After taking a second look at the tree of life, researchers are rethinking the asexuality of amoebas, considered the epitome of chastity. They now have evidence of amoeboid sex lives, suggesting the act didn't evolve, it has always been there.
Amoebas are blob-like creatures about a billion years old — the oldest members of the domain of life called the eukaryotes. This group is fundamentally different in appearance and various other features from the two other domains of life. Amoeba species are spread throughout this tree on every branch, interspersed with familiar lineages like animals and plants. They are known for how they move, slowly extending foot-like portions of their cell membranes.
"It changes how we interpret the evolution of organisms," study researcher Daniel Lahr, of the University of Massachusetts, told LiveScience. "If the last common ancestor of eukaryotes was sexual, then there is in practice no evolution of sex."
By taking a sweeping look at what we know about them by searching through the scientific literature, the researchers say those amoebas are more sexually active than we think.
"When discussing the sex of amoeboid protists, the existing evidence does not evoke chastity but rather Kama Sutra," Lahr writes in the paper, published in the March 23 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. ...
Amoeba sex might have been missed because when grown in the lab, many of them don't show any signs of engaging in sex — they have the ability to reproduce themselves by cloning, or copying themselves, indefinitely. And when they did show signs of sex, researchers may have mistaken it for a rare exception to the no-sex rule. ...
via Amoebas: Sexier than anyone knew - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The secret sex life of the Amoeba
Doctor jailed for removing organs while using lemon juice antiseptic
A doctor who used lemon juice to disinfect his patients’ operation wounds and removed healthy organs was sentenced to four years in a minimum security facility followed by a four-year ban on practising medicine, a Mönchengladbach court said Monday.In one of the more notorious medical scandals in recent years, the court pronounced the 54-year-old owner and head doctor of a private clinic guilty guilty on two counts of negligent homicide and 21 counts of bodily harm.
Arnold Pier, who confessed to his crimes after one-and-a-half years at trial, “removed organs that should not have been removed,” head Judge Lothar Beckers said.
He surgically removed appendixes, a gallbladder and a kidney without medical cause or permission from patients, the court said. In another case a woman died because he broke off treatment, while another was subjected to unnecessary chemotherapy.
Another incident involved a man who had accidentally sawed his thumbs off. Instead of immediately sending the patient to a specialist, Pier simply sewed his thumbs back on, an action an expert described for the court as “waiting on a wonder.”
The thumbs rotted and had to be amputated.
“How he imagined he could simply sew the thumbs back on is hard to grasp,” Beckers said.
A total of four patients did not survive his treatment, which the court said was akin to “flying blind.”
In 2006 Pier purchased the bankrupt Antonius Klinik in Wegberg for €25,000 with the intention of restructuring operations there. But Pier did not know his limits and overestimated his abilities, the court said, assuring victims and their families that chances he would ever practice medicine again were slim.
via Doctor jailed for removing organs while using lemon juice antiseptic - The Local.
Doctor jailed for removing organs while using lemon juice antiseptic - The Local
Arnold Pier, who confessed to his crimes after one-and-a-half years at trial, “removed organs that should not have been removed,” head Judge Lothar Beckers said.
He surgically removed appendixes, a gallbladder and a kidney without medical cause or permission from patients, the court said. In another case a woman died because he broke off treatment, while another was subjected to unnecessary chemotherapy.
Another incident involved a man who had accidentally sawed his thumbs off. Instead of immediately sending the patient to a specialist, Pier simply sewed his thumbs back on, an action an expert described for the court as “waiting on a wonder.”
The thumbs rotted and had to be amputated.
“How he imagined he could simply sew the thumbs back on is hard to grasp,” Beckers said.
A total of four patients did not survive his treatment, which the court said was akin to “flying blind.”
In 2006 Pier purchased the bankrupt Antonius Klinik in Wegberg for €25,000 with the intention of restructuring operations there. But Pier did not know his limits and overestimated his abilities, the court said, assuring victims and their families that chances he would ever practice medicine again were slim.
via Doctor jailed for removing organs while using lemon juice antiseptic - The Local.
