Anti-Aging: 10 Easy Strategies To Slow The Aging Process

A new study shows a compound in red wine improves cell functioning and longevity.

Red wine has long been a controversial libation (and not because of cabernet versus malbec battles). Scientists have gone back and forth over the years about red wine's benefits; specifically whether or not resveratrol, a plant compound found in the drink, has anti-aging powers.

But a recent study published in the journal Cell Metabolism found resveratrol does prolong lifespan, overturning a 2010 National Institute of Aging report.

Researchers at the National Institute of Health and the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research found that resveratrols anti-aging properties are only expressed when a specific gene, SIRT1, is present, i09 reports. Mice bred without the SIRT1 gene were not affected by the compound. But The Los Angeles Times reports:

The discovery may speed up the use of resveratrol in an anti-aging drug; previous attempts were cut short because of the 2010 NIA report. Well drink to that -- and to these nine other anti-aging strategies.

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Anti-Aging: 10 Easy Strategies To Slow The Aging Process

The anatomy that Leonardo couldn't copy

Leonardo da Vinci's 500-year-old illustrations of human anatomy are uncannily accurate with just one major exception: the female reproductive system.

That's probably because Leonardo had a tough time finding female corpses to dissect, explains Peter Abrahams, a practicing physician at the University of Warwick Medical School in the United Kingdom.

Abrahams, a clinical anatomist, has lent his knowledge to an audio tour of the exhibit of Leonardo's anatomical drawings that opened May 4 in Buckingham Palace.

The Italian Renaissance artist learned anatomy as a way to improve his drawings of the human form, but he also brought a scientist's eye to the discipline.

"He wanted to understand how it worked," Abrahams told LiveScience. "He looked at humans like a mechanic would do. Most of that work is very, very relevant today." [Anatomy Meets Art: Da Vinci's Drawings]

Anatomists in Leonardo's time often dissected unclaimed bodies, such as of drunks and vagrants, and those bodies were more likely to be male, Abrahams said.

"It was definitely harder to get female bodies to dissect, and he didn't have many opportunities," Abrahams said.

Advances in anatomy By Leonardo's time, few advances in human anatomy had been made since the second-century work by the Roman anatomist Galen, whose discoveries were largely based on animal dissections. Leonardo da Vinci had the advantage of access to human cadavers.

Abrahams says studying them would have been obnoxious work. "It must have been horrible, because they didn't have any form of embalming," he said. "Within two or three days that body decomposes."

Leonardo's sketches reveal a deep understanding of how the body worked, much of it still up-to-date. Modern anatomists have only begun in the last 60 years to look at the muscles and tendons of the finger in the detail that da Vinci did, Abrahams said. Leonardo was the first to draw the human spine with the correct curves. He also came tantalizingly close to understanding how blood moved through the body, a mystery that wouldn't be fully solved until 1628, more than a century after his death.

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The anatomy that Leonardo couldn't copy

So you want to travel the world? The lessons learnt after 9.5 mths on the road! – Video

05-05-2012 10:14 At the start of my round the world travel video adventure I made a video talking about the 7 things I wanted to achieve on my trip. 9.5 mths in I look back on what I have achieved. The seven goals were: *To see the world *To film the world *To get paid to film the world *To get fit *To find a traveling partner *To make a difference *To find a home And what have I learnt from my travels, to observe and not react, that my view of the word is determined by the way I was brought up and the culture I was raised in. And most importantly, 'Without people you are nothing!' Music: Lerax by Re-Drum, Album: It's Better to Burn Out Than To Fade Away Features quotes from: The The - Slow Emotion Replay Joe Strummer - Round the World Travel Adventure

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So you want to travel the world? The lessons learnt after 9.5 mths on the road! - Video

