New NASA report details final minutes of Columbia
A new NASA report released Tuesday detailed chaotic final minutes of Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003, making known many of the details about the astronauts' deaths.
The 400-page report aims to figure out how to make NASA's next spaceship more survivable, targeting problems with the spacesuits, restraints and helmets of the Columbia crew.
Besides the known reasons to death like lack of oxygen or hitting something as the spacecraft tumbled and broke up, the new report paints a more detailed picture of the final moments of the crew than the broader investigation into the accident five years ago.
Astronaut Pam Melroy, deputy study chief, said analysis showed the astronauts were at their problem-solving best trying to recover Columbia, which was starting to crack up as it reentered Earth's atmosphere with a hole in its left wing, damage that had occurred at liftoff. "There was no way for them to know that it was going to be impossible."
The crew had lost control of the motion and direction of the spacecraft. The spacecraft was pitching end-over-end, the cabin lights were out, and parts of the shuttle behind the crew compartment, including its wings, were falling off.
"It was a very disorienting motion going on," NASA deputy associate administrator Wayne Hale said in a telephone conference call. "There were a number of alarms going off simultaneously. The crew was trying very hard to regain control. We're talking about a brief time in a crisis situation."
The report lists events that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up; crew members, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module; exposure to a near vacuum at about 30480 meters(100,000 feet); and crashing to the ground.
A NASA study team is recommending 30 changes based on Columbia, many of them aim at the spacesuits, helmets and seatbelts for both the shuttle and the next space capsule NASA is building. Since the accident, NASA has quietly made astronauts put more priority on getting their protective suits on, Melroy said.
Deadly winter storms unlikely in 2009: CMA official
www.chinaview.cn
BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Snow and sleet storms that wreaked havoc in southern China earlier this year are unlikely to occur again this winter, said Zhai Panmao, spokesman for the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) on Tuesday.
"We forecast a relatively warm winter this year. The possibility of a snow and ice disaster like the one at this year's beginning is small," Zhai said.
Winter storms, which hit the country's central, south and southwest in January and February, were the worst in half a century for China. They led to 129 deaths as well as power outages, traffic jams and damaged homes.
Zhai said the average temperature in the first ten days of January 2009 will be 1 centigrade higher than usual for most northern areas, while that for southern China will stay around previous levels.
Weather experts will closely monitor the weather condition and make timely warnings once changes occur, said Zhai.
From Tuesday to Wednesday, flurries or sleet will fall on some parts of south and southwestern China, according to the CMA forecast.
China produces 240,000 PhDs in last 30 years
www.chinaview.cn 
The Grand Auditorium at Tsinghua University in Beijing is seen on May 7, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Universities have conferred doctoral degrees on 240,000 people in China over the past 30 years, officials said here on Monday.
The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council (cabinet) also told a conference that 1.87 million master's degrees have been awarded, as well as 14.15 million bachelor's degrees.
State Councilor Liu Yandong said the post-graduate students nurtured by China have become a leading force in different sectors.
She urged the improvement of the academic degree system to improve the country's base of human resources.
Mars Rovers Near Five Years Of Science And Discovery
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of their memorable landings on Mars.
Of the hundreds of engineers and scientists who cheered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2004, when Spirit landed safely, and 21 days later when Opportunity followed suit, none predicted the team would still be operating both rovers in 2009.
"The American taxpayer was told three months for each rover was the prime mission plan," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The twins have worked almost 20 times that long. That's an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary times."
The rovers have made important discoveries about wet and violent environments on ancient Mars. They also have returned a quarter-million images, driven more than 13 miles, climbed a mountain, descended into craters, struggled with sand traps and aging hardware, survived dust storms, and relayed more than 36 gigabytes of data via NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. To date, the rovers remain operational for new campaigns the team has planned for them.
"These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, JPL project manager for Spirit and Opportunity. "We realize that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice, but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."
Occasional cleaning of dust from the rovers' solar panels by Martian wind has provided unanticipated aid to the vehicles' longevity. However, it is unreliable aid. Spirit has not had a good cleaning for more than 18 months. Dust-coated solar panels barely provided enough power for Spirit to survive its third southern-hemisphere winter, which ended in December.
"This last winter was a squeaker for Spirit," Callas said. "We just made it through."
With Spirit's energy rising for spring and summer, the team plans to drive the rover to a pair of destinations about 200 yards south of the site where Spirit spent most of 2008. One is a mound that might yield support for an interpretation that a plateau Spirit has studied since 2006, called Home Plate, is a remnant of a once more-extensive sheet of explosive volcanic material. The other destination is a house-size pit called Goddard.
"Goddard doesn't look like an impact crater," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is principal investigator for the rover science instruments. "We suspect it might be a volcanic explosion crater, and that's something we haven't seen before."
A light-toned ring around the inside of the pit might add information about a nearby patch of bright, silica-rich soil that Squyres counts as Spirit's most important discovery so far. Spirit churned up the silica in mid-2007 with an immobile wheel that the rover has dragged like an anchor since it quit working in 2006. The silica was likely produced in an environment of hot springs or steam vents.
