High-density lipoprotein's hauls excess cholesterol to the liver for disposal, but new research suggests "good cholesterol" can also act as a special delivery vehicle of destruction for cancer.
Synthetic HDL nanoparticles loaded with small interfering RNA to silence cancer-promoting genes selectively shrunk or destroyed ovarian cancer tumors in mice, a research team led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of North Texas Health Science Center reports in the April edition of Neoplasia.
"RNA interference has great therapeutic potential but delivering it to cancer cells has been problematic," said Anil Sood, M.D., the study's senior author and MD Anderson's director of Ovarian Cancer Research and co-director of the Center for RNA Interference and Non-Coding RNA at MD Anderson. "Combining siRNA with HDL provides an efficient way to get these molecules to their targets. This study has several important implications in the ability to fight certain cancers."
Sood and Andras Lacko, Ph.D., professor of Molecular Biology and Immunology at UNT Health Science Center, jointly developed the nanoparticles, which build on Lacko's original insight about HDL's potential for cancer drug delivery.
The next step is to prepare for human clinical trials, the two scientists said. "If we can knock out 70, 80 or 90 percent of tumors without drug accumulation in normal tissues in mice, it is likely that many cancer patients could benefit from this new type of treatment in the long run," Lacko said.
Previous studies have shown that cancer cells attract and scavenge HDL by producing high levels of its receptor, SR-B1. As cancer cells take in HDL, they grow and proliferate. The only other site in the body that makes SR-B1 receptor is the liver. This selectivity for cancer cells protects normal, healthy cells from side effects.
Previous attempts to deliver siRNA by lipsomes and other nanoparticles have been hampered by toxicity and other concerns. The tiny bits of RNA, which regulate genes in a highly targeted fashion, can't simply be injected, for example.
"If siRNA is not in a nanoparticle, it gets broken down and excreted before it can be effective," Sood said. "HDL is completely biocompatible and is a safety improvement over other types of nanoparticles."
via 'Good cholesterol' nanoparticles seek and destroy cancer cells.
Friday, April 1, 2011
'Good cholesterol' nanoparticles seek and destroy cancer cells
For Farmers In Fukushima, Japan, Growing Uncertainty
Jason Beaubien - As Japan continues to grapple with the effects of the March 11 earthquake, the prefecture of Fukushima faces some of the biggest challenges.
Fukushima's roads were damaged in the earthquake, its coast was battered by the tsunami, and now leaking radiation around the crippled Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has made parts of the prefecture unlivable.
The tsunami pushed seawater more than 2 miles inland in some places. Rail lines in Fukushima — Japan's third-largest prefecture — were destroyed along the coast; train traffic still hasn't resumed through the prefecture. Radiation from the leaking nuclear complex has forced tens of thousands of residents from their homes. The sale of many vegetables from Fukushima has been banned.
Akio Nagato, the director general of the Fukushima governor's office, says the tsunami and earthquake mainly affected the coast but the radiation is affecting the entire prefecture, which spans more than 5,000 square miles.
Even outside the 12-mile mandatory evacuation zone around the Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear plant, Nagato says, businesses are packing up and moving. He says the cleanup along the coast has barely started because vehicles can't travel through the nuclear exclusion zone.
"We are not just talking about rebuilding houses," Nagato says, speaking of the Fukushima coast. "We are talking about places of work, ports, railroads all being unusable. We are talking about the big picture here. We are talking about putting everything back together."
Unsafe Food
The nuclear disaster is now also a disaster for Fukushima's farmers. The government has banned the sale of milk, spinach and other leafy vegetables, not just from here but also from neighboring prefectures.
The Japanese Health Ministry found that the radiation level in these foods exceeds legal limits for human consumption. This has left farmers such as Shinichi Asaka with goods they can't sell.