Wyndham wins prestigious award

The Wyndham Grand Regency Doha was a winner once again at the World Travel Awards after it was crowned Qatars Leading Meetings and Conference Hotel, reflecting the extensive meetings and events facilities offered at the property. The Doha property is the brands flagship hotel in the Middle East, a spokesperson explained, adding: The World Travel Awards are acknowledged across the globe as the ultimate travel accolade and celebrate those brands that are pushing the boundaries of industry excellence. General manager Ayman Lotfy said: This is a great honour for our hotel and Im delighted to accept this award on behalf of our entire team. Their unwavering commitment and dedication, combined with our best-in-class facilities, really set us apart in a highly competitive marketplace. Were proud to be able to offer our guests a true five star experience and, in doing so, aim to remain one of the regions leading hotels for many years to come, he added. The hotel features the 600sq m Al Qasr ballroom, which can host 550 guests for a cocktail party event, or 650 in a theatre style setting, as well as other facilities.

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Wyndham wins prestigious award

National convention centre wins top award

The Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) has been named Middle Easts leading exhibition & convention centre at the glittering World Travel Awards (WTA) ceremony held in Dubai last Monday. Qatar also won the title of Middle Easts Leading Business Travel Destination, confirming Doha as a world-class capital for commerce and communication. Qatar scooped no fewer than nine of the regional awards on offer at the World Travel Awards (WTA) ceremony . A member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), QNCC was officially opened last December. Since then, the centre has hosted well over 100 events, including the World Innovation Summit for Education, the Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum, the Arab Expatriate Scientists Symposium, and Unctad XIII. Around 130,000 visitors have already passed through its perfectly proportioned interiors, keen to share knowledge and, where possible, find common ground. We recognised a long time ago that if we were to deliver the vision of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of QF , to make Qatar Foundation a global centre of excellence in the spheres of education, science and community development, it was essential that we found a home for the worlds leading innovators and industry experts to exchange their ideas. We began work on the project as far back as 2006, but we were in no hurry. The most important thing was to get it right, said Eng Saad al-Muhannadi, QF Vice President of Capital Projects and Facilities Management. Our architects devised complex mathematical equations to decide what would be the best support structure for the ceiling, and the outcome was a construction that somehow resembled a sidra tree. So, you could say that the design was the product of cutting edge science merging with traditional symbolism, he pointed out. QNCC was conceived with a focus on sustainability. The exhibition hall is built according to gold certification standards on Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED), endorsed by the US Green Building Council. The building incorporates innovative water conservation features and energy-efficient fixtures. In the future, environmental considerations will be central to the planning of any construction project at Qatar Foundation, said al-Muhannadi. Later this year, QNCC will host the COP18 international climate change conference. With 30,000 delegates from 192 countries and 5,000 journalists in attendance, the three-week long event will be the largest ever hosted in Qatar. In December this year, the WTA Grand Finals will take place in Indias capital, New Delhi. Competition will be intense, but for both Qatar and QNCC, there is every reason to feel optimistic that their first-rate business facilities will be recognised and celebrated on an international stage, a spokesperson said.

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National convention centre wins top award

Travel buyers to taste wares

Queenstown welcomes the world of tourism for the second consecutive year when the premier travel trade fair Trenz opens socially tonight and gets down to business tomorrow.

More than 1000 international travel buyers, New Zealand exhibitors, domestic and international media, sponsors and VIPs, including Prime Minister John Key, will attend the Tourism Industry Association-managed expo in the Queenstown Events Centre until Thursday.

Exhibitors from the Southern Lakes region of Queenstown, Wanaka and Fiordland will look to capitalise on having travel buyers and journalists from 31 countries on their doorstep during the upcoming days of 15-minute appointments, networking and social functions and familiarisation trips.

Appointments with buyers from the emerging visitor markets of China, India, and Indonesia will be especially sought after among exhibitors.

New Zealand tourism operators who exhibited at last year's Trenz told the association their attendance delivered $164 million of new business over the following 12 monthsTrenz was expected to pump more than $1.5 million directly into Queenstown and Southern Lakes businesses this week.