For Opportunity, the next major destination is Endeavour Crater. It is approximately 14 miles in diameter, more than 20 times larger than another impact crater, Victoria, where Opportunity spent most of the past two years. Although Endeavour is 7 miles from Victoria, it is considerably farther as the rover drives on a route evading major obstacles.
Since climbing out of Victoria four months ago, Opportunity has driven more than a mile of its route toward Endeavour and stopped to inspect the first of several loose rocks the team plans to examine along the way. High-resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars in 2006, are helping the team plot routes around potential sand traps that were not previously discernable from orbit.
"The journeys have been motivated by science, but have led to something else important," said Squyres. "This has turned into humanity's first overland expedition on another planet. When people look back on this period of Mars exploration decades from now, Spirit and Opportunity may be considered most significant not for the science they accomplished, but for the first time we truly went exploring across the surface of Mars."
For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers
NASA TV To Air Space Station
Crew's New Year's Message
WASHINGTON -- NASA TV will air a special New Year's message from International Space Station Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus beginning on Monday's noon EST Video File (newsfeed).
From their vantage point 220 miles above Earth, the astronauts express their year-end thoughts on the significance of the international outpost and their New Year's wish for the complex in 2009. The crew also shares their wish for peace in the languages of all of the countries represented in the space station partnership.
For the NASA TV downlink, streaming video and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more about the space station and the Expedition 18 mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
NASA Tests Lunar Habitat in Extreme Antarctic Environment
WASHINGTON - NASA will use the cold, harsh, isolated landscape of Antarctica to test one of its concepts for astronaut housing on the moon. The agency is sending a prototype inflatable habitat to Antarctica to see how it stands up during a year of use.
Agency officials viewed the habitat Wednesday at ILC Dover in Frederica, Del., as it was inflated one last time before being packed and shipped to Antarctica's McMurdo Station. NASA is partnering on the project with the National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va., which manages McMurdo Station, and ILC Dover, the company that manufactured the prototype structure. All three organizations will share data from the 13-month test, which runs from January 2008 to February 2009. An inflatable habitat is one of several concepts being considered for astronaut housing on the moon.
"Testing the inflatable habitat in one of the harshest, most remote sites on Earth gives us the opportunity to see what it would be like to use for lunar exploration," said Paul Lockhart, director of Constellation Systems for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Headquarters, Washington.
NASA's Constellation Program is working to send humans back to the moon by 2020. After initial sorties, the astronauts will set up a lunar outpost for long-duration stays, and they will need a place to live. The agency is developing concepts for habitation modules that provide protection for the astronauts and are easy to transport to the lunar surface.
"To land one pound of supplies on the lunar surface, it'll require us to launch 125 pounds of hardware and fuel to get it there," Lockhart said. "So our habitation concepts have to be lightweight as well as durable. This prototype inflatable habitat can be taken down and redeployed multiple times, and it only takes four crew members a few hours to set up, permitting exploration beyond the initial landing area."
The structure looks something like an inflatable backyard bounce house for children, but it is far more sophisticated. It is insulated and heated, has power and is pressurized. It offers 384 square feet of living space and has, at its highest point, an 8-foot ceiling. During the test period, sensors will allow engineers to monitor the habitat's performance.
The National Science Foundation also is interested in lighter, easier-to-assemble habitats. It currently uses a 50-year-old design known as a Jamesway hut, which is bulky and complex in comparison to the habitat being tested. Modern variations on the Jamesway, although lighter, are still rigid and difficult to ship, with limited insulation. During the test of the new inflatable habitat, the foundation will study improvements in packing, transportation and set up, as well as power consumption and damage tolerance for this newest variation of the concept.
To enable lunar exploration, the Constellation Program is developing a new fleet of spacecraft and rockets, as well as transportation and power systems for use on the surface of the moon. More information about NASA's space exploration plans is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/constellation
The inflatable habitat is being developed under NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program. For more information, visit:
http://www.ipp.nasa.gov
Video of the send-off event is expected to be available Thursday on the NASA Television Video File. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Herbal Supplements for Insomnia
Written by DeeBr on Dec-26-08 1:18am
From: www.moms-blog.com
Often when people are experiencing insomnia they are quick to grab an over the counter medication in the hopes of remedying the problem. These medications can have more negative effects than anything else.
Therefore, many turn to herbal remedies and attempt to battle their insomnia in a more natural fashion. There are several herbal choices that can be extremely beneficial in treating insomnia.
Many of the herbal remedies that are on the market today actually mirror some prescription drugs minus the sometimes complicated and unpleasant side effects. For example, many use St. John Wort for anxiety rather than going on some other drug like Zoloft, Paxil, or Prozac.
The leaves of the catnip plant are known to cause sedation in humans. The only problem with this approach is that there is no designated dose to take, however it is safe for humans to consume.
Because of the problem with accurate doses, it is not a good idea for small children to use it and also it should not be used by women who are pregnant.
The great thing about catnip is that it can easily be grow at home, as a matter of fact; many people who choose herbal remedies have herb gardens at home. Just like Ritalin has a counter affect similar to a stimulant when those who do not have
ADHD take it, the same is true with catnip. In adults, catnip provides a very soothing and calming affect but in cats it acts as a stimulant. So keep kitty away from the herb garden.