Girl finds boa constrictor in toilet
A seven-year-old girl was shocked to find a sizeable boa constrictor staring up at her from the toilet over the weekend, police in Hannover said. The “fugitive” reptile escaped before authorities could capture it.The girl discovered the snake in the toilet bowl when she lifted the lid on Saturday evening at her family’s apartment in the Linden-Süd district, spokesman Holger Hilgenberg said in a statement.
She informed her 39-year-old mother, who called police immediately, they said.
Officers photographed the reptile and consulted with animal rescue services at the fire department.
“But before the animal could be retrieved, it disappeared into the drain pipe, and a ‘search’ was fruitless,” Hilgenberg said.
According to the local veterinary school the snake was a boa constrictor, a non-venomous genus that poses no danger to humans.
“The reptile probably escaped from a terrarium.” Hilgenberg said, adding that the owner was still unknown.
via Girl finds boa constrictor in toilet - The Local.
Look before you sit.
Forger shows up in court with phony doctor note
A California woman facing nearly five years in prison for forging drug prescriptions showed up for sentencing with a phony doctor's note seeking a delay in the proceedings.
Michelle Elaine Astumian was free on $45,000 bail and pleaded no contest in January to felony counts of forgery and using a fraudulent check.
The 41-year-old woman arrived Monday for sentencing in a San Luis Obispo County courtroom and presented a note with a doctor's signature asking for a postponement.
Prosecutor Dave Pomeroy called the doctor, who said the note is a forgery.
The judge immediately ordered Astumian into custody and she collapsed to the floor. An ambulance took her to a hospital.
Pomeroy told the San Luis Obispo County Tribune that Astumian will be sentenced later, but he doesn't know when.
via Forger shows up in court with phony doctor note.
Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics
They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born.
A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.
A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.
A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.
That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin. ...
The books, or "codices", were apparently cast in lead, before being bound by lead rings.
Their leaves - which are mostly about the size of a credit card - contain text in Ancient Hebrew, most of which is in code.
If the relics are of early Christian origin rather than Jewish, then they are of huge significance.
One of the few people to see the collection is David Elkington, a scholar of ancient religious archaeology who is heading a British team trying to get the lead books safely into a Jordanian museum.
He says they could be "the major discovery of Christian history", adding: "It's a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church."
He believes the most telling evidence for an early Christian origin lies in the images decorating the covers of the books and some of the pages of those which have so far been opened.
Mr Elkington says the relics feature signs that early Christians would have interpreted as indicating Jesus, shown side-by-side with others they would have regarded as representing the presence of God. ...
tests by metallurgists on the badly corroded lead suggest that the books were not made recently.
The archaeology of early Christianity is particularly sparse.
Little is known of the movement after Jesus' crucifixion until the letters of Paul several decades later, and they illuminate the westward spread of Christianity outside the Jewish world.
Never has there been a discovery of relics on this scale from the early Christian movement, in its homeland and so early in its history.
via BBC News - Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics.
Harry Coover, creator of Super Glue, dies aged 94
The creator of Super Glue, Harry Coover, has died in Tennessee, aged 94.
Dr Coover, who died on Saturday, discovered the well-known adhesive by accident, while working for Eastman Kodak, his grandson Adam Paul said.
An assistant at the company noticed that two new refractometer prisms were glued firmly together by the substance.
Dr Coover and a colleague first realised the potential of the glue in 1951, according to the Super Glue Corporation website.
Cyanoacrylate, the chemical name for this glue, was actually discovered some years earlier.
During World War II researchers were looking for materials to make clear plastic gun sights. The website said researchers dismissed it for that purpose because it stuck to everything.
President Barack Obama awarded Dr Coover the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010.
Dr Coover became vice-president of the chemical division for development at Eastman Kodak, where the team he worked with achieved more than 460 patents. He gained a place on the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Ohio in 2004.
Dr Coover was born in Newark, Delaware, and gained a degree in chemistry from Hobart College in New York and a PhD from Cornell University.
via BBC News - Harry Coover, creator of Super Glue, dies aged 94.
Thanks for all the things you've helped fix over the years Mr. Coover, including Ella-Grace Honeyman's brain.