Destination Queenstown chairman Mark Quickfall said last week the community was looking forward to welcoming Trenz visitors and showcasing what the resort had to offer.

"To have some of the world's most influential travel buyers and media visit our region and experience it first-hand is fantastic, but to also be able to host activity afternoons and showcase the diversity of our scenery and experiences is an invaluable opportunity."

More than 500 buyers, media and exhibitors will have the chance to enjoy a range of experiences, from jet boating, skydiving and 4WD driving to scenic flights, wine tours and a ride on the Kingston Flyer steam train.

Media delegates will have the opportunity to try some of Queenstown's new experiences on Thursday afternoon, including You vs Wild and Art Adventures, then write about them for their readers all around the world.

Travel buyers and media also get the chance to experience the best of Wanaka and Fiordland on hosted visits before and after the expo.

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Travel buyers to taste wares

Regency crowned Mideast’s best travel agency again

Regency Travel & Tours of Qatar has won the Middle Easts and Qatars leading travel agency award for the sixth time in a row for the year 2012 at the World Travel Awards ceremony in Dubai recently. Earlier, Regency had won the World Travel award for the Middle Easts leading Travel Agency for the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Regency Travel and Tours scooped the honour for 2012 competing against big names in the travel industry. Regency bagged the award for Qatars leading travel agency for three years in a row. Hailed as the Oscars of the Travel Industry, World Travel Awards is acknowledged across the globe as the ultimate travel accolade, and celebrates those brands that are pushing the boundaries of industry excellence. A packed audience comprising VIPs, senior tourism figures and international media from more than 30 countries witnessed the WTAs Middle East Ceremony 2012. More than 462 organisations across the Middle East, spanning more than 125 categories entered the competition. Tareq Abdullatif Taha, chief executive officer of Regency Travel and Tours received the award. Accompanying him to Dubai to receive the award were General Manager N M Shafiq, Travel Manager Naushad M E, Tours Manager Farooq Siddiqui, Assistant Tours Manager Jagannath Pothiraj, Sam Varghese, Regency Group HR director, Fadi Barakeh, AREDC general manager, Kallai Aboosabil, Regency Fleets general manager, Abegale Bantugan, Ali Youness, Aileen Mariano and Allan Eviota from product development, operations and sales and marketing team and a few other guests from Qatar. Tareq said he was proud to represent Qatar and having yet again won this years Middle East leading travel agency award. He attributed the success to loyal customers for their trust in the organisation and he also dedicated the award to his team and their hard work and the quality of service that they provide to the customers. He promised that the Regency team would work harder to keep up the confidence and quality of service that the company is known for. Tareq also dedicated the award to the people of Qatar. Lebanese pop star Carole Samaha headlined the glittering show, with Wonho Chung providing the comedy, and the South African string quartet Sterling EQ also performing. Graham E Cooke, president & founder, WTA, underlined the depth and quality of the travel and tourism sector across the Middle East.

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Regency crowned Mideast’s best travel agency again

President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón and Carlos Slim to speak at inaugural WTTC Americas Summit

7 May 2012

From May 16-18, 2012, key industry identities from the public and private sectors, NGOs and the media will convene for a unique networking forum. The event will be the first in a series of WTTC "Regional Summits," and will explore commonalities as well as challenges throughout the travel and tourism industry in the Americas while identifying opportunities for growth and collaboration.

Speakers will include Ministers of Tourism from around the world including Secretary Gloria Guevara of Mexico; US Deputy Secretary of State, Thomas Nides; Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization; executives from hotels, airlines, tour operators and travel agencies; and key opinion leaders from the media such as CBS Travel Editor Peter Greenberg.

The Summit will attract delegates from across the Americas, including Central America, The Caribbean, South America and North America.