Chamomile herb has been used for thousands of years to treat insomnia. Apigenin is a chemical in chamomile that causes the muscles to relax and initiates sleep. In laboratories, chamomile has been proven to produce a mild sedative and anti-anxiety effect in mice.
Again, it has not been determined as of yet exactly how much chamomile had to be dosed to be sedative. It is safe for human consumption and can be used by pregnant women as well as those that are breastfeeding.
Those who should not use chamomile are people who are allergic to ragweed. Chamomile is available it its original form or in pre packaged tea bags.
Other herbal products are worth looking into such as Hops, Kava, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Oats, Passion Flower, Skullcap, and Valerian. All of these herbs have sedative and relaxing properties.
While these herbal supplements are very safe for human consumption and are also very safe, if you are taking any prescription medications you should cross check those before taking anything to ensure that there are no interactions.
When insomnia becomes severe doctors are often left with no choice but to prescribe heavy sedatives that induce sleep and while the patient will likely get sleep many have complained of bizarre dreams while sleeping on these medications and the inability to function normally the next day.
This is why many people come to embrace treating their insomnia naturally so they can avoid the day after effects. Herbal remedies do not have any next day complications at all.
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Researchers derive first embryonic stem cells from rats
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 -- Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have, for the first time, derived authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats.
This breakthrough finding will enable scientists to create far more effective animal models for the study of a range of human diseases, the university said in a press release on Wednesday.
The research will be published on the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Cell.
"This is a major development in stem cell research because we know that rats are much more closely related to humans than mice in many aspects of biology. The research direction of many labs around the world will change because of the availability of rat EScells," says Qilong Ying, a native of China and the study's principal investigator.
The finding brings scientists much closer to creating "knockout" rats -- animals that are genetically modified to lack one or more genes -- for biomedical research. By observing what happens to animals when specific genes are removed, researchers can identify the function of the gene and whether it is linked to a specific disease.
"Without ES cells it is impossible to perform precise genetic modifications for the creation of the disease model we want," he says. "The availability of rat ES cells will greatly facilitate the creation of rat models for the study of different human diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, addiction and autoimmune diseases."
The first ES cell lines were established from mice in 1981 by Martin Evans of Cardiff University, Britain, who was last year awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. Researchers have long been working on establishing rat ES cells, but faced technical hurdles because the conventional methods developed for the derivation of mouse cells did not work in rats. 
Building on recent research into how ES cells are maintained, the USC researchers found that rat ES cells can be efficiently derived and grown in the presence of the "3i medium," which consists of molecules that inhibit three specific gene signaling components. This approach insulates the stem cell from signals that would normally cause it to differentiate. By blocking these signals, the researchers found that stem cells from rats, which have previously failed to propagate at all, could be grown indefinitely in the laboratory in the primitive embryonic state.
Researchers at USC are currently working on generating the first gene knockout rat through ES cell-based technologies. "If our work is feasible it is likely that many labs will follow up to generate different types of gene knockout rat models," he says. "This will have a major impact on the future of biomedical research."
FDA approves first imaging agent to enhance scans of blood flow
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Vasovist Injection, the first contrast imaging agent for use in patients undergoing magnetic resonance angiography, or MRA, a minimally invasive test for examining blood vessels.
Although MRA can be performed without the use of a contrast imaging agent, Vasovist provides a clearer image in patients who are suspected of having blockages or other problems with the blood vessels in their abdomen or limbs. The MRA is performed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which relies on magnetic fields to create highly detailed images of the inside the body.
"This MRA contrast imaging agent provides clinicians with a much clearer scan of blood vessels, compared to MRA without contrast, even in vessels that are difficult to scan because they twist and turn in the body," said John Jenkins, the FDA official in charge of new drugs.
When blood vessels are scanned using MRA without any contrast, radiologists are unable to interpret the images about 10 percent to 30 percent of the time. As a result, radiologists have typically used X-rays to detect blood vessel abnormalities. But this is a lengthy procedure and requires sticking a needle into an artery to inject the X-ray dye, a procedure that may result in injury to vessel walls, blood clots, allergic reactions and potential kidney damage. Vasovist is injected into a peripheral vein and no artery is punctured, thus the potential risks are fewer.
Vasovist is manufactured by a Massachusetts pharmaceuticals company. The active substance in Vasovist is gadolinium, a rare earth metal element that is detected by MRI scanners. When injected, gadolinium interacts with water molecules in the body, giving a stronger signal and, in turn, a better picture.
Two 4,300-year-old tombs found in Egypt 
Men walk near the site of two recently discovered tombs in Saqqara Dec. 22, 2008. Egyptian archaeologists have found the tombs of two court officials, in charge of music and pyramid building, in a 4,000 year old cemetery from the reign of Pharaoh Unas. The tombs were found buried in the sands south of Cairo and could shed light on the fifth and the sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, said Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
CAIRO, Dec. 22 -- An Egyptian archaeological mission has found two tombs dating back to some 4,300 years ago in the southern suburb of Cairo, an official said at the site on Monday.