"We are going to have throw it out," he says through an interpreter, regarding rows and rows of green spinach. "Get a big tractor, load it up and throw it out. There's nothing else to do." ...
via For Farmers In Fukushima, Japan, Growing Uncertainty : NPR.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Getting a grasp on memory
Yivsam Zagad - ... To reveal what occurs in the brain at the moment of insight, the initial viewing session was conducted in a functional MRI (fMRI) scanner. When the scientists looked at the fMRI results, they were surprised to find that among the areas that lit up in the scans - those known to be involved in object recognition, for instance - was the amygdala. The amygdala is more famously known as the seat of emotion in the brain. Though it has recently been found to play a role in the consolidation of certain memories, studies have implied that it does so by attaching special weight to emotion-laden events. But the images used in the experiment - hot-air balloons, dogs, people looking through binoculars, etc. - were hardly the sort to elicit an emotional response. Yet, not only was the amygdala lighting up in the fMRI, the team found that its activity was actually predictive of the subject's ability to identify the degraded image long after that moment of induced insight in which it was first recognized.
'Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that the amygdala is important for creating long-term memories - not only when the information learned is explicitly emotional, but also when there is a sudden reorganization of information in our brain, for example, involving a sudden shift in perception,' says Ludmer. 'It might somehow evaluate the event, 'deciding' whether it is significant and therefore worthy of preservation.'
via Getting a grasp on memory.
What is going on in your amygdala right now?
Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe
Marks on a clay tablet fragment found in Greece are the oldest known decipherable text in Europe, a new study says.
Considered "magical or mysterious" in its time, the writing survives only because a trash heap caught fire some 3,500 years ago, according to researchers.
Found in an olive grove in what's now the village of Iklaina (map), the tablet was created by a Greek-speaking Mycenaean scribe between 1450 and 1350 B.C., archaeologists say.
The Mycenaeans—made legendary in part by Homer's Iliad, which fictionalizes their war with Troy—dominated much of Greece from about 1600 B.C. to 1100 B.C. (See "Is Troy True? The Evidence Behind Movie Myth.")
So far, excavations at Iklaina have yielded evidence of an early Mycenaean palace, giant terrace walls, murals, and a surprisingly advanced drainage system, according to dig director Michael Cosmopoulos.
But the tablet, found last summer, is the biggest surprise of the multiyear project, Cosmopoulos said.
"According to what we knew, that tablet should not have been there," the University of Missouri-St. Louis archaeologist told National Geographic News.
First, Mycenaean tablets weren't thought to have been created so early, he said. Second, "until now tablets had been found only in a handful of major palaces"—including the previous record holder, which was found among palace ruins in what was the city of Mycenae.
Although the Iklaina site boasted a palace during the early Mycenaean period, by the time of the tablet, the settlement had been reduced to a satellite of the city of Pylos, seat of King Nestor, a key player in the Iliad.
"This is a rare case where archaeology meets ancient texts and Greek myths," Cosmopoulos said in a statement. ...The markings on the tablet fragment—which is roughly 1 inch ( 2.5 centimeters) tall by 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) wide—are early examples of a writing system known as Linear B.
Used for a very ancient form of Greek, Linear B consisted of about 87 signs, each representing one syllable. ...The Mycenaeans appear to have used Linear B to record only economic matters of interest to the ruling elite. Fittingly, the markings on the front of the Iklaina tablet appear to form a verb that relates to manufacturing, the researchers say. The back lists names alongside numbers—probably a property list.
Because these records tended to be saved for only a single fiscal year, the clay wasn't made to last ... "Those tablets were not baked, only dried in the sun and [were], therefore, very brittle. ... Basically someone back then threw the tablet in the pit and then burned their garbage," he said. "This fire hardened and preserved the tablet."
via Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe.
I own... one maple tree with a bee's nest in it ... one pine tree with a crane attached ... one rock ... one radio antenna....
Houston County fire station burns down
A blaze late Monday night destroyed the Houston County Fire Department's station in McKinnon.
The cause of the 11 p.m. fire, which also destroyed two trucks, is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal's Office.