Teens warned of risks from 'vodka tampon' use
Police in the Baden-Württemburg city of Tuttlingen responded Tuesday to growing online chatter among teenagers that they could become intoxicated using the vodka tampons without having alcohol on their breath.
This is not true, police said, denying that it was an effective way to get drunk. They also warned girls that the alcohol could damage vaginal walls and increase the risk of infection. Boys have reportedly also been using tampons anally.
“I believe this is very dangerous,” head of a children’s clinic in Singen told southern German paper Südkurier last week. “For us this is a new thing.”
In early March a 14-year-old girl collapsed during a street festival in Konstanz, apparently highly intoxicated from using a vodka tampon, the paper reported.
Youth researchers have since found out that this form of alcohol abuse is trendy in the region.
But teens who believe they can hide the smell of alcohol consumption are wrong, experts told the paper.
The development shows a new dimension for alcohol abuse among teens, county social worker Axel Goßner told the Südkurier.
“Alcohol is no longer a stimulant, but a means to an end,” he said.
The trend arose among teens in the United States, where it is known as “slimming.” But it has reportedly caught on in Scandinavia and other places where alcohol is difficult for young people to acquire.
Some Facebook groups are even devoted to exchanging tips on the topic, complete with how-to videos and instructions. ...
via Teens warned of risks from 'vodka tampon' use - The Local.
You still get the brain damage this way. Save some time and money and just hit yourself repeatedly in the head with a rock.
People who have been drinking large amounts of alcohol for long periods of time run the risk of developing serious and persistent changes in the brain. Damage may be a result of the direct effects of alcohol on the brain or may result indirectly, from a poor general health status or from severe liver disease. - nih
Some evidence suggests that low to moderate alcohol consumption may speed up brain volume loss. -link
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Imaging the paintings under the paintings of the Old Masters
Gaze upon Rembrandt's The Night Watch, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, or one of the great Dutch master's famous self-portraits. Contemplate Caravaggio's Boy with a Basket of Fruit, Supper at Emmaus, or the famed Italian artist's Seven Works of Mercy. Admire Peter Paul Rubens' Prometheus Bound, Portrait of Władysław IV, or the Flemish baroque painter's The Exchange of Princesses.
Speaking at the 241st National meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, an international team of scientists today described use of a new technique to see the paintings under the paintings of Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Rubens, and other 17th Century Old Master painters. The report by scientists in Belgium, The Netherlands and the United States was among almost two dozen studies presented as part of a symposium on chemistry and art titled "Partnerships and New Analytical Methodologies at the Interface of Chemistry and Art."
"The underpainting was the first and most important step in creating a work of art," explained lead scientist Matthias Alfeld, who is with the University of Antwerp in Belgium. "It was the sketch that guided the artist through the creative process. The Old Masters generally used to roughly indicate light, shade and contours. Observation of the underpainting would allow us to see the first execution of the artist's vision of the painting. It's a more detailed look over the shoulder of the artist at work. But the underpainting has virtually escaped all imaging efforts. So far, our methods to visualize the underpainting, except in localized cross sections, have been very limited."
Alfeld and colleagues described use of a powerful new technique called scanning macro X-ray fluorescence analysis that allows more detailed imaging of the composition of underpaintings. It is portable enough for use on-the-scene in museums and does not harm priceless artwork. The technology already has provided new insights into the nature of the paint that some Old Masters used in their underpainting.
An analysis of paintings from the workshops of Rembrandt and Caravaggio, for instance, led them to the conclusion that the Old Masters were more frugal than fussy about the paint used for the underpainting. The analysis suggested that this brown pigment mixture in underpaintings actually consisted of recycled leftovers from the artist scraping his palette clean.
"Using the new technique, we hope to disperse doubts about the authenticity of several paintings or to confirm that these paintings were not by the painter they have been attributed to," Alfeld said. "It is nice to show that the world of art can intersect with chemistry. Chemistry is such an all-encompassing science. Imagine, chemistry isn't just about molecules and reactions, but it also involves also the study of something as beautiful as great works of art." ...
via Imaging the paintings under the paintings of the Old Masters.