"We announce a major important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300 years ago," Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) told reporters as he toured the site.
The two tombs found in an old cemetery in Saqqara, some 30 km south of Cairo, were from the reign of Pharaoh Unas of the fifth dynasty in ancient Egypt, the SCA has said in a press release.
The rock-cut tombs were found buried in the sands at the El-Deir bridge area in the Saqqara necropolis, some 400 meters away from the step-pyramid, said the press release. 
Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass speaks to the media about restoration work at the site of a recently discovered tomb in Saqqara Dec. 22, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
One of the tombs belonged to Iya-Maat, the supervisor of king Unas's missions to bring granite from Aswan and other materials from the Western Desert.
Iya-Maat bore several titles including the "supervisor of the king's property."
The second tomb was built for Thinh, who was a woman singer in the fifth dynasty and also had different titles such as "supervisor of all singers."
Hawass said the discovery was just the beginning of a large cemetery and the excavation would continue to find more ancient tombs in the area.
Year 2008 earns one more second due to slower Earth rotation
BEIJING, Dec. 22 -- The year 2008 will be one second longer as the global time service system will be adding a leap second at the end of the year to keep it synchronized with the rotation of the earth, the China's National Time Service Center said Monday.
This will be the 24th time adjustment since the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) called for the first leap second in 1971.
The leap second will come at 12:00 p.m. by Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Dec. 31.
For China, which uses the Beijing Time, eight hours ahead of GMT, the leap second will come at 7:59 a.m. on January 1, according to National Time Service Center based in Xi'an, capital of northwest Shaanxi Province.
The time people read from ordinary timepieces is determined by the rotation of the Earth and its celestial position, or universal time, which is counted 0 hour at midnight.
However, the Earth rotates in different speeds in different years, as it is affected by the moon's gravity, said Dou Zhong, a senior researcher at the center.
The international scientific community has relied on atomic clocks in since 1958 to accurately measure time based on atomic resonance frequency.
The atomic time that the IERS releases is calculated from the readings of more than 200 atomic clocks located in metrology institutes in about 30 countries, including China.
Although non-binding, countries throughout the world accept coordinated universal time announced every few years. The IERS rules that any time difference bigger than 0.9 second necessitates a one leap second in universal time. 
In a world that is increasingly more interconnected, Dou said, any refusal to the coordination in particular countries might lead lapse or even collapse in communication, aerospace, finance and transportation.
Since the introduction of atomic time, the Earth's rotation has gained 33 seconds. The last leap second occurred before 2006.
This illustration shows a male of the medium-sized predatory dinosaur Troodon, which lived in North America in the late Cretaceous Period, brooding over a clutch of newly laid eggs.(Photo: Shanghai Daily)
Dinosaur dads had a mothering instinct
BEIJING, Dec. 20 -- Scientists who examined the fossilized remains of three types of medium-sized dinosaurs found with large clutches of eggs have concluded that the males rather than the females seem to have taken care of the eggs.
Writing in the journal Science, they said this behavior is seen in certain existing species of birds. Scientists believe birds evolved from small, feathered predatory dinosaurs more than 150 million years ago.
The three types of dinosaurs, Troodon, Oviraptor and Citipati, lived roughly 75 million years ago and were primarily meat-eaters.
"There are a lot of characteristics that we once thought were unique to birds that are turning out not to be - that they first arose in their theropod ancestors," Montana State University paleontologist Frankie Jackson, one of the researchers, said.
The scientists said the findings suggest that at least in these types of dinosaurs, the males may have mated with several females that laid eggs in one large clutch. When the females left, the males incubated and protected the eggs on their own.
Male-only care for eggs occurs among certain large flightless birds such as emus and rheas and the South American tinamous, according to fellow Montana State University paleontologist David Varricchio.
In these cases, the dinosaurs were found with an unusually large number of eggs - each nest containing from 22 to 30 eggs. They were found in Montana in the case of Troodon, and Mongolia in the case of Oviraptor and Citipati.
After a close examination of the fossils, the scientists concluded the dinosaurs were males.
Males contribute to parental care in less than 5 percent of mammal and reptile species.
(Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies)
NZ singer breaks world record by singing for 47 hours
WELLINGTON, Dec. 15 -- New Zealand singer Karen Davy broke a world record on Monday after nearly 48 hours of non-stop singing in Auckland.
She went home for a well-earned sleep, with a world record and a lot of money promised to Kidney Kids, a charity which takes care of children with kidney disease.
Davy began her record attempt on Saturday morning at the Botany Town Center in southeast Auckland.
She ended 47 hours and 29 minutes later, breaking the record by51 minutes.
She got a five minutes break every one hour. Every song she sang had to be over three minutes in length and she got a 30-second break between songs to take a sip of water.
Each song was also timed by supporters and a representative of Guinness World Records.
She sang a series of songs which lasted three hours and repeated the series over and over for the duration of her 47 hours and 29 minutes on stage.