David Scowsill, President and CEO of WTTC added, "Mexico is the perfect host for the Americas Summit. Mexico has rightly put Travel & Tourism at the heart of its economy as a generator of employment, export income and GDP. President Caldern"s commitment to tourism is underlined by being the first to join the WTTC"s and UNWTO"s joint Global Leaders for Tourism campaign, which recognises the importance of tourism to growth and development. Holding the Americas Summit in Mexico just one month before the G20 meeting of world leaders will place Travel & Tourism among the most important topics being discussed in Los Cabos."

Mexico will also host the United Nations World Tourism Organization"s T20 meeting of tourism ministers in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, from May 15-16.

The World Travel & Tourism Council is the global authority on the economic and social contribution of Travel & Tourism. It promotes sustainable growth for the industry, working with governments and international institutions to create jobs, to drive exports and to generate prosperity. In 2011 Travel & Tourism accounted for 255 million jobs globally. At US$6.3 trillion (9.1% of GDP) the sector is a key driver for investment and economic growth. For more than 20 years, the World Travel & Tourism Council has been the voice of this industry globally. Members are the Chairs, Presidents and Chief Executives of the world's leading, private sector Travel & Tourism businesses. These Members bring specialist knowledge to guide government policy and decision-making, raising awareness of the importance of the industry as an economic generator of prosperity.

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President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón and Carlos Slim to speak at inaugural WTTC Americas Summit

Children in Washington travel the world in a day

Bolivia check. Norway check. Turkey check.

Brunei? a young boy asked, glancing from his passport to his friends.

Before waiting for an answer, the boy took off across the crowded atrium, his friends trailing behind with their own passports in hand.

No, this is not the opening sequence of an Amazing Race-style reality show for kids. This was the scene Sunday afternoon at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, where hundreds gathered for the sixth annual International Childrens Festival.

Coinciding with the start of Passport D.C., a three-weekend-long event that allows adults to pop in and out of mansions on Embassy Row, the International Childrens Festival is an opportunity to introduce kids to world geography, traditions, foods, dress and song. Each child received a paper passport to collect stamps from 22 participating embassies.

We want to promote U.S. engagement in the world, said Sharon Wilkinson of Meridian International Center, which helped organize the festival. Global awareness should start at a young age.

The United States led off a parade to start the festival, with children dressed as cowgirls and cowboys marching across a stage to the tune of Its a Small World. Cameras flashed, children screamed and handfuls of cereal streamed across the auditorium. Other countries followed, displaying traditional garb from Kenya, Egypt, El Salvador and Norway.

After the parade, children watched dance and musical performances, made Australian boomerangs and Afghan kites, and sampled Bahraini pastries.

I think its a great opportunity to expand their horizons, said Shazia Kanani of Vienna, who attended the festival with her husband and two children.

Although her boys a 5-month-old and a 2-year-old were too young to participate in many of the activities, Kanani said she was excited to expose them to sounds, colors and flavors from around the world.

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Treatment spares Lebanon man from amputation

LEBANON Retired Dartmouth College professor Roger Smith said he had nothing to lose by joining a stem cell therapy clinical trial. In fact, if he didn't join, he did have something to lose possibly his leg.

In the end it appears the experiment saved his leg. And Smith, who'd already lost two toes to amputation, said he's proud to have played a part in a study that could dramatically improve the outcome for many other patients facing lower-limb amputations resulting from diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, genetic predisposition and other causes.

The three-year study that ended last year was led by vascular surgeons at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, who believe the treatment may offer new hope to sufferers of peripheral artery disease, a condition that causes nearly 60,000 lower-limb amputations every year.

Dr. Richard J. Powell, chief of vascular surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, was the lead investigator of the second-phase national study, which included 72 patients from 20 different sites across the United States.

It's a winner, Powell said. For me, it was dramatic, because there has been nothing that has been shown to work. The results of the third-stage trial are to be presented to the Food and Drug Administration to be approved as a treatment for patients, Powell said.

