Filed under: Friends & Family, Advice, Health, Healthy Eating
There are few battles as epic as the daily one you have with your children to get them to eat healthier foods like fruit. And it’s not just you — parents around the world have the same problem. Luckily, recent research has shed some light on just … Read more
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
Imagine learning you have a serious disease. You doctor decides to treat you with a drug, noting it could have some bad side effects. He also plans to inject you with the drug, even though it’s only been used orally before now. That makes you nervous enough to ask for the name of the drug. “Sorry, I can’t tell you,” he says. “It’s proprietary.” Even if you trust your doctor, you’re now left with no way to investigate the risks and tradeoffs you’re facing.
Imagine how mad you’d be if you learned your doctor hadn’t told you there were other drugs that not only had fewer side effects, but were more effective in treating your condition. And then you learn he’s on the Board of Directors of the company that makes the drug he prescribed.
Now consider that the patient is the Gulf of Mexico, the doctor is BP, and the drug is the oil dispersants, sold by Nalco under the trade name Corexit®, more than 500,000 gallons of which have been applied to date, with no end in sight. The known side effects include short-term aquatic toxicity, but the potential for long-term effects has never been studied. Nor have the effects of injecting it into deep water, an “unprecedented” method just been approved by NOAA and EPA after hastily arranged tests conducted over the last few days. (Elizabeth Grossman has posted an excellent piece exploring the potential for adverse health effects among spill responders from both the oil and the dispersants.)
The information being withheld (in this case from the public) is the identity of the main active ingredient in the dispersants – listed only as an “organic sulfonic acid salt” on Nalco’s material safety data sheets – which comprises 10-30% of the dispersant formula. (One observer maintains the unidentified ingredient is actually described in this 2001 patent, though its composition is quite variable.)
As part of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, EPA has tested 18 different dispersants for short-term toxicity to fish and shrimp. EPA has also tested the effectiveness of surface spraying in dispersing South Louisiana crude oil. How do the two Corexit® dispersants stack up against the competition? Not very well, it turns out. They rank 13th and 16th in effectiveness, 15th and 18th in fish toxicity, and 7th and 10th in shrimp toxicity. At least six dispersants are both more effective and less toxic than the Corexit® dispersants.
There’s no question the ongoing spill at Deepwater Horizon is a life-threatening condition, and emergency measures are in order. And BP has said it chose Corexit® because of the large stockpile, though its cozy relationship with Nalco has been invoked as a factor as well.
Considering the massive public costs of this unfolding environmental disaster in the Gulf, we should seriously question why, despite the clear opportunity for foresight via the contingency plan, BP is being allowed to use dispersants that are neither the most effective nor the safest.
And we should also question why EPA hasn’t used its emergency powers to force disclosure of all of the components of the Corexit® dispersants. There couldn’t be a clearer case of the need for EPA to exercise its mandate to disclose proprietary information when necessary to protect public health and the environment.
Given not only the scale but the experimental nature of the use of dispersants at Deepwater Horizon, responders and the public have a right to know to what chemicals they and the environment are being exposed. And those who will have to monitor and assess the health and ecological damages also need to know.
Both of these problems – a failure to drive the use of safer chemicals, and excessive allowances for trade secret protections – can be traced to underlying flaws in the main U.S. law governing chemical safety, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Among TSCA’s many flaws, documented by the Government Accountability Office and many others, it denies EPA the authority to develop even basic safety information for chemicals entering or already on the market, or to require the replacement of those shown to be dangerous. And it bars EPA from sharing most data it does obtain, not only with the public but even with state and local governments.
Happily, change is on the horizon. Environmental Defense Fund and more than 200 other health and environmental organizations are part of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, which is supporting and seeking to further strengthen the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, S. 3209, introduced on April 15 by Senator Lautenberg. Join us.
One of London’s most famous icons got retired in 2005 to international dismay—the Routemaster bus. Seen on the roads since 1956, they were replaced by bendy-buses that almost everyone despises. Until now! Meet the new Routemaster. More »
London – Routemaster – Boris Johnson – Bus – Transport
Everyone knows that when certain bacteria are present in an environment, they can cause infections. These infections can take the form of diseases such as bubonic plague, cholera, leprosy, and tuberculosis. The problem isn’t simply that the bacteria are present, however, it’s that they communicate with one another – essentially coming up with a battle plan. This signaling process, called quorum sensing, has now successfully been blocked by British scientists. They did it using plastics similar those used by dentists for repairing teeth…
Continue Reading Nasty bacteria get gagged with plastic
Tags: Antibiotic,
Bacteria,
Plastics,
Polymer
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Verizon Wireless’ support staff have Tweeted that a fix for the aggravating AGPS bug that afflicts only the Verizon version of the Palm Pre Plus is indeed in the works. The exact Twwet said:
“Yes there is [a fix in the works], right now there is no ETA. The steps I gave you are a temp fix.”