According to Houston County Fire Chief David Hardin, one of trucks was a 2,000-gallon tanker bought by the county for $20,000 last year, and the other was a 1972 utility vehicle that was in good working condition.
The chief said he didn't yet know if the firehouse blaze, plus fires that destroyed a vacant home and an abandoned motel in Erin during the weekend, were related to each other or to three barn fires and a trailer fire in the Erin area last week.
via Houston County fire station burns down | The Leaf Chronicle – Clarksville, Tenn., and Fort Campbell | theleafchronicle.com.
Forgot to change the battery in the fire alarm.
Group reports finding shipwreck in Lake Michigan
In this 2010 photo taken from video and provided by Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, the stern of an unnamed 60-foot, single-masted sloop, covered in zebra mussels, that may date back to the 1830s, is shown in Lake Michigan.
An organization that documents shipwrecks said it has found the wreck of a 60-foot, single-masted sloop in Lake Michigan that may date back to the 1830s while looking for remnants of a plane that crashed into the lake more than 60 years ago.
The wreck was found off southwestern Michigan in water about 250 feet deep between Saugatuck and South Haven, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates announced this week. The discovery was made while working with author Clive Cussler and his sonar operator Ralph Wilbanks of the National Underwater & Marine Agency.
The group was searching for the remnants of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, which crashed into the lake in 1950, killing 58 people.
"Sometimes, when you're looking for one thing, you come across another," shipwreck researcher Craig Rich told The Grand Rapids Press of the discovery.
The vessel sits upright and is in relatively good condition, Holland-based Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates said. The sloop's construction and design are consistent with ships built in the 1820s and 1830s. Video of the wreck is expected to be shown April 16 at a social event in Holland.
"It's fascinating stuff," Cussler, who has worked with Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates to locate other wrecks, told the newspaper. "It's not the Titanic or anything like that. But it is rather historic just for the era in which it sank."
The ship likely was moving goods across the lake when it went down, Rich said, and it could be the oldest shipwreck discovered by Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates. Rich said the group hopes to identify the ship by the summer and begin researching its story. And the group plans to explore the wreck this year.
"If we can put a name to it, we'll figure out what the story is and, if not, it'll be a mystery wreck," he said.
via Group reports finding shipwreck in Lake Michigan - Yahoo! News.
Here is some video of the Doty, a wooden steamship that went down 60 years later in a Lake Michigan storm (1898).
Caped intruder stabs cocker spaniels in Marple Bridge
Two cocker spaniels have been treated for stab wounds after they were attacked by a caped intruder in Stockport.
The pets' owner discovered the masked man who had a bin liner tied around his shoulders stabbing the pets as she walked into her lounge.
She had stepped outside for a cigarette when the man and an accomplice struck at 2240 BST on Sunday.
Police condemned the cruelty at the cottage on Holly Vale, Marple Bridge.
'Not vicious'
Officers believe that the man, who ran off empty-handed, may have used a screwdriver on the animals who suffered minor injuries.
They have described the incident as a burglary - and said they do not believe it was a grudge attack or that the family were known to the raiders.
Det Con Dave Moran said: "Understandably, the woman was very upset to have her beloved pets attacked in this way.
"These are small family pets and not vicious guard dogs that posed any threat to the intruder."
The men were both described as white and wearing black balaclavas with eye slits and black bin liners tied around their shoulders.
via BBC News - Caped intruder stabs cocker spaniels in Marple Bridge.
I don't know about the actual dogs that were attacked, but these two I found seem to have some kind of alien laser vision... spooky.
Sex change chicken Gertie becomes Bertie
A SEX change chicken which began life as an egg-laying hen has turned into a crowing cock.
Stunned owner Jeanette Howard, 79, couldn't believe her eyes or ears when one-year-old Gertie sprouted a distinctive red comb and chin wattle — and started crowing at dawn.
Now she plans to re-name Gertie, Bertie.
