Former McLaren Mercedes test driver Pedro de la Rosa will likely return to Formula One racing as a full-time driver with Peter Sauber’s team. Although the news is yet to be made official, several media in Spain and Switzerland have suggested that the confirmation is due to be made public in a matter of hours, or a few days at the most.
De la Rosa was on Sauber’s list of desired drivers for the past couple of weeks, alongside another experienced F1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella. A few… (read more)
It seems the car industry doesn’t have any problems left that need to be solved. Or what else can explain Nissan’s shot at designing a car that can “show emotions”? The so-called Smiling Vehicle was jointly developed by the Hara Design Institute Nippon Design Center and the automaker. And yes, the mini vehicle, based on the Nissan Cube, does look friendly.
The concept car is covered with a substance called ROICA, a a polyurethane elastomer fiber from major chemical company Asahi Kasei. ROICA has the ability to deform by up to 900% and is normally used for producing shoes, clothes or car seats. Combine the material with Animatronics, and you get a car grill that can actually “smile”.
The idea behind the Smiling Vehicle sounds rather esoteric. Apparently, Nissan sees this technology as an extension of the driver’s character, meaning it can be used to express your current feeling when you sit in the car. This involves being able to share your feeling with other drivers thereby communicating with other people while on the go.
This video (courtesy of Diginfonews in Tokyo) shows the Smiling Vehicle in action:
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I came across this list of suggested readings from Mark’s Daily Apple, and thought that some of you may enjoy going through the list.
If you thought that all those ‘of the year’ and ‘of the decade’ lists that flooded the web at the end of the year were over, think again. The renowned American Dialect Society has released the results of its 20th annual word of the year vote and the winner was rather predictable. ‘Tweet,’ the act of posting a short message on Twitter and the message … (read more)
Last month, when the October employment numbers came out looking good, a number of commenters rushed to slam the number, and argue why it was totally distorted.
On Friday, the November numbers came out looking pretty weak, and they were still bad. And yet critics are doing the same — arguing that however bad they looked, in reality they were much worse.
TrimTabs is the market research firm that always complains about BLS methodology, and they usualy home in on the birth-death issue (the estimate for the creation of new businesses that the government uses). Here’s their latest broadside.
—–
Job Situation Worse than BLS Reports
TrimTabs’ Estimates more than 152,000 Jobs Lost in December, while BLS Reports Decline of 85,000
Gigantic Seasonal Adjustments and Mysterious “Birth/Death” Adjustment Distort BLS Data
TrimTabs employment analysis, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, estimated that the U.S. economy shed more than 150,000 jobs in December. While end-of-month calendar quirks and unknown December bonus payments prevented a precise job loss estimate, there was enough data to suggest that job losses were at best 150,000 and at worst as high as 200,000.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the U.S. economy lost 85,000 jobs in December. They revised their October and November results down 123,000 jobs, resulting in a 39% labor market improvement relative to their preliminary results.
We believe the BLS is underestimating current job losses due to flawed seasonal adjustments and a mysterious “birth/death” adjustment. In our opinion, the BLS is doing the public a huge disservice because while its results point to recovering economy, TrimTabs’ results point to a dangerously weak economy.
Flawed Seasonal Adjustments
Seasonal adjustments are designed to smooth out the regular ups and downs in employment over the course of a year. These adjustments assume a repetitive employment cycle and work reasonably well when the economy is growing at a steady pace year-after-year. However, when the economy turns, the seasonal adjustment methodology breaks down. In particular, the current economic downturn has persisted for almost two years and the seasonal adjustment methodology was never designed to address this type of environment.
The problem worsens during the holiday season because the BLS applies huge seasonal adjustments to account for the large number of temporary retail jobs added and then subtracted to payrolls. In the past three months, the BLS seasonal adjustments subtracted a staggering 3.5 million jobs from an adjusted job loss of 208,000. In January, when the seasonal adjustments are the largest of the year, the BLS will add anywhere from 2.0 to 2.3 million jobs to their survey results. In our opinion, applying a seasonal adjustment numbering in the millions, in order to report monthly job losses numbering in the tens of thousands, is a fool’s errand.