While the VZW Navigator app works fine, other location-aware 3rd party apps such as Google Maps have issues determining a precise address or suffer from lengthy delays when establishing the user’s location. The Verizon Pre Plus is the only current WebOS model to suffer this issue, as it does not afflict Verizon’s Pixi Plus or any of the other WebOS devices currently on the market.
After a seemingly endless wait, the AT&T version of the Palm Pre Plus is now officially available in the USA, cementing webOS’ availability on the three leading domestic wireless carriers. Fortunately, AT&T’s offer of a free Touchstone charger is indeed valid and applicable to both retail and online orders.
A few questions were lingering about the status of its little sibling the Pixi Plus and whether or not it was even coming to AT&T. Thankfully, AT&T has just confirmed the Pixi’s release date as June 6th. It is still being depicted with the nifty blue Touchstone cover we discussed in March. The Pixi’s pricing will go for $49.95 with a 2-year contract, a bit higher than the current “free” Sprint Pixi or Verizon’s $29.99 Pixi Plus.
Summer is right around the corner. And while that’s exciting, it’s also true that spending so much time outside can be hard on your skin.
Don’t let sunburn, bug bites, or poison ivy spoil your summer fun. Mother Nature can soothe your pain without hurting your wallet or the planet. Below are five inexpensive and easy-to-find first-aid essentials you’ll turn to again and again.
Aloe vera
Citronella oil
Witch hazel
Baking soda
Oatmeal
Feeling irritated after a long day in the sun? Draw a lukewarm bath, fill ‘er up with plain colloidal (finely ground) oatmeal, and take a relaxing soak to soothe scorched skin and prevent blistering and peeling. Or, like baking soda, oatmeal can be whipped up into a paste and applied topically. In addition to sunburn, oatmeal also works magic on poison ivy rashes, heat rash and mosquito bites.
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The Palm App Catalog is now thankfully back in action after some major downtime over the weekend.
Beginning Saturday, users were reporting troubles ranging from outright unavailability to apps failing to install. Users were manually setting their devices’ clocks to an earlier date (ie bypassing “network time”) to work around the issue, which obviously wreaks havoc with calendar appointments and general PIM functionality.
New measures will allow flights for a limited time at higher ash densities.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that a Time Limited Zone (TLZ) has been agreed to operate in the new zone airlines. A spokesman for National Air Traffic Services said that “According to the latest information from the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and the Met Office, the volcanic ash cloud clears the UK for the period 1900 BST until 0100 BST tomorrow and all airports in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales will be available during this period. A no-fly zone remains in force over parts of the North Sea which could restrict helicopter flights.” British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh criticized the blanket bans on flying as he stated that they were “a gross over-reaction to a very minor risk”. Other UK airports are now open after being affected earlier are: Teeside, Leeds-Bradford, Blackpool, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Doncaster, Carlisle, Humberside, East Midlands and services in the Isle of Man.
The ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland had led to thousands of flights being delayed and others cancelled across Europe since last month. The volcano still continues to erupt and shows no signs that its activity will end soon.
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We all know that pets aren’t supposed to have people food. But let’s face it, sometimes, it happens…something falls on the floor when you’re cooking dinner, and Buddy is quickly there, vacuuming up the crumbs, or Felix steels something off the plate when you aren’t looking…
There are some healthy “people foods” for pets (only small amounts– not replacements for pet food). But there are also many foods that can be dangerous to our feline friends and canine companions.
Here is a handy list of the top common foods that are toxic to your pet along with tips on what to do if your pet happens to get a hold of any of these substances.
Avocado
While many pet owners say they feed their pets avocados with no problems, studies have shown that their leaves, fruit, seeds and bark can contain a toxin called Persin. According to the ASPCA, the Guatemalan variety, which is commonly found in stores, contains the most toxicity.