Mrs Howard said she first noticed something was up with Gertie when she started to walk differently from her other two hens, Daisy and Gracie.
She has since been reassured by vets that the hen is fine — but that damage to her ovaries could have caused Gertie to develop male characteristics.
Experts say sex changes can affect one in 10,000 animals.
Mrs Howard said: "I bought three chickens a year ago and they were all laying eggs for me until the end of the year.
"They began to moult over the winter and I wasnt taking a lot of notice. Then one day I heard this crowing noise and I thought 'Where's that coming from?'
"I looked into the garden at Gertie and I saw it was coming from her or him."
Mrs Howard, of Needingworth, near Huntingdon, Cambs, said Gertie had suddenly developed a scarlet comb, chin wattle and long tail feathers, which are all male characteristics.
She said: "It had started cock-a-doodle-do-ing and had grown bits all over its face.
"He had really grown and was strutting around with his head up in the air, so proud of himself. ...
Delia Richter, from Cromwell Vets in Huntingdon, said damage to the hen's single ovary or a growth upon it could cause it to exhibit male characteristics.
Miss Richter said: "It would still be a hen but the ovary on the left side degenerates and the right side begins to release testosterone. It's possible that's what happened in this case." ...
via Sex change chicken Gertie becomes Bertie | The Sun |News.
Some fathers in the area will reportedly be bringing their sons around to Mrs. Howard to help them "man up".
Catacomb of secret tunnels packed with mummified remains of EIGHT MILLION dogs is excavated in Egypt
A labyrinth of sacred tunnels packed with the mummified remains of millions of dogs has been excavated under the Egyptian desert.
The catacombs are estimated to contain the remains up to eight million dogs, many of which would have been offered to the gods when they were just hours old.
Others would have been treated as living representatives of the dog or jackal-headed god Anubis and would have lived out their lives in the nearby temple before being preserved and laid to rest in the network of tunnels.
The fascinating details come from Cardiff University scientists, who along with Egyptian colleagues are the first to examine the structure and contents of the complex underground network built 2,500 years ago under the Saqqara desert.
The catacomb, which lies ten to 12metres underground, consists of a long central corridor and a series of smaller passages that branch off it.
Sampling of small areas and bone examination of their contents suggest that the entire network is home to eight million dogs, as well as a handful of cats and jackals.
Some of the dogs were killed and mummified just days or even hours after birth.
With the need to mummify so many animals, perhaps thousands per year, it is likely the animals were bred in puppy farms dotted around the ancient capital of Memphis.
Pilgrims, who were not necessarily particularly well-off, bought the dogs, then paid for them to be mummified, in the hope of currying favour with the canine-headed god, Anubis.
As one of the most important gods of the dead, Anubis was particularly worth pleasing.
Dr Paul Nicholson, of Cardiff University’s School of History, Archaeology and Religion, said: ‘These animals were not strictly “sacrificial”.
‘Rather, the dedication of an animal mummy was regarded as a pious act, with the animal acting as an intermediary between the donor and the gods.’
The excavation, which was funded by National Geographic, also revealed that some dogs were interred individually, in niches in the tunnel walls. ...
via Catacomb of secret tunnels packed with mummified remains of EIGHT MILLION dogs is excavated in Egypt | Mail Online.
Bizarre! Do you realize that there is absolutely no picture or mention of Zahi Hawass in this story?!?
375-Pound Shark Leaps Into Texas Fisherman's Boat
It's the catch of a lifetime, but it's not clear whether a Texas fisherman landed an 8-foot shark or it landed him.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jason Kresse of Freeport says he and two crew members were dumping fish guts in the Gulf of Mexico about 3:45 a.m. Monday when they heard splashes in the distance and then something hit the side of their 25-foot boat.A shark in an apparent rush to feed had jumped into the back and was thrashing around. Kresse says the crew couldn't get close to the 375-pound fish to toss it back in the water.