Peripheral artery disease afflicts more than 9 million patients in the United States, according to Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The condition results from blockages in blood vessels caused by atherosclerosis hardening of the arteries. Options for these patients are limited to the insertion of stents or bypass surgery.

And for about 150,000 patients in the United States who have the most severe form of the disease, amputation is the only option. The results of this recent study suggest amputation could be prevented in the majority of these severe cases.

And if the third phase of the clinical trials confirms the earlier results, the lives of those patients with severe cases could be tremendously affected, Powell said.

This is the first potential treatment that is non-surgical for really severe cardiovascular disease in the legs, he said. Roger Smith's story

About six years ago, Smith, 79, said he was having pain in his leg and trouble sleeping. He was initially misdiagnosed as having the nerve-related condition referred to as spinal stenosis, more commonly known as sciatica. When his condition worsened, he was correctly diagnosed with advanced peripheral artery disease. He lost two of his toes to amputation and was in danger of losing his leg.

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Treatment spares Lebanon man from amputation

Stem cell therapy to battle HIV?

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- UC Davis Health System researchers are a step closer to launching human clinical trials involving the use of an innovative stem cell therapy to fight the virus that causes AIDS.

In a paper published in the May issue of the Journal of Virology, the UC Davis HIV team demonstrated both the safety and efficacy of transplanting anti-HIV stem cells into mice that represent models of infected patients. The technique, which involves replacing the immune system with stem cells engineered with a triple combination of HIV-resistant genes, proved capable of replicating a normally functioning human immune system by protecting and expanding HIV-resistant immune cells. The cells thrived and self-renewed even when challenged with an HIV viral load.

"We envision this as a potential functional cure for patients infected with HIV, giving them the ability to maintain a normal immune system through genetic resistance," said lead author Joseph Anderson, an assistant adjunct professor of internal medicine and a stem cell researcher at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures. "Ideally, it would be a one-time treatment through which stem cells express HIV-resistant genes, which in turn generate an entire HIV-resistant immune system."

To establish immunity in mice whose immune systems paralleled those of patients with HIV, Anderson and his team genetically modified human blood stem cells, which are responsible for producing the various types of immune cells in the body.

Building on work that members of the team have pursued over the last decade, they developed several anti-HIV genes that were inserted into blood stem cells using standard gene-therapy techniques and viral vectors (viruses that efficiently insert the genes they carry into host cells). The resulting combination vector contained:

These engineered blood stem cells, which could be differentiated into normal and functional human immune cells, were introduced into the mice. The goal was to validate whether this experimental treatment would result in an immune system that remained functional, even in the face of an HIV infection, and would halt or slow the progression toward AIDS.

The results were successful on all counts.

"After we challenged transplanted mice with live HIV, we demonstrated that the cells with HIV-resistant genes were protected from infection and survived in the face of a viral challenge, maintaining normal human CD4 levels," said Anderson. CD4+ T-cells are a type of specialized immune cell that HIV attacks and uses to make more copies of HIV.

"We actually saw an expansion of resistant cells after the viral challenge, because other cells which were not resistant were being killed off, and only the resistant cells remained, which took over the immune system and maintained normal CD4 levels," added Anderson.

The data provided from the study confirm the safety and efficacy of this combination anti-HIV lentiviral vector in a hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy setting for HIV and validated its potential application in future human clinical trials. The team has submitted a grant application for human clinical trials and is currently seeking regulatory approval, which is necessary to move on to clinical trials.

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Stem cell therapy to battle HIV?

Unity and spirituality in Russia

Having grown up during the cold war, when Russia and the United States were said to be enemies, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see a different side of Russia through a Sister City program. In 1991 when I visited the Russian Far East, I thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, but I soon found myself hoping that I would have an opportunity to return. I did, and I now spend almost half of every year there.

What kindled my desire to become more intimately acquainted with the Russian people is their innate spirituality. Life was difficult for them in the 1990s. Stores were often empty. The government-provided social services, which had included health care, day care, education, etc., were falling apart as their nation struggled with the implosion of their former government.