Cancer turns out to be a p53 protein aggregation disease
Protein aggregation, generally associated with Alzheimer’s and mad cow disease, turns out to play a significant role in cancer. In a paper published in Nature Chemical Biology, Frederic Rousseau and Joost Schymkowitz of VIB, K.U.Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel describe that certain mutations of p53, an important tumor suppressor, cause the protein to misfold in a way that the proteins start to aggregate. This not only disrupts the protective function of normal p53, but of other related proteins as well.
p53 plays a central role in protection against cancer
In the study, the focus was on the p53 protein which plays a key role in protecting the body against cancer. If p53 works normally, it controls cell division. If p53 control ceases - e.g. when there is a mutation in the protein - the cells start to divide in an uncontrolled manner and this may result in a tumor. Mutations in p53 are observed in about half of cancer cases, making the protein an important target in the development of new cancer therapies.
Mutated p53 aggregates
“We have revealed a new mechanism for the action of mutant p53,” Joost Schymkowitz and Frederic Rousseau of VIB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and K.U. Leuven say. “Mutations in p53 cause the protein to lose its protective function. The proteins change in shape, hook into each other and begin to aggregate. The active p53 disappears from the cell and can no longer carry out its control function properly." The mechanism has been encountered in about one third of p53 mutations.
Complete switch of character
Moreover, the mutations cause p53 to assume a completely different character. From being a protective factor, the mutated p53 changes into a substance which in fact speeds up tumor growth. It seems to form aggregates with control substances (p63 and p73) in the cell, causing them to lose their function as well. ...
via Cancer turns out to be a p53 protein aggregation disease.
Stanford researchers use river water and salty ocean water to generate electricity
Stanford researchers have developed a battery that takes advantage of the difference in salinity between freshwater and seawater to produce electricity.
Anywhere freshwater enters the sea, such as river mouths or estuaries, could be potential sites for a power plant using such a battery, said Yi Cui, associate professor of materials science and engineering, who led the research team.
The theoretical limiting factor, he said, is the amount of freshwater available. "We actually have an infinite amount of ocean water; unfortunately we don't have an infinite amount of freshwater," he said.
As an indicator of the battery's potential for producing power, Cui's team calculated that if all the world's rivers were put to use, their batteries could supply about 2 terawatts of electricity annually – that's roughly 13 percent of the world's current energy consumption.
The battery itself is simple, consisting of two electrodes – one positive, one negative – immersed in a liquid containing electrically charged particles, or ions. In water, the ions are sodium and chlorine, the components of ordinary table salt.
Initially, the battery is filled with freshwater and a small electric current is applied to charge it up. The freshwater is then drained and replaced with seawater. Because seawater is salty, containing 60 to 100 times more ions than freshwater, it increases the electrical potential, or voltage, between the two electrodes. That makes it possible to reap far more electricity than the amount used to charge the battery.
"The voltage really depends on the concentration of the sodium and chlorine ions you have," Cui said. "If you charge at low voltage in freshwater, then discharge at high voltage in sea water, that means you gain energy. You get more energy than you put in."
Once the discharge is complete, the seawater is drained and replaced with freshwater and the cycle can begin again. "The key thing here is that you need to exchange the electrolyte, the liquid in the battery," Cui said. He is lead author of a study published in the journal Nano Letters earlier this month.
In their lab experiments, Cui's team used seawater they collected from the Pacific Ocean off the California coast and freshwater from Donner Lake, high in the Sierra Nevada. They achieved 74 percent efficiency in converting the potential energy in the battery to electrical current, but Cui thinks with simple modifications, the battery could be 85 percent efficient.
To enhance efficiency, the positive electrode of the battery is made from nanorods of manganese dioxide. That increases the surface area available for interaction with the sodium ions by roughly 100 times compared with other materials. The nanorods make it possible for the sodium ions to move in and out of the electrode with ease, speeding up the process.
Other researchers have used the salinity contrast between freshwater and seawater to produce electricity, but those processes typically require ions to move through a membrane to generate current. Cui said those membranes tend to be fragile, which is a drawback. Those methods also typically make use of only one type of ion, while his battery uses both the sodium and chlorine ions to generate power.