Onions, onion powder, chives and garlic
These all can lead to gastrointestinal irritation and red blood cell damage. All forms of onion can cause problems including dehydrated onions, raw and cooked onions. Cats are more susceptible than dogs, but it can be toxic to both.
Grapes and raisins
These can be toxic to dogs and cause kidney failure. Researchers say there are still many unknowns about the toxicity of grapes and raisins, including whether only certain types of dogs are affected, but it is advised not to feed grapes or raisins to dogs in any amount.
Yeast dough
Dough that is not cooked and contains yeast can rise in your pet’s stomach, causing pain, and can potentially cause the intestines to rupture. This risk diminishes once the dough is cooked.
Left-over bones
Left-over bones pose a choking hazard to pets, and they can also splinter and puncture your pet’s gut or intestine. Additionally, do not feed your pet undercooked meat or eggs, as they can contain harmful bacteria.
Foods with a high salt or fat content
Excessive fats can cause upset stomach and potentially inflame the pancreas causing pancreatitis. Salty foods can pose a risk for the development of sodium ion toxicosis, according to the ASPCA. Be aware that if your pet gets into food with a high fat or salt content, she could experience stomach problems including diarrhea and vomiting.
Chocolate, coffee, alcohol
According to the ASPCA, the substances in chocolate, coffee, and caffeine, methlxanthines, can cause vomiting, diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, tremors, seizures, and potentially death in pets. The higher the cocoa percentage, the more dangerous the chocolate is, making dark chocolate more toxic than milk or white chocolate. All these products can cause vomiting, diarrhea and even death.
Sugarless candies (products sweetened with xylitol)
This compound can cause liver damage and even death in some more vulnerable dogs. Xylitol is in many products including gum, candy, sugar-free cookies and toothpaste.
Macadamia nuts
These nuts can cause weakness, vomiting, tremors and hyperthermia in dogs. Symptoms generally last up to two days, and usually appear within 12 hours of ingestion.
What do you do if your pet ate something poisonous?
If your animal is having seizures or losing consciousness, bring him or her to your veterinarian or emergency vet center.
If your pet is not showing symptoms, but ingested something potentially toxic, call the ASPCA hotline at (888) 426-4435. Have the following information available: the species, breed, age, sex, weight, and information about the product exposure. It is best to have the package of the product available for reference.
Megan Zehnder, an animal lover and committed vegetarian, is an editor and producer for Care2’s Healthy and Green Living.
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It’s taken a full year and upward of $700 million in acquisitions, but CA Technologies (yes it’s a new moniker) finally delivered on its cloud-computing strategy with several major product announcements. The Cloud-Connected Management Suite — the centerpiece of CA’s announcements — leverages pieces technology it acquired from Cassatt, Oblicore, NetQoS, 3Tera and Nimsoft over the last year, as well as, no doubt, large amounts of internal innovation within CA.
As I describe in detail in my research note on GigaOM Pro (sub required), the new products – Cloud Insight, Cloud Compose, Cloud Optimize and Cloud Orchestrate – attempt to simplify decision-making by letting organizations know what services are available to them and which of their physical, virtual or cloud-based resources are for hosting them. The products complement CA’s infrastructure-management tools, which now support Cisco UCS and provisioning in Amazon Web Services. With these products, CA has set the bar for how management software must act within cloud-connected organizations. It must recognize resources of all types, understand that some services will be hosted elsewhere, and somehow enable users to make sense of it all.
Of course, evolution happens fast in cloud computing, and there’s no telling what the competitive landscape will look like once the products start becoming available in the fourth quarter of this year. Competitors — be they systems-management vendors like IBM, or virtualization vendors like VMware, or both, like Microsoft — fully understand the cloud market (some played integral roles in shaping it, in fact), and they could invest in research or acquisitions to match CA’s service-focused approach to cloud computing. CA might have more innovations up its sleeve, too, which will just serve to up the value proposition for its products. Furthermore, the company maintains partnerships with vendors like VMware and Microsoft around their hypervisors, so customers might be able to build best-of-breed virtualized environments.
However, the success of CA’s approach actually might hinge on the success of the Carnegie Mellon University-led SMI Consortium and the Cloud Commons, two new entities backed by CA and on which which its new software rely heavily. SMI stands for “Service Management Index,” which is a matrix of six factors against which cloud services are rated. Cloud Commons contains SMI rating for thousands of cloud services, as well as qualitative data from experts and users, and CA Cloud Insight compiles SMI ratings for internal services to compare against what’s available in the cloud. It will be interesting to see what happens if neither efforts catches on before the first of CA’s products hits shelves in the fourth quarter, or if competitors latch onto both and incorporate them into their own virtualization- and cloud-management offerings.