Yet their tenacity in hanging on to good; their loyalty, courage, kindness; the value they placed on honor; their sense of humor and compassion; brought a unity and strength to their lives that bolstered them and kept their hope alive. These qualities encouraged them to strive toward building a bright future. Over the past 20 years, a new sense of prosperity has raised the standard of living for most Russians. There is much to be grateful for in the progress made, but as is true throughout our world, there is also a need to be vigilant that our collective quest to obtain a higher material standard of living does not overshadow the value of spirituality.

Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy, speaking of spirituality, wrote: We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and all things are become new. Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 201).

Spiritual qualities are a strong and timeless foundation on which we can safely build a future that is stable yet open to constructive changes. On a material level, change is a constant: technology evolves, politicians come and go, and seasons roll by in unending cycles. Yet beneath the surface, spiritual qualities continue to underpin the development of every worthwhile achievement humanity has reached.

Receptivity opens our eyes to new possibilities and brings innovative ideas into focus. Courage and perseverance motivate us to keep working until we reach our goals. Wisdom guides our progress by tempering excessive ambition and impulsiveness with prudence. Unselfed love teaches us to be inclusive, helping us overcome greed or indifference, which create unhealthy divisions. Compassion impels us to seek understanding, to help one another in times of need, and to forgive. Together, compassion, understanding, and forgiveness create a platform for friendship and form a base for world peace.

Every culture has its own form of government and traditions, but as we look beyond the surface, well begin to see and understand the deeper spiritual qualities that transcend all that seems to divide us, and well discover our native unity as one worldwide family.

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Solosmasthana

Sixteen hallowed sites the Buddha visited:

Vesak dawned yesterday with many a Buddhist engaging in various religious activities to celebrate the life of the Buddha.

Mihintale Raja Maha Vihara

Sri Maha Bodhi

The Thrice Blessed Day which commemorates the Birth, Enlightenment and Parinibbana of the Buddha is one of the most significant events in the Buddhist calendar. As it is a time of spiritual awakening where devotees of the Buddha perform many meritorious acts and pay homage to Him, we decided to focus your attention on some of the important places the Buddhist venerate not only during Vesak, but also at other times during pilgrimages.

There are 16 very special sacred sites in Sri Lanka that are important to Buddhists because the Buddha is believed to have gone to these places during His many visits to Sri Lanka. Collectively known as Solosmasthana 16 sacred sites, they are listed in this order in the Pali verse Buddhists recite when they worship at any temple - Mahiyangana, Nagadeepa, Kelaniya, Padalaanchana (Holy Foot Print), Divaguha, Deegavapi, Muthiyangana, Tissamaharama, Sri Maha Bodhi, Mirisavetiya, Ruwanveliseya, Thuparama, Abhayagiri, Jetavana, Sela Chaitya, Kirivehera.

Mahiyangana is in the Badulla district on the left bank of the Mahaweli river.Nagadeepa is an island off the Jaffna peninsula and is known as Nainativu in Tamil. Kelaniya is on the right bank of the Kelani river about five or six km from the rivers mouth. Next in this list is Padalaanchana, the Holy Foot Print, (Sri Pada) atop Samanala Kanda. Sri Pada is followed by Diva Guha. The site has still not been identified - (not known for certain). Some say it is the rock shrine near Kuruwita in the Ratnapura district. The Samanala Kanda is clearly visible to this spot.

Next comes Deegavapi, a shrine in the Ampara district, followed by Mutiyangana in Badulla and Tissamaharama in the Hambantota district. The sites that follow are all in Anuradhapura except Kirivehera which is in Kataragama.

