think we have found the killer application that we have been looking for to tie everything together that we're doing in space," Air Force Col. Michael V. "Coyote" Smith, who initiated the study for the Defense Department's National Security Space Office, told msnbc.com on Thursday.
Space advocacy groups immediately seized on the idea and formed a new alliance to push the plan. But a representative of the solar-power industry was doubtful that space solar power would move from the realm of science fiction into reality anytime soon.
"You've got a lot of technology breakthroughs that you have to make," Mike Taylor, technical services manager for the Solar Electric Power Association, told msnbc.com.
Charles Miller, president of Space Policy Consulting as well as president and chief executive officer of Constellation Services International, said the key to the plan's success has more to do with economics than physics.
"The issue here is not technology, OK?" said Miller, who was a contributor to the study. "You could figure out how to do space solar power in the '70s. [But] you couldn't close the business case in the '70s. You couldn't close it in the '90s. How do you close the business case? That is the No. 1 question to be answered."
Economic equation is changing
The report — which was done on an unfunded basis and took advantage of online collaboration with outside contributors — notes that several factors have changed in the decade since NASA took its most recent in-depth look at the space power concept (PDF file). Today's best solar cells are about three times as efficient as they were in 1997, while crude-oil prices are roughly three times as high. And in the post-9/11 era, energy security has taken on far more importance.
"The technology has advanced vastly, and the security situation has changed quite a bit, as well as the economic situation," Marine Lt. Col. Paul Damphousse, who took over the study from Smith last month, told msnbc.com. "Those things warranted another look."
Those factors still don't make space solar power attractive for commercial users, but a better case could be made for the Defense Department. The U.S. military pays a premium for its power in the battlefield, when you consider the cost of shipping oil out of the Middle East, refining it, then shipping the fuel back to the combat zone and burning it in electrical generators, Miller said. All that brings the current power price tag to $1 or more per killowatt-hour, compared with 5 to 10 cents on the domestic market, the report says.
Even then, the economic equation still doesn't add up, due primarily to the high cost of launching payloads to orbit. But in the near future, the U.S. military could become a potential "anchor tenant customer" for space-generated power, the report says.
"The business case may close in the near future with appropriate technology investment and risk-reduction efforts by the U.S. government, and with appropriate financial incentives to industry," the report says.
Smith said the military would prefer to buy its power from a commercial space provider, rather than operating the system itself. "It is our goal to move this entire project out of DOD [the Department of Defense] as quickly as possible," he said. "Energy is not our business. We want to be a customer."
Isn't this how that Enron thing got out of hand?
Who knew you could crochet a shiv?
Oldest Female Inmate, 93, Ready To Leave Prison
Image
(WCCO) At 93, Lucille Keppen looks like a typical Minnesota grandma, but she is also a convicted felon who is believed to be the oldest female inmate in the country.
Keppen is almost done serving time for shooting a former friend in the back. It happened at a senior apartment building in Northeast Minneapolis five years ago.
Keppen will be free next Wednesday. She talked with WCCO-TV just days before her scheduled release from the women's prison in Shakopee.
"I can't believe I am going to be going out that door!" said Keppen, as she looked out a prison window and reflected on the next chapter of her "golden years."
When WCCO interviewed Keppen three years ago, Keppen said she feared she would never live long enough to leave prison before her sentence ended.
"It is going to be so nice to just be by myself -- eat when you're hungry and do things when you feel like it," she said.
Keppen has been in custody since she shot 61-year-old Stephen Flesche in the back in 2002, when she was 88-years-old. He conducted Bible studies and services at the senior high-rise in Northeast Minneapolis where the shooting occured.
Keppen and Flesche give conflicting accounts about what happened to their four-year friendship which eventually turned sour. Some people close to them described it as kind of a mother-son relationship. He drove her places and she bought him clothes and lent him money.
Flesche spent several days in the hospital with a punctured lung and Keppen went to jail.
Keppen shows little remorse for pulling the trigger on the .38-caliber gun she carried in her purse the day she fired one shot at Flesche in the lobby of their high-rise apartment building.
"Whatever made me do that I will never know," said Keppen.
"Do you regret what you did? Any regrets about shooting?" asked WCCO reporter Caroline Lowe.
"I have so much regret I ever had anything to do with him," said Keppen.
Keppen said she was surprised to learn how many fellow inmates have had been involved with drugs.
"I have been strip searched about 10 times," said Keppen.
The elderly widow said she is not proud to be the oldest female felon in the country.
"It boggles my mind. I think 'Oh my God, my husband -- what would he think of that?'"
She is proud to have obtained her high school diploma which she plans to frame.
Keppen is fond of the prison staff members whom she said treated her well. She expects she will miss them and many of the much younger inmates.
"They call me Grandma," she said. "That's what I am going to miss."
Keppen's own kids and husband are dead. She's still not sure where she will live after she walks out the prison door next Wednesday.
"My caseworker she says 'well, nobody seems to want you because you are a felon.' I said 'well, you make one mistake in your life and everybody considers you are a bad person,'" Keppen said.
She said that she won't miss the prison food and looks forward to her first meal on the outside.
"Bacon and eggs and a glass of good orange juice," Keppen said.
She also wants to take a ride on light rail to the Mall of America and catch a play at the new Guthrie Theater.
"I can't wait to get out that door ... I think I'm going to kiss the ground," she said.
Keppen's caseworker said arrangements have been made for Keppen to live in a new place when she's released. Because of privacy laws and safety concerns, she can't release any more specific information.
Keppen will no longer be allowed to have a gun since she is a convicted felon or have contact with the man she shot.
Stephen Flesche was surprised to learn from Caroline Lowe that Keppen is about to become a free woman.
He said he saw the "devil in her eyes" when she came at him with a gun five years ago when he was preparing for a prayer service. Flesche believes she wanted to hurt him because she felt hurt.
Flesche has a collapsed lung with a bullet still in it and other medical problems, but he said he also wants people to know he has forgiven her.
Must have been one hell of a church social. The rule here is never, ever criticize someone’s
pie crust in public.
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