Read my full report for in-depth product, competitive and roadmap analysis, and attend Structure 2010 to hear how the rest of the software industry is tackling the cloud.
Photo courtesy CA Technologies.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
So what will happen then?
There’s no perfect historical precedent, mostly because of Greece’s inability to devalue its currency in conjunction with a default. But the Argentina default in 2002 does shed some light on what we have to look forward to.
Richard Thies at Northern Trust offers an excellent snapshot:
In the world of sovereign debt settlements, things have come a long way since Peru settled its 1889 default in part by offering creditors two million tons of guano. While making a great fertilizer, investors were understandably a little disappointed with this outcome. Luckily, the era of debt-restructuring via barter is long past and in its wake settlement terms and processes have rapidly evolved. The largest sovereign default in history, Argentina’s in January 2002, is very close to being settled just 8 years and 5 short months later. Looking at the recent history of sovereign defaults gives some clues as to the outcome of a possible Greek restructuring/default, were it to happen, but leaves many questions unanswered.
Intuitively, the Argentina default is the most instructive for the current situation as it is both the most recent debt collapse by an industrialized country (last year’s Jamaican default didn’t attract much fanfare) and the largest in history at $82 billion. For comparison, Greece will need to roll-over roughly €104 billion ($130 billion) between now and 2013, which does not include additional deficit-financing as needed. Regardless, the scope is comparable. Despite the similarities, the ongoing Argentine restructuring process has been unique, though some of the idiosyncrasies of the process do shed some light.
Keep reading at Northern Trust >
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A Mercedes apresentou nessa semana o seu mais novo sistema que dispensa motorista, o carro pode ser conduzido apenas pelo sistema que a marca vai apresentar, sendo assim o piloto virá passageiro realmente.
O sistema apresentado pela marca, realmente é revolucionário, mas ainda está em estado de evolução, então só pode ser usados em pistas fechadas.
Mas com o tempo a marca pretende aplicar o novo sistema no transito, podendo auxiliar o piloto em qualquer atraso de frenagem ou algo do tipo, ou também se o motorista quiser curtir a paisagem, só chegar o banco para trás e curtir.
Mas mesmo com isso tudo, será que é uma boa idéia? Assista ao vídeo!
Fonte: Auto Esporte
Yes, there are ninja assassins after that disgusting, germ-ridden toothbrush of yours. They want to brutally annihilate 99% of the mess with their germicidal ultraviolet lights and you should probably just step back and let them do it. More »
Recreation – Toys – Shopping – Lego – Collecting
Despite Iran signing a uranium deal with Turkey and Brazil, the US announced that it will move ahead with its press for sanctions against Iran.
Last October the deal proposed to Teheran by the P5+1 (US, France, UK and China plus Germany), was similar to the signed deal with Turkey and Brazil. The deal stated that Iran would send enriched uranium to Russia and would be returned as fuel rods that could not be used for nuclear weapons; however Iran opted not to agree with the deal. In the signed deal of Iran with Turkey and Brazil, it was noted that the same amount of uranium stated in the deal last October will be shipped to Turkey and be returned to Iran as research reactor that is designed only to produce radioactive isotopes for treating cancer. Iran stated today that it would continue its 20 percent enrichment, with was a direct violation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said that shifting nuclear fuel off Iranian soil would be a welcome step; but, Iran would have to give up any further nuclear enrichment and abide by existing UN Security Council resolutions for the dealt to be taken seriously.
Also in the seven months that Iran had not signed with the deal proposed by US, Iran also has processed sufficient extra fuel to give it a “breakout capability” which is enough to make a nuclear bomb even after they will send 1,200 kg of uranium in Turkey.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also stated that Iran has the right to call on Turkey to return the uranium “swiftly and unconditionally” back to Iran if any of the provisions in the agreement were not followed.
“What this proposal signifies is less than what they agreed to last October,” Gibbs said.
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In an odd role reversal, MySpace is now declaring itself a bastion of social networking privacy, at least in comparison to Facebook. The company will default many users’ settings to “friends only” and is pre-announcing features that will allow users to choose between three options: public, friends only, or public to anyone 18 or over.