Why are these 16 shrines considered specially sacred? They are sites hallowed (made sacred) by Buddhas visits. The Buddhas first visit to the island was to Mahiyangana, in the Badulla district in the seventh month after His Enlightenment; that is on the full Moon Day in the Month of Duruthu (January). He came to settle a clash between two factions (rival groups) of Yakkhas were human beings not devils as they are portrayed today. They were a race of people living in the island before the advent of Vijaya. Because of the Buddhas visit, the place is of special sanctity and is first in the list.

The Buddhas next visit was three years later, on the Full-Moon Day of Bak (April) to Nagadeepa. Two Naga chieftains, uncle Mahodara and nephew Chullodara were fighting over a gem studded throne.

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Solosmasthana

New date for run to space station

A private US company has set a new date for launching a cargo ship to the International Space Station.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp, better known as SpaceX, said on Friday it was now aiming for a May 19 lift-off of its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule. It will be the first commercial cargo run to the space station.

The launch of the supply ship had been scheduled for Monday but was delayed for more software testing. The test flight is already three months late.

NASA used to stockpile the space station through the shuttles, but the fleet was retired last summer. The space agency wants commercial providers to carry up supplies and eventually astronauts.

In the meantime, NASA is paying Russia to ferry astronauts to the space station.

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New date for run to space station

SpaceX Space Station Trial Run Reset for May 19

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, a startup commercial launch services firm founded and run by internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, is still wrangling with NASA over the software needed to berth the privately owned Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.

That issue, combined with the upcoming launch of three new crewmembers to the orbital outpost, is triggering another delay in SpaceX's trial run to the station, a $100 billion outpost owned by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada that orbits about 240 miles above Earth.

ANALYSIS: SpaceX Test Flight to Space Station Delayed

Since the retirement of the space shuttles last year, NASA is dependent on its partners for flying crew and cargo to the station, a situation it plans to remedy by spurring private U.S. companies, like SpaceX, to do the job.

Cargo hauls are scheduled to begin this year. SpaceX and a second company, Orbital Sciences Corp., share NASA contracts worth $3.5 billion. SpaceX's upcoming flight is a test run, partly financed by NASA.

The U.S. space agency is in the process of reviewing bids for space taxi designs to fly its astronauts as well.

Image: Engines are ready, but software isnt. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is tested fired on April 30. Credit: SpaceX

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SpaceX Space Station Trial Run Reset for May 19

Cancer treatment delivery: International Space Station's microgravity platform

ScienceDaily (May 5, 2012) Humanity is on the constant search for improvements in cancer treatments, and the International Space Station has provided a microgravity platform that has enabled advancements in the cancer treatment process.

The oncology community has a recent history of using different microencapsulation techniques as an approach to cancer treatment. Microencapsulation is a single step process that forms tiny liquid-filled, biodegradable micro-balloons containing various drug solutions that can provide better drug delivery and new medical treatments for solid tumors and resistant infections. In other words, by using microcapsules containing antitumor treatments and visualization markers, the treatment can be directed right to the tumor, which has several benefits over systemic treatment such as chemotherapy. Testing in mouse models has shown that these unique microcapsules can be injected into human prostate tumors to actually inhibit tumor growth or can be injected following cryo-surgery (freezing) to improve the destruction of the tumors much better than freezing or local chemotherapy alone. The microcapsules also contain a contrast agent that enables C-T, X-ray or ultrasound imaging to monitor the distribution within the tissues to ensure that the entire tumor is treated when the microcapsules release their drug contents.

The Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System-II experiment, or MEPS-II, led by Dennis Morrison, Ph.D. (retired), at NASA Johnson Space Center, was performed on the station in 2002 and included innovative encapsulation of several different anti-cancer drugs, magnetic triggering particles, and encapsulation of genetically engineered DNA. The experiment system improved on existing microencapsulation technology by using microgravity to modify the fluid mechanics, interfacial behavior, and biological processing methods as compared to the way the microcapsules would be formed in gravity.