Butterfly found to have migrated 1,600 km from Japan to China
Dec. 19
Photo shows a chestnut tiger butterfly found in the city of Pingfu in Zhejiang Province, near Shanghai, in October 2006 that migrated from Japan. The butterfly, known scientifically as Parantica sita, tagged with letters and figures on its wings, was released in August that year in the central Japan city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, by a group of researchers from Japan and Taiwan. (Photo courtesy of Zhu Jianqing) (Kyodo)
What 20-centimeter high heel is like?
A saleswoman measures the height of the heel of a shoe in a shopping mall in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, Dec. 15, 2008. The high-heel shoe with a 10-centimeter-thick sole and 20-centimeter-high heel draws people's attention. (Xinhua/Zhao Xiaoming)
LONG HAIR of 2.1 Meters
Feng Wei combs her long hair at the restaurant she runs in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Dec. 15, 2008. Feng, 40-year-old, treasures her long hair of 2.1 meters, which hasn't been cut since she was ten. (Xinhua/Lin Yiguang)
colorized electron micrograph of a cluster of E. coli bacteria is shown in this undated handout from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Study: E.coli bacteria can be altered to make fuel
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20 -- E.coli, a strain of bacteria found in human digestive tracts, can be genetically altered to make fuel, a new study showed.
Scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA)have for the first time produced E.coli that can generate alcohol with five carbon atoms per molecule, instead of the normal two or three, according to the study published in the December edition of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Alcohol molecules with eight carbon atoms may also be possible, the researchers said in the study.
E.coli, which is usually associated with polluted beaches, can be modified so that each cell can generate "long-chain alcohol," an advance that could reduce global warming and increase fuel efficiency by using the bacteria to excrete a better form of fuel, said the researchers.
The genetically modified E.coli has the potential of making jetfuel, gasoline and other petroleum products that deliver much more energy, the study noted.
"We wanted to create larger, longer-chain molecules because they contain more energy," the study said. "This is significant in the production of gasoline and even jet fuel."
The new E.Coli bugs would be unleashed on organic material, much like Ethanol is produced from corn. But Ethanol has only two carbon atoms per molecule, and the greater the number of carbon atoms from the bacteria will increase the density of the biofuel, the study said.
The E.coli will be able to create biofuels that reduce pollution and deliver much-more energy per molecule than traditional biofuels like Ethanol, said lead scientist James Liao, at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Ketchun Zang, a co-author of the study, said E.coli was chosen for modification because "the genetic system is well known, it grows quickly and we can engineer it very easily.
"But this technique can actually be used on many different organisms, opening the door to vast possibilities in the realm of polymer (manufacturing), as well as drug manufacturing."
More Than 206 Million Chinese Rely On Internet For News
BEIJING, Dec 22 -- More than 206 million Chinese or 68.6 percent of the country's Internet users, are using the web to get their main source of news, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)reported.
CASS, a top academic institution, released the figure in the Blue Book of China's Economy (2009) report, Xinhua news agency reported Monday.
Disasters such as snow storms during the Lunar New Year holiday, the massive earthquake that struck the southwestern Sichuan province in May as well as the Olympics stimulated the growth of the online news population, said Zhu Huaxin, author of the report.
"The year 2008 saw rapid development and wide application of the Internet in China," he said.
At the end of June, Chinese Internet users hit 253 million, the most in the world. The latest official figures put users at 290 million. That's 80 million more Internet users than in 2007, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
About 80 percent of these users look for information and news through the Internet. Around 60 percent of them use search engines.
CNNIC found that people younger than 30 are the majority of online news readers, accounting for about 69 percent of total Internet users.
In response to the phenomenon, Xinhua News Agency launched a multi-language news search engine, "Xinhua Search Engine," on its official website: xinhuanet.com (or news.cn).
Users can find photos, videos and articles in Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic languages.
Aussie State Govt To Ban Smoking In Cars With Kids
MELBOURNE, Dec 22 -- People in the state of Victoria will be banned from smoking in cars with kids and cigarettes will no longer be displayed in shops under tough new laws.
The Victorian state government here hopes that the new laws, announced on Monday, will help cut smoking rates in Victoria by 20 per cent by 2013.
But the ban on smoking in cars with children under the age of 18 will not come into effect until January 2010, while the ban on point-of-sale displays of cigarettes will be mandatory from January 2011, the Herald Sun newspaper reports.
Victoria's Health Minister Daniel Andrews said other measures in the Victorian Tobacco Control Strategy 2008 -2013 included A$22 million in funding for anti-smoking ads, making public school grounds smoke-free by July 1, 2009 and a boost to services to high-risk groups to quit smoking.
Herb Used In Chinese Therapy May Help Fight Aids
Dec 22 -- A herb used in Chinese therapy may provide succour to HIV patients as well as help in other immuno-deficiency and age-related diseases, according to researchers.
"The ability to enhance telomeric activity and anti-viral functions of CD8 T-lymphocytes suggests that this strategy could be useful in treating HIV disease, as well as immuno-deficiency and increased susceptibility to other viral infections associated with chronic diseases or aging," the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted a researcher as saying in a study conducted at UCLA AIDS Institute, Los Angeles.