Mysterious Birth/Death Adjustment
The BLS applies a “birth/death” adjustment to its results that is nothing more than an educated guess about the number of jobs added or lost from business openings and business closings. In 2008 and 2009, the BLS’ “birth/death” adjustment added 904,000 and 882,000 jobs, respectively, for a total of 1.79 million. By way of comparison, in 2006 and 2007, the BLS’ “birth/death” adjustment added 964,000 and 1.13 million jobs, respectively. We find it highly unlikely that in 2008 and 2009, during the worst recession since the 1930’s, more businesses opened than closed netting 1.79 million jobs.
A comparison of TrimTabs’ employment results versus the BLS’ results from January 2008 through December 2009 is summarized below.
Source: TrimTabs Investment Research – www.trimtabs.com and Bureau of Labor Statistics – www.bls.com
Several other employment related statistics support Trimtabs’ conclusion that the labor market is weaker than what the BLS is reporting:
· Real-Time tax withholding data shows that wages and salaries declined an adjusted 4.1% y-o-y. While that is better than the average 5.0% y-o-y decline over the past several months, it is still singnaling significant labor market contraction.
· The TrimTabs Online Jobs Index reported lower online job availability in December
· The Monster Employment Index declined in December
· The employment component of the ISM Non-manufacturing Index was 44.0 in December, well below 50.0 which signals employment growth.
· Household employment fell by 589,000 in December as the labor force declined by 661,000
· The unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0% and the broadest measure of unemployment (U-6) pointed to a jobless rate of 17.3%
· The median duration of unemployment increased to 20.5 weeks in December, up from 20.2 weeks in November. At the end of December, a whopping 10.4 million people were collecting some form of unemployment insurance, up from 9.0 million at the beginning of November.
For a complete analysis of the current employment situation and economic conditions, refer to TrimTabs Weekly Macro Analysis published this coming Tuesday, January 12, 2010.
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Cobra Electronics recently presented the world’s first full color touchscreen radar detector, a model included in the 2010 range of detection systems that are said to be easier to use as compared to their predecessors. We can’t really appreciate how difficult to use a radar detector actually is since it only features a few buttons, but the touchscreen support is surely a great addition to such a device.
Besides the touchscreen display, Cobra also rolled out the first radar, laser … (read more)
The labour force contracted by 661,000. This did not show up in the headline jobless rate because so many Americans dropped out of the system. The broad U6 category of unemployment rose to 17.3pc. That is the one that matters.
Wall Street rallied. Bulls hope that weak jobs data will postpone monetary tightening: a silver lining in every catastrophe, or perhaps a further exhibit of market infantilism.
The home foreclosure guillotine usually drops a year or so after people lose their job, and exhaust their savings. The local sheriff will escort them out of the door, often with some sympathy –– just like the police in 1932, mostly Irish Catholics who tithed 1pc of their pay for soup kitchens.
Read the whole story at The Telegraph — >
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Now that the holiday season is behind us and nothing really exciting in terms of fun and partying can be expected in the near future, all that’s left to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the spring depression which will soon engulf us all. Or, one could go and buy him/herself one of these: the Mercedes Benz SL Night Edition or the SLK Grand Edition.
The SL Night Edition comes with special design magno night black paint finish specially created for it – we know, not exactly the most… (read more)
sorry to start another innocuous thread…
my partner and I are planning to drive down to melbourne on the 29th this month (leaving on the friday after lunch time, have basically the weekend to get down there – i’m wanting to fly back sunday evening sometime) -> just wondering if there’s anyone familiar with driving the route who could suggest a logical, well paced itinerary. Don’t particularly want to be too leisurely, but not wanting a 20hr non-stop marathon either.
Any suggestions?
Cheers.
Daniel.
US F1 announced the signing of… hold on, it’s not a racer we’re discussing here, but a job of team managing for their F1 operations… John Anderson. The former American Le Mans Series manager (for Gil de Ferran) will guide the team’s first steps in Formula One next season, as his 30-year experience in North American motor racing convinced co-owners Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor that he’s the man for the job.
Windsor did announce, mid-way through the 2009 season, that US F1 wil… (read more)
Although BoomTown completely enjoyed having dinner with entertainment agency overlord Ari Emanuel last week–hey, it was a Hollywood party at the Consumer Electronics Show, so name-dropping is required–I have little interest in the money and scheduling machinations that broke out last week over NBC Universal’s late-night television talk shows.