It died several hours later.
The shark is on display at a seafood business in Freeport, about 55 miles south of Houston. Kresse says he plans to have it mounted.
via 375-Pound Shark Leaps Into Texas Fisherman's Boat.
Retired Air Force Major Predicts UFO Sightings at Royal Wedding
The upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton is expected to be viewed by more than a billion people worldwide -- and possibly a few extraterrestrials, according to at least one former military officer.
George Filer, a retired Air Force major, runs the National UFO Center and says it's common to see UFOs around important events.
"The craft seem to have an interest in anything important," Filer told AOL News. "They've been sighted recently over Libya and near the Japanese tsunami."Filer says his center averages more than 1,000 sightings a month, and he expects to get a few UFO reports from the area surrounding Westminster Abbey, the site of the April 29 wedding.
There are two reasons behind Filer's prediction: In the last few weeks, he's been getting reports from British Royal Air Force pilots who reported seeing UFOs over the English Channel, and, more importantly, he says the royal family is very interested in the UFO phenomenon.
Filer knows this personally because he once had a conversation about UFOs with William's grandfather, Prince Philip."It was around 1961 or '62, when I was a navigator in a tanker," Filer said. "He met with a group of us after a dinner because he wanted to talk about UFOs. He told us that the RAF had stopped sending fighters after UFOs because some of them didn't come back.
"They decided to send tankers, which were nearly as fast as the fighters but could hold 15 hours of fuel, compared to two for the fighters."
Filer says the prince also revealed that his interest in UFOs was more than just concerns of national security -- it was personal."I asked him why he was so interested in UFOs and he explained that his uncle, the Earl Mountbatten, had seen them up close," Filer said.
Even though the meeting took place during the Cold War, Filer discounts the underlying possibility that the UFOs seen during the period were actually Soviet craft.
"That was always a possibility, but it seemed unlikely since these craft were bigger than expected -- it's like an aircraft carrier in space," he said. "However, the Soviets did try to penetrate the airspace of the United Kingdom and the United States quite regularly." ...
via Retired Air Force Major Predicts UFO Sightings at Royal Wedding.
Older and stronger: Progressive resistance training can build muscle, increase strength as we age
Despite being 74 years old, Japanese weightlifter Tsutomu Tosuka shows us you're never to old to be a bodybuilder anywhere in the world.
Getting older doesn't mean giving up muscle strength.
Not only can adults fight the battle of strength and muscle loss that comes with age, but the Golden Years can be a time to get stronger, say experts at the University of Michigan Health System.
"Resistance exercise is a great way to increase lean muscle tissue and strength capacity so that people can function more readily in daily life," says Mark Peterson, Ph.D., a research fellow in the U-M Physical Activity and Exercise Intervention Research Laboratory, at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Through resistance training adults can improve their ability to stand up out of a chair walk across the floor, climb a flight of stairs -- anything that requires manipulating their own body mass through a full range of motions.
Normally, adults who are sedentary beyond age 50 can expect muscle loss of up to 0.4 pounds a year.
"That only worsens as people age. But even earlier in adulthood - the 30s, 40s and 50s - you can begin to see declines if you do not engage in any strengthening activities," Peterson says.
"Our analyses of current research show that the most important factor in somebody's function is their strength capacity. No matter what age an individual is, they can experience significant strength improvement with progressive resistance exercise even into the eighth and ninth decades of life," he says.
Progressive resistance training means that the amount of weight used, and the frequency and duration of training sessions is altered over time to accommodate an individual's improvements. ...
As resistance training progresses and weights and machines are introduced, Peterson recommends incorporating full body exercises and exercises that use more than one joint and muscle group at a time, such as the leg press, chest press, and rows. These are safer and more effective in building muscle mass.
"You should also keep in mind the need for increased resistance and intensity of your training to continue building muscle mass and strength," he says.
A good fitness professional can help plan an appropriate training regimen, and make adjustments based on how you respond as you progress.