The study has found that a chemical from the astragalus root, often used in Chinese herbal therapy, can prevent or slow the progressive telomere shortening, which can make it a key weapon in the fight against AIDS.
"This has the potential to be either added to or possibly even replace the HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy), which is not tolerated well by some patients and is also costly," said study co-author Rita Effros, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and member of the AIDS Institute.
Like other kinds of cells like immune cells lose the ability to divide as they age because a part of their chromosomes known as a telomere becomes progressively shorter with cell division. As a result, the cell changes in many ways, and its disease fighting ability is compromised.
-- BERNAMA
110 Tigers Lost In India's Forest Since 2002
NEW DELHI -- India's forests have lost at least 110 royal striped cats including 17 tigress since 2002 due to poaching and natural deaths, according to a government data.
The figures made available under the RTI Act reflects that the royal predators have been unsafe not only in non-protected area but also inside reserves, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Monday quoting the data.
This year till November, 14 cases of tiger mortality including four tigress and two cubs have been reported.
Of six cases of poaching, three tigers were killed in the last month itself with one each outside Kanha and Khatiya buffer range in Madhya Pradesh, and another in Dudhwa tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh, according to the data.
Similarly, as many as 30 endangered big cats died in 2007, highest in the past five years, with 16 perishing in reserves while 14 in non-protected areas.
Five big cats died in world famous Corbett Tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh while Bandipur park in Madhya Pradesh lost two tigress whose death reasons could not be assessed due to completely putrefied status of the body.
During the same period, 14 cases of tiger mortality was reported from outside reserves of which five of the big cats were killed in poaching and three due to poisoning.
A man-eater tiger which had strayed in Chandrapur in Maharashtra Nagpur region had to be shot dead by the forest department late last year.
"These are official figures and the actual figures may be higher," Delinda Wright, prominent wildlife expert, noted.
The situation was grim in 2006 too when eight tigress and two male striped cats died inside the reserves in various tiger range states.
-- BERNAMA
Some of the paint jobs cost $15,000 and had to be repeated every 3 months as the cat's hair grows out. Must be nice to have $60,000 a year just to keep your cat painted!!
And people wonder why cats sometimes attack their owners!!
Hey Guys This is really fun try it out.....
Aahhh the internet age. Speed of Innovation and the joy of sharing.
Anybody has any link to the white house.....sent s copy to Bush.
BUSH SHOE THROWING GAME.
How many times u can hit him in 50 seconds?
http://bushbash.flashgressive.de/
Success in Pay Per Click Advertising - 5 Models
to Boost Profits in PPC Search Engine Marketing
Written by marketingschool on Dec-15-08 7:25pm
From: themarketingbeast.net
Truly, with the proper combination of affiliate marketing strategies, you will generate massively an affiliate commission online in your affiliate marketing business. You will maximize your return on investment in pay per click (or PPC) advertising with those utilization and combination. You will discover and learn the example of affiliate marketing business models to show you the power of strategies combination in affiliate marketing business.
There are many business models to maximize your profits online and allow you to earn huge of money on the internet. In this article, you will discover and learn 5 affiliate business models in pay per click search engine marketing to earn huge affiliate commission and grow your home based affiliate business.
1. PPC - Merchant Site.
Basically, this approach is the easiest affiliate marketing strategy to earn commission online. You can start earning affiliate commission in PPC online advertising by: (1) joining the affiliate programs and getting the affiliate links (2) signing up the PPC search engine account and (3) creating PPC online advertising campaigns with those affiliate links. It is used to drive directly visitors from pay per click (PPC) search engine, like Google Adwords, Overture and MSNAdCenter, to merchants’ website. The approach is suitable for testing the new affiliate products in your affiliate marketing business only. With the niche keywords, this technique is a great way for testing whether those new products can be sold in the markets. You can not maximize profits online and earn huge commission with this approach.
The purpose of this approach is to test driving traffic to the merchant sites. It will be perfectly fit for new products entering into the markets. You can easily setup your PPC advertising campaigns for testing those new products. Obviously, you can use this technique only for testing those products to evaluate whether it can be sold or not.
2. PPC - Review Page - Merchant Site.
The next affiliate business model is to provide quality contents along with the product reviews in the review web page. You should consider creating your own review page. This is one of the most popular affiliate marketing business models for affiliate marketing entrepreneurs. Also, it is an effective way to convenience the visitors with the contents, before they make any purchases. You can drive visitors from PPC search engine to your review page directly. Within the review page, you can give high quality content and unbiased products reviews. Also, you can embed the affiliate links into the review page in order to drive forward your visitors to merchants’ website.
The purpose of this approach is to drive quality content to your visitors before they will make any purchases. It can be used perfectly when you have profitable several affiliate products at the same time. Otherwise, it can be used if you ensure that those affiliate products are profitable.
3. PPC - Review Page - Tell a Friend - Merchant Site.
This approach is applied the concept of viral marketing strategy in order to spread your review page or website to other people. The viral marketing strategy is one of the quickest approaches to increase your reputation, creditability and reliability. It is all about the “Word of Mouth” strategy. The “Tell a Friend” script is a great example of viral marketing strategy and it can be used perfectly for this business model. With this script, your review page will be sent out to other people quickly, like a virus. After sending to the other people, it will redirect your visitors to the merchants’ website for selling further.