But I do love the roundelay of online videos this Tinseltown mess has created.
It all has to do with Jay Leno stinking up the joint in his newish 10 pm time slot, which has caused NBC affiliates to revolt, which–in turn–has sent broadcast network execs into a decided chicken-with-its-head-cut-off panic.
Thus, their big and cloddish idea to reschedule Leno back to late night, while trying to hipcheck Conan O’Brien from his 11:35 pm perch, all without incurring a big contract penalty fee. Jimmy Fallon, who comes on after O’Brien, also is part of the shovefest, as is after-Fallon host Carson Daly.
And, of course, all of them got to comment on it all on–yes–their late-night comedy routines that open the shows.
Here are Leno and O’Brien riffing on the silly crisis–as well as ABC’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel weighing in with Daly’s help–at the GE (GE) unit that just got bought by Comcast (CMCSK).
And below is an interview I did with NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last May, talking about a range of topics, including what a brilliant idea it was going to be to move Leno to an earlier, five-night-a-week slot.
Not so much, Jeff!
But enjoy the ensuing videos:
LENO
O’BRIEN
KIMMEL/DALY
ZUCKER
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Here’s some very exciting news for English-speaking readers interested in financial/economic news out of China.
The former editor of the highly regarded shuttered publication Caijing, Hu Shuli, has just launched her new publication Caixin. (thanks @niubi!)
The feature article is an instant-classic from Hong Kong-based economist Andy Xie on the kind of trouble facing China.
He takes a little while to warm up, before getting to the meat of the problem:
The overwhelming desire for getting rich quick dominates every nook, fissure and strata of Chinese society. Such desires cannot be fulfilled; the terrible logic of economics is that money must circulate. Creating bubbles can temporarily blind people to this logic, as overvalued assets substitute for money to fill psychological needs. This is why, whenever conditions permit, China seems to have asset bubbles.
Bubbles exaggerate reality but are not formed out of thin air. Cheap money and strong growth are the usual ingredients for bubble-making. Both existed over the past five years. But now, China depends entirely on cheap money to support overvalued assets. Cheap money came from past exports and was warehoused in banks. Cash also came from hot money inflows due to the yuan’s peg to the dollar and weak Fed dollar policy.
Neither money source is sustainable. The dollar has bottomed. The Fed will begin raising interest rates in 2010. The combination of China’s strong loan and weak export growth is reducing bank liquidity, but inflation soon may force China to tighten anyway. The cheap money may not last long.
China’s exports are recovering from a low base – a trend that may last through 2010. But one should not confuse low base recovery with a revival of past trends.
The high export growth era is over for three reasons. China’s market share in global trade is twice as big as its GDP share. The odds are low that China could continue to expand its market share. Second, the tide won’t rise as fast as before. The Greenspan era saw a credit bubble supercharge western consumption, but the bubble has burst. Odds are that future trade growth will be half or less as in the past. Finally, a western employment crisis will lead to protectionism targeting China. Other developing countries may gain market share at China’s expense.
Read the whole thing at Caixin — >
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Sorry Robert Pattinson – there is at least one woman in the world who isn’t in love with you. Welsh stunner Catherine Zeta-Jones likes her men mature and eligible for AARP! The 40-year-old Oscar-winner – who is married to Michael Douglas, 65, – says she doesn’t find younger men attractive.
“I know that young men are more unbiased, playful and firmer. There’s no question about that,” Catherine admits in the January issue of German In Style. “But they are also more selfish and narcissistic. That is why they never had a chance to go out with me. I need a man who is sensitive and caring. Someone who is superior to me and I can lean on. But that doesn’t mean that I fancy old and fat men.”
We guess Catherine’s no cougar!
As a special treat for this week’s London International Boat Show, luxury super yacht builder Sunseeker teamed up with British sportscar manufacturer Caterham to add a bit of spice to the millionaires’ lifestyle.
So, instead of housing a small sports boat, the garage area at the stern of the Sunseeker Predator 108 Special Edition hides a Caterham Seven, for the transition from sea to land at glamorous harbors, like Monaco, St Tropez or Cannes.