Cui's team had the potential environmental impact of their battery in mind when they designed it. They chose manganese dioxide for the positive electrode in part because it is environmentally benign.
The group knows that river mouths and estuaries, while logical sites for their power plants, are environmentally sensitive areas.
"You would want to pick a site some distance away, miles away, from any critical habitat," Cui said. "We don't need to disturb the whole system, we just need to route some of the river water through our system before it reaches the ocean. We are just borrowing and returning it," he said.
The process itself should have little environmental impact. The discharge water would be a mixture of fresh and seawater, released into an area where the two waters are already mixing, at the natural temperature. ...
via Stanford researchers use river water and salty ocean water to generate electricity.
Women's body image based more on others' opinions than their own weight
Tracy Tylka - Women's appreciation of their bodies is only indirectly connected to their body mass index (BMI), a common health measure of weight relative to height, according to recent research.
The most powerful influence on women's appreciation of their bodies is how they believe important others view them, the study suggests. On the flip side, the more women are able to focus on the inner workings of their body – or how their bodies function and feel – rather than how they appear to others, the more they will appreciate their own bodies.
And the more a woman appreciates her body, the more likely she is to eat intuitively – responding to physical feelings of hunger and fullness rather than emotions or the mere presence of food.
"Women who focus more on how their bodies function and less on how they appear to others are going to have a healthier, more positive body image and a tendency to eat according to their bodies' needs rather than according to what society dictates," said Tracy Tylka, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University and senior author of the study.
Other studies have suggested that about 50 percent of women appreciate their bodies. This work is geared toward examining how they arrive at their satisfaction with their bodies, and how they avoid any pitfalls that might interfere with their positive thinking.
Ultimately, the researchers say, it boils down to respect. If women are going to treat their bodies well – through nourishment, health screenings and exercise, for example – they first have to like their bodies.
"And it turns out we look to whether others accept our bodies to determine whether we appreciate them ourselves," Tylka said. "It's not our weight, but instead whether others in our social network appreciate us. That implies that people should be convinced to be less judgmental and to focus less on weight."
Tylka performed the research with former Ohio State doctoral student Casey Augustus-Horvath, who is now at the Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology.
via Women's body image based more on others' opinions than their own weight.
Indiana prosecutor told Wisconsin governor to stage ‘false flag’ operation
An Indiana prosecutor and Republican activist has resigned after emails show he suggested Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stage a fake attack on himself to discredit unions protesting his budget repair bill.
The Republican governor signed a bill on March 11 that eliminates most union rights for public employees.
In an email from February 19, Indiana deputy prosecutor Carlos F. Lam told Walker the situation presented "a good opportunity for what’s called a ‘false flag’ operation."
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism discovered the email among tens of thousands released to the public last week following a lawsuit by the Isthmus and the Associated Press.
"If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions' cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions," Lam said in his email.
"Currently, the media is painting the union protest as a democratic uprising and failing to mention the role of the DNC and umbrella union organizations in the protest," he continued. "Employing a false flag operation would assist in undercutting any support that the media may be creating in favor of the unions."
Lam resigned from his position after the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism published an article about his email. ...
via Indiana prosecutor told Wisconsin governor to stage ‘false flag’ operation | The Raw Story.
Do politicians stage fake attacks for profit? Yes. There are many examples.
'Spiderman' Alain Robert scales Burj Khalifa in Dubai
Robert appeared not to use his harness
Alain Robert, the French urban climber dubbed spiderman for his feats, has scaled the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
It took him six hours to ascend the 828-m (2,717-ft) tower in the United Arab Emirates city, including the tapered spire above the top floors.
A large crowd watched from the ground as he moved up the facade, picked out by spotlights after darkness fell.
Unusually, he used a rope and harness, to comply with safety requirements.
"I know that sometimes there may be some specific requirements," he told Reuters news agency before the climb.
"I do understand. You know, this is such an iconic building so I can understand that even though they are taking care so much about my precious life, they are also taking care a lot of that precious Burj Khalifa."...
Strapped to a safety harness tethered more than 100 floors up, he began his climb up the silvery, glass-covered tower just after 1800 (1400 GMT) on Monday.