The purpose of this approach is to spread out your review page, where the content is, to other people quickly and massively as much as possible. With the “Tell a Friend” script, your web page will be sent massively out as soon as possible too.
4. PPC - Squeeze Page - Review Page - Merchant Site.
Another great affiliate marketing business model is to combine both of email promotion internet marketing, review page approach and back-end selling process. You can drive visitors from PPC search engine to a squeeze page, which is a web page used for capturing visitors’ personal information. When you capture completely the personal information in the squeeze page, it will redirect your visitors to the review page where you can give them the product recommendation. Finally, it will lead your visitors to the merchants’ website for purchasing purpose from the review page.
There is doubt that the combination of email promotion internet marketing and product review approach is used for utilizing the power of back-end selling process. You can sell other affiliate products to those visitors or even your existing buyers in the future. You can follow-up them about the products or services. This will create the impressive to your customers or potential buyers.
5. PPC - Squeeze Page - Tell a Friend - Review Page - Merchant Site.
The last affiliate marketing business model is the best approach for affiliate entrepreneurs to earn huge affiliate commission and maximize the power of several affiliate marketing strategies in this article. Obviously, you can insert the viral marketing strategies, particularly the “Tell a Friend” script, in order to spread out to the world. You can redirect from your squeeze page to the web page with the “Tell a Friend” script, before forwarding to the review page, where the content is, and merchant site respectively.
The purpose of this business model is used for affiliate marketing entrepreneurs who want to increase massively profits online through the affiliate products. With the power of emails, viral marketing strategy and product review approach, you will maximize return on investment and profits in PPC online advertising for your home based affiliate business.
Final thoughts, the inside secret of affiliate millionaires to your success in those business models is to drive high quality traffic through hot niche keywords with low competitors from PPC engines. Without the appropriate techniques in PPC online advertising, you can not maximize your profits online with those above business models in the affiliate marketing business.
Learn more secrets of how to become a wealthy affiliate millionaire through PPC online advertising. You will discover up-to-date affiliate information, top profitable recommended online affiliate marketing programs, do effective research, improve continuously your home based affiliate business, learn how to make big money online from home over $5,000 a day and participant with other successful affiliate marketing entrepreneurs. You will discover great tips on internet affiliate marketing for your highly successful. Also, you will save your time and money for your trial & error.
Join now - get the full access to unlimited business and revenue ideas, detailed reviews of your sale letter, candid critiques of your website design, traffic campaign strategies proven to attract buyers and tricks to increase your sales by 400% or more! You will discover and learn proven moneymaking secrets to instantly increase your sales over $10,000 per month or more!
Read more valuable articles, news and up-to-date information about home based affiliate business at: http://www.zMillionDollars.com/blog. You will discover a wealthy of informative about how to start, build, run and grow your home based affiliate business.
*Reprint Policy: Reprint in full with writer’s name, contact information, active links and brief bio
New Jeddah Airport
Finally We can get to see a new Terminal
in years to come, instead of HUJJAJ
OMA in the Middle East: Office for Metropolitan Architecture have designed a new international airport for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia .
Located between Jeddah and Mecca , the airport will cater for the two million pilgrims who make the journey to Mecca during the holy Hajj period and features a special terminal for the Saudi Royal Family (top two images). 
The main terminal is in the shape of a ring with an oasis at its centre and is configured to cope with a massive increase in visitor numbers during the Hajj , while the smaller Royal terminal echoes the form of the larger building.
Below is a statement from OMA:
NEW JEDDAH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
For 33 days per year the new Jeddah Airport will host the influx of two million Muslims for the holy Hajj period in Mecca . No other airport in the world can claim such overwhelming specificity of its use. These programmatic requirements form the base for a new approach to both the organization of the airport and its architecture. 
Predictability over indeterminacy
Airports come in two sizes: too big and too small. Fundamentally compromised by the necessity to accommodate unpredictable future expansions , airports are ultimately forced to 'gamble' on their right size. In terms of its design the airport is condemned to a permanent open end. 
With the Hajj as one of the main defining elements , the new Jeddah International Airport presents a unique situation: its expansion is a given in advance , occurring at a fixed moment for a fixed length of time. This relative predictability allows the design of the Jeddah airport to acquire a level of specificity unheard of in a 'regular' airport: allowing the rehabilitation of the particular over the general , of centrality over linearity , and of character over blandness. 
Arrival over departure
Airports are primarily places one leaves from. With the business trip and the vacation as the airport's main , perhaps even only , use , the excitement of going away generally outweighs that of coming back. 
This discrepancy is also expressed in the design of the airport , with departures generally located in a 'grandiose space' on top (mostly under a billowing roof) and arrivals located in a flat utilitarian luggage-collect-space below , making the first acquaintance with a new destination often one of disappointment. 
The unique condition and purpose of the new Jeddah International Airport presents us with a compelling reason to consider arriving with the same consideration as leaving. ( Mecca you don't leave , to Mecca you go!) 