The Predator 108 Spec… (read more)
Just as CES is wrapping up, we managed to get some hands-on time with the AirStash wireless SD card reader, which is targeted at iPhone OS devices (but does work with other WiFi-enabled devices). Like many of the mysterious products from Vegas we have no price, release date or battery life, but what we do know now is that it’s indeed very light (1.5 ounces), fits nicely in our hands and supports up to 32GB SDHC cards. As for wireless connection the AirStash acts as a WiFi 802.11b/g access point — a cunning way to dodge the Apple dock connector license fees or the lack of Bluetooth profiles. Sadly, the prototype wasn’t working properly due to “some RF interference,” but as you can see above, the AirStash is accessed via a browser (UI design not final). Sure, this would mean you’d lose Internet connection via WiFi, but if the AirStash is cheap enough, then we’ll live with it. Let’s hope they hurry up with the release, though.
AirStash wireless SD card reader hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MENGUCAPKAN :
Semoga visi dan misi Bapak Gubernur dan Wakil Gubernur hingga akhir masa jabatan pada tahun 2013 dapat tercapai sebagaimana janji beliau saat Pilkada.
Janji: Awang Faroek Ishak – Farid Wadjdy
Alhamdulillah, kini Listrik sudah jarang byar pet, mudah-mudahan tidak kumat dan layanan publik lainnya segera dapat dirasakan manfaatnya bagi warga Kaltim. Amiiin.
Posted in Berita, Blog, Umum Tagged: 2010, Indonesia, Kaltim 
The Peugeot SR1 Concept will be presented at the 2010 Geneva motor show, and it just might be enough to help me forgive them for getting rid of the Peugeot GTI badge. The SR1 Concept is part of a total brand revamp that will take place this year, similar to that which Citroen has also been developing.
The SR1 Concept, after the Peugeot RCZ, is a key part of what will become Peugeot’s new brand image, which has already seen a restyling of the Peugeot logo. The SR1 is a kind of futuristic gran turismo, ecological model, with Hybrid4 technology. The entire engine unit is based on a 1.6-litre THP motor with 218 hp, and an electric motor with another 95 hp mounted at the rear axle.
This means the Peugeot SR1 is capable of a total of 313 hp, using only 4.9 litres of fuel per 100 km, and 119 g/km of CO2 emissions. In full electric mode, the car has zero emissions. The SR1 will be an all-wheel drive model, showing obvious gran turismo styling with a long bonnet, but muscly look. The inside of the SR1 features an unusual three-seater layout with a centre console at the front that can move foward to allow the occupants to enter more easily.
The Peugeot SR1 will be just part of an interesting stand from the company at the Geneva motor show, and together with the RCZ, it should mark a new design language for Peugeot. Time will tell whether the direction that is being taken is the right one, or whether Peugeot is losing some of its individuality to follow the coupe, gran turismo fashion.
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass)
Press release with three photos:
A collection of tombs that belong to workers who built Khufu’s pyramid has been discovered in the area of the workmen’s tombs on the Giza plateau, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced.Hosni added that the tombs were found by an Egyptian excavation team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Dr. Hawass said that the tombs are dated to the 4th Dynasty and belong to workmen who built the pyramids of Khufu (2609-25840 BC) and Khafre (2576-2551 BC).
“This is the first time to uncover tombs like the ones that were found during the 1990’s, which belong to the late 4th and 5th Dynasties (2649-2374 BC),” asserted Hawass, pointing out that this group of tombs can be considered one of the most important discoveries of the 20th and the 21st centuries, as they shed more light on the early period of the 4th Dynasty, as well as contradicting rumors that the pyramids were constructed through slavery.
“These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves. If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king’s,” concluded Hawass.
The most important tomb is the one belonging to Idu. It is rectangular in structure with a mud brick outside casing covered with plaster. It has several burial shafts cased with white limestone, as well as niches in front of each shaft.
Adel Okasha, supervisor of the excavation, said that the upper part of Idu’s tomb had a vaulted shape, symbolizing the eternal hill from which the human creation began, according to the Memphis religious tradition. This shape, said Okasha, is strong evidence that this tomb dates to the early 4th Dynasty. This shape is also similar to those of tombs located beside Snefru’s pyramid in Dahshur.