Part of MySpace’s current privacy settings page
This is ironic. Back in ancient history (about five years ago), MySpace became dominant as a dating and entertainment site on the force of open profiles and membership. (In many ways, the site was the predecessor to Twitter, giving fans the ability to “friend” celebrities and get updates on their lives.) Meanwhile, Facebook was much more private and personal, initially closed to everyone but validated students. Since then, each time Facebook has opened up further it has offered additional tools to help users keep their participation private from people like coworkers, non-friends and parental units.
But all those Facebook privacy settings have piled up. Plus, Facebook’s own interests have changed, as it realized the greater opportunity to extend beyond the boundaries of personal communication and just one web site. And it’s introduced new features that have accidentally exposed private user information. Now the company finds itself in a massive privacy backlash.
So MySpace is trying to nudge its way back into the spotlight by declaring its dedication to user privacy. And more than that, simple user privacy. Co-president Mike Jones wrote in a blog post today,
We want our users to know we are planning the launch of a simplified privacy setting for our user profiles. While we’ve had these plans in the works for some time, given the recent outcry over privacy concerns in the media, we felt it was important to unveil those plans to our users now. We believe users want a simpler way to control their privacy. That’s why, in the coming weeks, MySpace will continue to simplify its privacy settings to create a simpler, more intuitive approach that gives users greater control over their information. Setting options will include public, friends only, or public to anyone 18 or over. In making this change, MySpace will default the setting to “friends only” for any user who previously had any granular page setting to “friends only.” Users can change this option with one click if they choose.
To be sure, MySpace has always offered privacy settings (my own profile has been on lock-down for years after some of the skeezy stuff that went on in the early days). This privacy move is just a play for attention — the blogged-about features don’t even have a proposed launch date.
But honestly, privacy is not simple anymore. Not that privacy was ever that simple in the offline world! The difference is now, there’s a preserved recording of our every last secret shared, off-color remark, and embarrassing photo. Kevin Kelleher wrote for GigaOM this weekend “For most people, 50 different privacy settings is 49 too many” in regard to Facebook. But for me, that’s too simplistic — and it’s the same trap MySpace is falling into.
Privacy settings are complicated because privacy is complicated. Ask yourself, which people do you want to allow to see a picture that another person has posted that includes your face. The question is hard to express in words, let alone pre-set controls — but it’s a conundrum that happens millions of times per day on Facebook. Same goes for MySpace, even if is past its day in the sun.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Could Privacy Be Facebook’s Waterloo?
Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my bio.
Polaroid is one of those things that’s always been with us, and if some have their way, always will. I remember taking pictures at camp using the family OneStep, and I still have a shot of myself at my first job.
Wired loves the Polaroid as well, and they recently had the chance to see MIT’s collection from the Polaroid archive. The collection was donated to MIT by the company that now owns the Polaroid name and technology. The gallery is definitely worth a look, as it’s fun to see how the technology has changed over the years.
Como todos que acompanham o mundo esportivo sabem, o novo Chevrolet Camaro recebeu um novo motor, agora mais potente.
Além disso, a marca depois que revelou que seu novo modelo seria vendido no mercado brasileiro, todo mundo de um pulo para trás, pois como todos sabem um super esportivo não custa barato.
A versão que foi escolhida para o mercado brasileiro é equipada com um motor de 3.6 litros V6 que rende 304 cavalos de potencia e será vendido no mercado brasileiro por apenas R$ 110 mil.
Pois é, todos ficaram impressionados com o preço que o modelo será oferecido. Mas voltando aos equipamentos, o modelo terá freios ABS, airbags frontais, controle de estabilidade e rodas de 18 polegadas.
Fonte: Carplace
Most people, when they think of a graph, do not think of something beautiful or interesting. So imagine you need to communicate several dry financial scenarios for an exclusive advertising campaign. In an attempt to visually “brand” the way of delivering information, creative collective The Glue Society created a set of elaborate fluorescent tube installations to display several animated data charts for the BT Bigger Picture [bt.com.au] campaign.
Each of the 4 ads is based on a separate light sculpture, which each was specifically designed to display the statistical information in a visually unique way. More than 40 people were involved in building the media installations, consisting of more than 14,500 light bulbs and 46 kilometers of cabling. A big part of the beauty of these ads also involves the smooth shots and angles of the installations and their subtle dynamic animations.
Watch all 4 commercials, plus a revealing “making-of” documentary below.
Thnkx Andrea!