"We firmly believe based on this research that progressive resistance training should be encouraged among healthy older adults to help minimize the loss of muscle mass and strength as they age," Peterson says. ...
via Older and stronger: Progressive resistance training can build muscle, increase strength as we age.
US cancer death rates in decline
Anne Doerr - A report from the nation's leading cancer organizations shows rates of death in the United States from all cancers for men and women continued to decline between 2003 and 2007. The findings come from the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.
The report also finds that the overall rate of new cancer diagnoses for men and women combined decreased an average of slightly less than 1 percent per year for the same period. Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, president of Dana-Farber Cancer in Institute in Boston, called the news encouraging, but cautions we still have a very long way to go in our fight against cancer.
"Overall, the rate of cancer deaths is falling, but not by a lot, not nearly enough," said Benz. "But considering that the incidence of cancer continues to increase, while the number of deaths is flat or falling a little bit, it does suggest that efforts of prevention, early detection, and better treatments are having a positive impact."
The report is co-authored by researchers from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Cancer Society. It will be posted on the web site of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on March 31, and will be published in the journal's May 14 print issue.
The authors emphasized the need to focus further on reducing the cancer burden in the population as a whole through prevention, detection and treatment of cancer.
"One of the best ways to avoid dying of cancer is to prevent it in the first place," added Dr. Benz. "This involves making lifestyle adjustments, such as not smoking, being careful about exposure to the sun, diet and exercise, and being careful about exposure to chemicals in the workplace. Patients also need to be sure to participate with their primary care physician in the kinds of screening that can pick up cancers very early." ...
via US cancer death rates in decline, national report finds.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Samsung installs keylogger on its laptops
In the fall of 2005, the security and computer world was abuzz with what was at the time dubbed as the "Sony BMG rootkit Fiasco." Sony BMG used a rootkit, computer program that performs a specific function and hides its files from the regular user, to monitor computer user behavior and limit how music CDs were copied and played on one's computer. ...
Sony BMG settled the federal lawsuit with the FTC without admitting guilt. However, given the number of CDs it was ordered to replace and the agreed upon compensation of up to $150 per computer owner it had to pay to consumers whose computers may have been damaged as a result of attempts to remove the rootkit, the $575 million payout for the incident was far more expensive than any return on investment Sony BMG may have received by preventing the potential consumer from copying, illegal distribution or sharing of the music CDs.
Some in the computer security industry had hoped that the criminality of the act that Sony BMG had engaged in together with the huge business costs associated with the settling of the case with consumers and federal authorities would act as a deterrent to any company which might want to monitor computer usage. Others, including Mark Russinovich, the developer and blogger who first discovered the rootkit, were not so sure. In fact Mr. Russinovich warned that "Consumers don't have any kind of assurance that other companies are not going to do the same kind of thing (as Sony)" (Borland, 2005).
How right has Mr. Russinovich been!
While setting up a new Samsung computer laptop with model number R525 in early February 2011, I came across an issue that mirrored what Sony BMG did six years ago. After the initial set up of the laptop, I installed licensed commercial security software and then ran a full system scan before installing any other software. The scan found two instances of a commercial keylogger called StarLogger installed on the brand new laptop. Files associated with the keylogger were found in a c:\windows\SL directory.
According to a Starlogger description, StarLogger records every keystroke made on your computer on every window, even on password protected boxes.
This key logger is completely undetectable and starts up whenever your computer starts up. See everything being typed: emails, messages, documents, web pages, usernames, passwords, and more. StarLogger can email its results at specified intervals to any email address undetected so you don't even have to be at the computer your[sic] are monitoring to get the information. The screen capture images can also be attached automatically to the emails as well as automatically deleted.
After an in-depth analysis of the laptop, my conclusion was that this software was installed by the manufacturer, Samsung. I removed the keylogger software, cleaned up the laptop, and continued using the computer. However, after experiencing problems with the video display driver, I returned that laptop to the store where I bought it and bought a higher Samsung model (R540) from another store.