On the western side of Idu’s tomb, the mission uncovered another collection of workmen’s tombs as well as the remains of coffins, while on its southern side another large tomb has been found. It is a rectangular shaped tomb built of mud brick with several burial shafts, each one containing a bent skeleton along with sherds of clay.
Evidence uncovered also revealed that the families in the Delta and Upper Egypt sent 21 cattle and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the workers. Hawass pointed out that the families who sent these were not paying their taxes to the Egyptian government, but rather they were sharing in one of Egypt’s national projects. The number of workers did not exceeded 10,000, said Hawass, contradictory to Herodotus, who recorded that the number of workers reached 100,000.
Hawass said that this discovery indicates that the workers came from top families of the Delta and Upper Egypt. Workers rotated every three months, and those who were buried there died during the construction process.
Dr. Hawass asserted that according to science and archaeology we cannot fix a time for the construction of the pyramid. Limiting it to a specific season is wrong as it was based on incorrect information that the construction process was only executed during the three months of the flood. The transportation of the granite, basalt and limestone blocks used in the construction was only conducted during the flood season, but the construction work was not limited to this season, and lasted for the whole year. The blocks used in the construction of the body of the pyramid were brought from the Giza plateau itself.
The discovery of the cemetery of the pyramid builders occurred in 1990 when a horse was stumbled on top of a mud brick structure ten meters far of the necropolis located to the south of the wall. The necropolis is composed of two levels connected by a ramp. It is composed of different shapes and styles of tombs, some are pyramid shaped while others are vaulted and some contain false doors.
And a flurry of media articles that have picked up the story . . . .
Thanks to Stan Parchin for the link
Discoveries like these reveal other aspects of ancient Egyptian society besides just the stone monuments and temples frequented by priests, rulers and nobles, explained Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo.”It is important to find tombs that belong to lower class people that are not made out of stone that tell you about the social organization and the relative wealth of a range of people,” she said.
Workers’ tombs from the 4th Dynasty were typically made of mud bricks and shaped like cones and covered in white plaster, probably echoing the nearby limestone-clad pyramids of the kings.
The most important new tomb discovered, according to Hawass, belonged to a man named Idu and the statement described it as rectangular in structure, with a plaster covered mud brick outside casing.
Egyptian archaeologists discovered a new set of tombs belonging to the workers who built the great pyramids, shedding light on how the laborers lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago, the antiquities department said Sunday.The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor of being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.
The newly discovered tombs date to Egypt’s 4th Dynasty (2575 B.C. to 2467 B.C.) when the great pyramids were built, according to the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.
Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in the area in 1990, he said, and discoveries such as these show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.
With photo
Egyptian archaeologists discovered a new set of tombs belonging to the workers who built the great pyramids, shedding light on how the laborers lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago, the antiquities department said Sunday.The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, worked in three months shifts and were given the honor of being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on.
The newly discovered tombs date to Egypt’s 4th Dynasty (2575 B.C. to 2467 B.C.) when the great pyramids were built, according to the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass.
Business Week (Mahmoud Kassem)
Egypt’s discovery of a group of ancient tombs of workmen who built the Pyramids of Giza suggests that the workers who built the final resting place of the Pharaohs weren’t slaves, the Culture Ministry said today.The tombs which date back to the reigns of Pharaohs Khufu and Khafra are part of a complex of workers’ tombs that were first discovered when a horse stumbled upon the necropolis in 1990, the Cairo-based ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Khufu and Khafra ruled between 2609 B.C. and 2551 B.C., it said.
“These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves,” Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement. “If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside the king’s.”
The Independent, UK (Owen Jarus)
With a photograph of the statue in situ.
No statue of a pharaoh has ever been found further south of Egypt than this one. At the height of his reign, King Taharqa controlled an empire stretching from Sudan to the Levant.A massive, one ton, statue of Taharqa that was found deep in Sudan. Taharqa was a pharaoh of the 25th dynasty of Egypt and came to power ca. 690 BC, controlling an empire stretching from Sudan to the Levant. The pharaohs of this dynasty were from Nubia – a territory located in modern day Sudan and southern Egypt.