Moving methodically and swiftly along the metal facade, he ascended a central column, largely avoiding rows of pipes that could have slowed his climb.
On reaching the top, he waved triumphantly.
Robert, 48, has scaled more than 70 skyscrapers, including New York's Empire State Building and Chicago's Willis Tower in the US, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, according to his website.
In 2004, he climbed Taiwan's Taipei 101, the world's tallest building at the time.
via BBC News - 'Spiderman' Alain Robert scales Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
"Zombie" Fire Ants Controlled, Killed by Flies
In South America, female phorid flies have developed a bizarre reproductive strategy: They hover over fire ants ... then inject their eggs into the ants with a needle-like appendage. The egg grows and the resulting larva generally migrates to the ant's head. The larva lives there for weeks--slurping up the brain and turning the ant into a "zombie," in some cases compelling the ant to march 55 yards 50 meters away from its colony to avoid attack by other fire ants. Finally, the baby fly decapitates its host and hatches, exiting through the ant's head...
"U.S. scientists regularly release several species of phorid flies to control alien fire ants, which have spread across the southern U.S. during the past half century and outcompeted many native ant species. Now scientists have released a new species of phorid, Pseudacteon obtusus not pictured, for the first time in the U.S., Texas A&M University announced May 11.Released in southern Texas in 2008 and eastern Texas in April 2009, P. obtusus is the first phorid released in the U.S. that is known to attack ants as they forage. In theory, feeding ants are more vulnerable to attack than those hunkering down in hidden nests.The flies—which don't have a taste for native U.S. ants—also drive the frightened fire ants into their nests, freeing up more food for the indigenous ants.It's about "leveling the playing field for native ants. We're trying to restore the balance," said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas. Published May 14, 2009
via Pictures: "Zombie" Ants Controlled, Decapitated by Flies.
Phoridae is a family of small, hump-backed flies resembling fruit flies. Phorid flies can often be identified by their escape habit of running rapidly across a surface rather than taking to the wing. This behaviour is a source of one of their alternate names: scuttle fly. They are a diverse and successful group of insects. Approximately 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. - wiki
When Does a Nuclear Disaster End?
Those who think Japan's Fukushima disaster is today's headlines and tomorrow's history need to take a good look at the Chernobyl disaster, which to this day is a continuing threat to the people of Ukraine. It will be hundreds of years before the area around the destroyed reactor is inhabitable again and there are disputes over whether or not Chernobyl's nuclear fuel still poses a threat of causing another explosion. There is also a teetering reactor core cover and the deteriorating sarcophagus itself that may collapse and send plumes of radioactive dust in all directions.
via Activist Post: When Does a Nuclear Disaster End? Never..
Real estate: It's time to buy again
... Of course, home prices are low and home construction is weak for a reason: incredibly low demand. For our scenario to play out, America will need a decent economy, with job creation and consumer confidence continuing to claw their way back to normal.
One big fear is that today's tight credit standards will chill the market. But we're really returning to the standards that prevailed before the craze, and those requirements didn't stop prices and homebuilding from rising in a good economy. "The credit standards are now at about historical levels, excluding the bubble period," says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "We saw prices rising with fundamentals in those periods, and it will happen again."
To see why, let's examine the remarkable shift in home affordability. A new study by Deutsche Bank measures affordability in two ways: first, the share of income Americans are paying to own a home. And second, the cost of owning vs. renting. On the first metric, the analysis finds that homeowners now pay just 9.8% of their income in after-tax mortgage, tax, and insurance payments. That's down from 17.2% at the bubble's peak in 2007, and by far the lowest number in the Deutsche Bank database, going back to 1999. The second measure, the cost of owning compared with renting, should also inspire potential buyers. In 28 out of 54 major markets, it's now cheaper to pay a mortgage and other major costs than to rent the same house. What's most compelling is that in all of the distressed markets, owning now wins by a wide margin -- a stunning reversal from four years ago. It now costs 34% less than renting in Atlanta. In Miami the average rent is now $1,031 a month, vs. the $856 it costs to carry a ranch house or stucco cottage as an owner. ...
via Real estate: It's time to buy again - Fortune Finance.