The surface required by the Hajj equals that of the airport itself. Accommodating the Hajj theoretically means building the same volume twice , with one volume being empty for most of the year. In the current situation this is solved by having the Hajj section as a temporary structure in the form of a big tent.
Design Proposal
The initial proposal resulted in six different schemes with an emblematic quality. The final design follows the organizing principal of 'the ring'. Both the main terminal and Royal pavilion with their crescent-like shape enclose an internal oasis that can accommodate different forms of use. The layout of the airport is organized in such a way that Airport and Hajj become a single integrated whole without forci.
Sub Prime Crises Simply Explain
One day, a plain-looking man came with a pretty-looking OL (OfficeLady)
to the LV store in Causeway Bay (Hong Kong Island).
He chose an LV bag worth HKD 65,000 for the OL.
When it came time to pay, the man took out a checkbook and wrote out a
check. The salesperson was hesitant because the couple hadn't shopped there before.
The man discerned what the salesperson was thinking and he said calmly:
'I sense that you are concerned that this check may bounce, right?
Today is Saturday and the banks are closed.
Let me suggest that I leave the check and the handbag here. When the
check clears on Monday, you can deliver the handbag to this lady.
How about that?
The salesperson was reassured and gladly accepted the suggestion.
In addition, he waived the delivery charges.
He promised that he would personally make sure that this gets done.
On Monday, the salesperson took the check to the bank. The check bounced!
The irate salesperson called up the client, who told him:
'What is the big deal? Neither you nor I have suffered any loss.
Last Saturday night, I went to bed with that girl already!
Oh, by the way, I thank you for your cooperation.'
This story reveals the nature of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
When people have high hopes for huge future returns,
they lower their guard about the potential risks.
This pretty girl thought that the HKD 65,000 LV bag was going to come home on Monday,
and so she lowered her guard.
Therefore, she believed that her investment in the ONS
(one night stand) was worth it even though it was based upon huge and
highly uncertain risks.
Investment companies are great with packaging high return (but high
risk) deals. The Chinese stock speculators are like this pretty woman.
As such, they deserve to lose money. Without
people like these, how are people going to make money from the stock market?
As for the media and the stock analysts, they often play the role of
theLV salesperson.
Don't you agree with the truthfulness of the above-mentioned
statements?
What Happens When We Die?
By M.J. STEPHEY
A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.
What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?
When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.
How does this project relate to society's perception of death?
People commonly perceive death as being a moment - you're either dead or you're alive. And that's a social definition we have. But the clinical definition we use is when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and as a consequence the brain itself stops working. When doctors shine a light into someone's pupil, it's to demonstrate that there is no reflex present. The eye reflex is mediated by the brain stem, and that's the area that keeps us alive; if that doesn't work, then that means that the brain itself isn't working. At that point, I'll call a nurse into the room so I can certify that this patient is dead. Fifty years ago, people couldn't survive after that.
How is technology challenging the perception that death is a moment?
Nowadays, we have technology that's improved so that we can bring people back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they'll ever make it to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine you fast-forward to 10 years down the line; and you've given a patient, whose heart has just stopped, this amazing drug; and actually what it does is, it slows everything down so that the things that would've happened over an hour, now happen over two days. As medicine progresses, we will end up with lots and lots of ethical questions.
But what is happening to the individual at that time? What's really going on? Because there is a lack of blood flow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And within about 5 min. or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so great that even if we restart the heart again and pump blood, the person can no longer be viable, because the cells have just been changed too much. And then the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it's not a moment; it's a process that actually begins when the heart stops and culminates in the complete loss of the body, the decompositions of all the cells. However, ultimately what matters is, What's going on to a person's mind? What happens to the human mind and consciousness during death? Does that cease immediately as soon as the heart stops? Does it cease activity within the first 2 sec., the first 2 min.? Because we know that cells are continuously changing at that time. Does it stop after 10 min., after half an hour, after an hour? And at this point we don't know.
What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?
Eye-opening and very humbling. Because what you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine people who are not looking for any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven't even told anybody else about it because they're afraid of what people will think of them. I have about 500 or so cases of people that I've interviewed since I first started out more than 10 years ago. It's the consistency of the experiences, the reality of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present who said these patients had told them exactly what had happened, and they couldn't explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles - not just the patients' side but also the doctors' side - and see how it feels for the doctors to have a patient come back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn't told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail what he had said and done. He was so freaked out by it that he just decided not to think about it anymore.
Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?
Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that, well, when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment - you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions. If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with. But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton's laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy - even Einstein himself didn't believe in it.
Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can't separate the mind and brain; they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when the brain shuts down, that we see that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics. The CERN particle accelerator may take us back to our roots. It may take us back to the first moments after the Big Bang, the very beginning. With our study, for the first time, we have the technology and the means to be able to investigate this. To see what happens at the end for us. Does something continue?
STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters.... S.T.R.
My nurse friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree.
If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously..
Please read:
STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .....she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.
They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.
Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die.... they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.
It only takes a minute to read this...
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke... totally . He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke .
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 999/911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people;
you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
Obama Family Moving to Washington