Again, after the initial set up of the laptop, I found the same StarLogger software in the c:\windows\SL folder of the new laptop. The findings are false-positive proof since I have used the tool that discovered it for six years now and I am yet to see it misidentify an item throughout the years. The fact that on both models the same files were found in the same location supported the suspicion that the hardware manufacturer, Samsung, must know about this software on its brand-new laptops. ...
via Samsung installs keylogger on its laptop computers.
Military Expert: The World Could Never Survive a Real 'Battle: Los Angeles'
...A giant spaceship from another world arrives during the day and positions itself above the White House in Washington, while more ships do the same over other major cities around the world.
Then, without warning, all hell breaks loose, and the ships begin using devastating weapons and power to destroy everything around them -- people, buildings, military resistance.
This continues for about two hours of popcorn-eating enjoyment until the Earthlings on screen somehow come up with a miracle to stop these unwelcome invaders from laying waste to our beloved planet.
From "The War of the Worlds," "Independence Day," "Mars Attacks!" "Transformers," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "V" and the current box office favorite, "Battle: Los Angeles," alien invasion is most definitely part of our culture -- and maybe our fears.But, in the real world, if predatory ETs come to Earth to take us over, for whatever their reasons, could we, in fact, prevent it from happening? Could we actually survive such an attack?
"The bottom line for a hostile engagement between aliens and humans is not a pretty picture, and there is no happy ending for us," according to John Alexander, a retired Army colonel who spent 25 years searching top levels of the U.S. government for evidence of a reported UFO cover-up -- and couldn't find one.
From a military point of view, Alexander, author of "UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities" (Thomas Dunne Books), says entertainment depicting alien invasions of Earth is pretty much just a vehicle to blow stuff up.
"If they chose to use physical force, they would simply destroy our infrastructure, power, communications, transportation and economic systems. While a terribly blunt approach, it could be accomplished without any danger to the aliens, or direct confrontation with any military system."
As long as we're offering a sober, logical, strategic scenario in which unfriendly extraterrestrials want to take over our home turf with the least amount of destruction possible, Alexander speculates there's a much easier way to do it. "If depopulation of Earth is an objective, the simplest way to accomplish that would be to introduce one or more biological organisms that kill humans.
"There is no reason for them to engage in the time-consuming effort to physically eliminate the armed forces of Earth. Biological warfare would be the most efficacious, energy-efficient and safest means for them to conquer Earth. For the aliens, this is a no-risk option." ...
via Military Expert: The World Could Never Survive a Real 'Battle: Los Angeles'.
This Military Expert knows something even bigger that he's not telling us. Look closely... he is smiling, but he isn't. If you stare at him, even at his picture, you'll get hypnotized and you may start to have visions. If that happens, don't be alarmed. Just go with it and try to remember what you see. The earth is counting on you.
Noisy cat hits purr-fect pitch in world record bid
A cat from Northamptonshire has made an official attempt to become the world's loudest purrer.
Smokey made the record attempt in front of four independent witnesses at her owner Ruth Adams' home in Northampton.
Smokey was tested by a music expert from Northampton College who found her purr reached 73 decibels - 16 times louder than the average cat.
The evidence will now be submitted to the Guinness Book of Records for verification.
Mrs Adams said: "Guinness has very strict criteria and the college has been very helpful in supplying the specialist recording equipment needed to measure Smokey's purr and for arranging the official witnesses.
via BBC News - Noisy cat hits purr-fect pitch in world record bid.
Virus-eating virus identified in Antarctic lake
Deep within the waters of Antarctica's Organic Lake an Australian research team, led by microbiologist Ricardo Cavicchioli from the University of New South Wales, have discovered a new virophage, or virus eater. Their findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
The new virophage was discovered by graduate student Sheree Yau and given the name Organic Lake Virophage, or OLV. The new virophage was identified when she noticed that sequences in the protein shell from the lake were similar to a previously discovered virophage named Sputnik.