The Nubian pharaohs tried to incorporate Egyptian culture into their own. They built pyramids in Sudan – even though pyramid building in Egypt hadn’t been practised in nearly 800 years. Taharqa’s rule was a high water mark for the 25th dynasty. By the end of his reign a conflict with the Assyrians had forced him to retreat south, back into Nubia – where he died in 664 BC. Egypt became an Assyrian vassal – eventually gaining independence during the 26th dynasty. Taharqa’s successors were never able to retake Egypt.
In addition to Taharqa’s statue, those of two of his successors – Senkamanisken and Aspelta – were found alongside. These two rulers controlled territory in Sudan, but not Egypt.
Science (Katie Cottingham)
Clearly, ancient Egyptians didn’t get the memo about lead poisoning. Their eye makeup was full of the stuff. Although today we know that lead can cause brain damage and miscarriages, the Egyptians believed that lead-based cosmetics protected against eye diseases. Now, new research suggests that they may have been on to something.Previous work indicates that the Egyptians added lead to their cosmetics on purpose. When analytical chemist Philippe Walter and colleagues at CNRS and the Louvre Museum in Paris analyzed the composition of several samples of the Egyptians’ famous bold, black eyeliner in the Louvre’s collection, they identified two types of lead salt not found in nature. That means that ancient Egyptians must have synthesized them. But making lead salt is a tricky, delicate process that requires tending for weeks–and unlike other common makeup components, the salts are not glossy. So why did they bother?
Ancient manuscripts gave the scientists a clue. It turns out that in those days, people made lead salts and used them as treatments for eye ailments, scars, and discolorations. When Walter told analytical chemist Christian Amatore of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris about the findings, Amatore says he was intrigued because lead is now known to have so many toxic effects.
To see if the lead might confer any health benefits, Amatore, Walter, and colleagues added lead salts to human skin cells called keratinocytes, which were grown in the lab.
Ancient Egypt’s stunning eye make-up not only shielded wearers from the dark deeds of the evil eye but also protected them against eye disease, French scientists said Thursday.Ancient Egyptians some 4,000 years ago produced the make-up used to darken and adorn eyes with lead and lead salts in mixtures that sometimes took a month to concoct, said Philippe Walter, who co-headed a team of scientists from the Louvre museum and the CNRS national research institute.
“We knew ancient Greeks and Romans too had noted the make-up had medicinal properties, but wanted to determine exactly how,” he told AFP.
Contrary to widely held belief that lead is harmful, the team, using analytical chemistry, determined that ‘in very low doses lead does not kill cells’. Instead, it produces a molecule – nitric oxide – that activates the immune defence system which beats back bacteria in case of eye infection.The research was carried out using a tiny electrode, the 10th of the size of a hair, to look at the effect of a lead chloride synthesised by the Egyptians – laurionite – on a single cell.
The study was released on Thursday online by the journal Analytical Chemistry.
The Abstract for the article in Analytical Chemistry, on the above page, is as follows:
Issa Tapsoba, Stphane Arbault, Philippe Walter and Christian Amatore . . . .Lead-based compounds were used during antiquity as both pigments and medicines in the formulation of makeup materials. Chemical analysis of cosmetics samples found in Egyptians tombs and the reconstitution of ancient recipes as reported by Greco-Roman authors have shown that two non-natural lead chlorides (laurionite Pb(OH)Cl and phosgenite Pb2Cl2CO3) were purposely synthesized and were used as fine powders in makeup and eye lotions. According to ancient Egyptian manuscripts, these were essential remedies for treating eye illness and skin ailments. This conclusion seems amazing because today we focus only on the well-recognized toxicity of lead salts. Here, using ultramicroelectrodes, we obtain new insights into the biochemical interactions between lead(II) ions and cells, which support the ancient medical use of sparingly soluble lead compounds. Submicromolar concentrations of Pb2+ ions are shown to be sufficient for eliciting specific oxidative stress responses of keratinocytes. These consist essentially of an overproduction of nitrogen monoxide (NO°). Owing to the biological role of NO° in stimulating nonspecific immunological defenses, one may argue that these lead compounds were deliberately manufactured and used in ancient Egyptian formulations to prevent and treat eye illnesses by promoting the action of immune cells.