Monday, March 28, 2011
How to rob me of $10 right now!
I just discovered that you can download my entire CD -- Xenophilia, Cafe of Love, from 2001 -- free on your iPhone.Go to the App store and get the free app called "MOG".
Use the free 7 day trial then search for "Xenophilia" and tap the arrows to download all my songs to your iPhone.
Listen for free for a week, then you have to pay to keep listening.
I do not believe that I get a cent from people using the free version of this app to listen to my music.
I also do not think I get paid when people are paying $10/month to keep using the app after the trial.
Do not buy my CD on my web site, because you can get the whole thing, the Cafe of Love, at a price all iPhone users will love: FREE.
If nothing else, check out my song "Crop Circles", still one of my favorite weird songs.
Similar Artists feature
Hey neat, there is a feature to find similar artists on the MOG radio. The similar artist software found: "Wild Pack of Family Dogs" by Modest Mouse. Hmm. Nah. I like my stuff better.
But wait, "Big Dipper" by Built to Spill is great. And I really like "Cha Cha Cha" by The Little One's. Oh, and I love "Last Song" by Matt Pond, beautiful!
Okay, this is a freakin' cool app.
But it ain't right.
Related:
A website that sold Beatles songs online for 25 cents apiece before they became legally available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit.U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker signed off on the settlement between BlueBeat.com and music companies EMI Group PLC, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America on Friday. The judge ruled in December that the site violated the music labels' copyrights and presented unfair competition.
A trial to determine how much BlueBeat owed the companies was scheduled to begin Tuesday in Santa Ana, Calif.
BlueBeat streamed and sold music by the Fab Four and other top-name acts, including Coldplay and Lily Allen, for several days before music companies sued to shut it down in November 2009. By then, the site had already distributed more than 67,000 songs by The Beatles. - cnbc
Oh wow, I found a song I sang on with Anton Barbeau. I think that's me singing on "Please Sir I've Got A Wooden Leg" ... and at least one other song on Anton's "A Splendid Tray".
Ha, oh yeah, check out "a Robot Tells Jokes" by Doug Powell. Reminds me of good times with the comedy show.
I'm falling asleep to Bill Ives version of the Beatles song Michelle. Nicely done vocal jazz.
Then Nora Jones' "Don't Know Why" pops up and I re-live Maui and the time I almost got married. And I see clearly for a heartbeat or two that I'm a fool hiding from the sick and wicked world, and missing, in my suit of armor, the ability to touch my dream ... I drift asleep... and the iPhone I'm writing this on slips from my fingers and floats to the floor in slow motion.
Radiation from Japan detected in Cleveland
A researcher at Case Western Reserve University has detected tiny amounts of Iodine 131 from Japan in rainwater collected from the roof of a campus building.
Gerald Matisoff, professor of geology, said the presence of the isotope presents no danger to human health. He estimated the level of radiation is about one-tenth that of natural background radiation.
"In theory, the Iodine 131 could have come from any radioactive waste processing facility," Matisoff said. "But, we know it's from Japan. The isotope is being seen worldwide."
Matisoff and graduate student Mary Carson collect water on the roof of the A.W. Smith Building, on the campus quad, to monitor the particulates being carried in rain into Lake Erie.
Carson ran the analysis Friday and Matisoff verified the findings today.
via Radiation from Japan detected in Cleveland.
Some bad news:
At 1:45, the newscaster states that a crane collapsed onto the fuel rods. This is MOX fuel, meaning they damaged rods that contained plutonium.
Update: Confirmed:
Plutonium found in soil at the Fukushima nuclear complex heightened alarm on Tuesday over Japan's battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years, as pressure mounted on the prime minister to widen an evacuation zone around the plant. ...
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said plutonium was found at low-risk levels in five places at the facility, which was crippled by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
A by-product of atomic reactions and also used in nuclear bombs, plutonium is highly carcinogenic and one of the most dangerous substances on the planet, experts say.
They believe some of the plutonium may have come from spent fuel rods at Fukushima or damage to reactor No. 3, the only one to use plutonium in its fuel mix. ... - reuters
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