Sputnik, which was first discovered in the water-cooling tower in Paris in 2008, was the first virophage ever identified. Earlier this month, Matthias Fischer and Curtis Suttle announced the discovery of a second virophage known as Mavirus.
The discovery of OLV makes this only the third virophage, though there is evidence of sequence matches to OLV in numerous other locations including the nearby Ace Lake. However, the other matches span the globe, including a lagoon in the Galapagos Islands, a bay in New Jersey, and a freshwater lake in Panama.
Virophages, which are known as virus eaters, attack other viruses, as is the case with the first virophage, Sputnik. Unable to multiply within a host, virophages rely on hosts infected with other viruses. In the case of Sputnik, it was an amoeba infected with a mamavirus. Sputnik would essentially take over the replication process of the mamavirus. Because of this takeover, the mamavirus is unable to produce properly, thus reducing its ability to infect the amoeba.
The new OLV genome was discovered within the sequences of phycodnaviruses. Phycodnaviruses are a group of large viruses that attack algae. The OLV targets these phycodnaviruses, allowing the algae in the lake to survive and bloom during the summer months. ...
via Virus-eating virus identified in Antarctic lake.
Has Black Hole wiped out all alien life?
A phenomenon known as a white dwarf hypernova could have sucked alien life into a black hole.
Scientists have been long baffled how despite years of searching there has been no evidence of life beyond our planet.
But now some astronomers believe the answer may lie in the destructive force of exploding stars - and claim ET (extraterrestrial) may simply have been wiped out.
Hypernovas are essentially massive supernovas, or giant exploding stars, with a mass of between 100 and 300 times that of the sun.
And because this process, when an exceptionally large white dwarf star, a collapsed remnant of an elderly star, becomes unstable and explodes, has occurred several times over millions of years, it is possible that life may have wiped out more than once, the Daily Mail reports.
Scientists also believe there is a possibility that life on earth too could be wiped out by the process of gamma ray bursts. Intense gamma radiation produces nitrous oxides that could perhaps destroy the ozone layer.
They call the lack of evidence of alien life the 'Great Silence'. ...
via Has Black Hole wiped out all alien life?.
Broken Heart Burns Like Hot Coffee, Brain Study of Former Lovers Shows
Elizabeth Lopatto - Heartache over lost love is similar to the physical pain of spilling hot coffee on your lap, scientists studying brain scans say.
The sting of seeing photos of an ex-lover stimulated the same parts of the brain as intense heat applied to the arms of 40 people in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research builds on a 2010 study published in the journal Psychological Science that showed people who took the painkiller acetaminophen, sold by Johnson & Johnson as Tylenol, felt less rejected when excluded from a ball-passing game. While rejection and physical pain aren’t identical, they are more similar than anyone had realized, said Edward Smith, a psychology professor at Columbia University in New York and an author of today’s study.
“There may be something special about rejection,” Smith said in a telephone interview. “No other negative emotion, not anger and not fear, elicits reactions in the pain matrix of the brain.”
The brain scans showed involvement of the secondary somatosensory cortex, which processes types of sensations including light touch, pain, pressure and temperature. Also activated in both rejection and physical pain was the dorsal posterior insula, which senses temperature.
Participants were shown photographs of a former partner who dumped them and of a friend who was the same sex as their former partner. Then heat was applied to elicit a burning feeling on their left arms and, in a separate application, a warm stimulation. Patients rated how they felt after each trial on a distress scale, and underwent fMRI brain scans. The warmth and the friend served as controls.
“Spilling a hot cup of coffee on yourself and thinking about how rejected you feel when you look at the picture of a person that you recently experienced an unwanted breakup with may seem to elicit very different types of pain,” said Ethan Kross, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan and the article’s lead author, in a statement. “But this research shows that they may be even more similar than initially thought.”
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