In effect, the MEPS-II system on the station combined two immiscible liquids in such a way that surface tension forces (rather than fluid shear) dominated at the interface of the fluids. The significant performance of the space-produced microcapsules as a cancer treatment delivery system motivated the development of the Pulse Flow Microencapsulation System, or PFMS, which is an Earth-based system that can replicate the quality of the microcapsules created in space.

As a result of this space station research, the results from the MEPS-II experiments have provided new insight into the best formulations and conditions required to produce microcapsules of different drugs, particularly special capsules containing diagnostic imaging materials and triggered release particles. Co-encapsulation of multiple drugs and Photodynamic Therapy, or PDT, drugs has enabled new engineering strategies for production of microcapsules on Earth designed for direct delivery into cancer tissues. Other microcapsules have now been made for treatment of deep tissue infections and clotting disorders and to provide delivery of genetically engineered materials for potential gene therapy strategies. Microcapsules that were made on the space station and are targeted at inhibiting the growth of human prostate tumors have been successfully demonstrated in laboratory settings. Although Morrison's team had performed several similar microencapsulation experiments on space shuttle missions, because of the space station's ability to support long-term experiments, more progress was made by the eight microencapsulation experiments conducted on the station in 2002 than from the 60+ prior experiments conducted on the four space shuttle missions -- STS-77, STS-80, STS-95 and STS 107.

Benefits of Space Station Research

The microgravity environment on the station was an enabling environment that led the way to better methods of microcapsule development on Earth. The capability to perform sequential microencapsulation experiments on board the station has resulted in new, Earth-based technology for making these unique microballoons that provide sustained release of drugs over a 12-14 day period. The station research led directly to five U.S. patents that have been licensed by NASA and two more that are pending. NuVue Therapeutics, Inc., is one of several commercial companies that have licensed some of the MEPS technologies and methods to develop new applications, such as innovative ultrasound enhanced needles and catheters that will be used to deliver the microcapsules of anti-tumor drugs directly to tumor sites. More recent research uses a new device for freezing tumors ("cryo-ablation") followed by ultrasound-guided deposition of the multi-layered microcapsules containing different chemotherapy drugs outside the freeze zone within a human prostate or lung tumor. In a 28-day study, combination therapy resulted in retarding tumor growth 78 percent and complete tumor regression of up to 30 percent after only three weekly injections of microencapsulated drug at tiny quantities that should not have slowed down tumor growth by more than 5-10 percent. NuVue Technologies, Inc., has now obtained two U.S. patents based on the combination therapy that includes the delivery of the NASA-type microcapsules. Upon securing funding, clinical trials to inject microcapsules of anti-tumor drugs directly into tumor sites will begin at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the Mayo Cancer Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Other potential uses of this microencapsulation technology include microencapsulation of genetically engineered living cells for injection or transplantation into damaged tissues, enhancement of human tissue repair, and real-time microparticle analysis in flowing sample streams that would allow petrochemical companies to monitor pipeline volume flow.

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Cancer treatment delivery: International Space Station's microgravity platform

Agencies plan 'Made in Space' brand campaign

BERLIN The European Space Agency is hatching plans for a branding campaign aimed at making people more aware of the benefits of spending their hard-earned taxes on the International Space Station.

The list of products and technologies that have their roots in space research is long, from memory foam to the in-ear thermometer, but in a world struggling to pay the bill from the financial crisis, the billions of dollars spent on space exploration can be challenging to justify.

The branding plan is an indication that space scientists are concerned about cuts to space agency budgets, and worried that their contribution to economic growth is not fully recognized.

"It frustrates people, because we know we have a valuable asset," Mark Uhran, NASA's assistant associate administrator for the International Space Station, told Reuters at a conference in Berlin of scientists from the 15 nations backing the project.

The European Space Agency estimates the bill for the space station will come to about $130 billion (100 billion euros), including running costs for the next 10 years. The European share of 8 billion euros, it says, equates to 1 euro ($1.30) a day from every European, or less than the price of a cup of coffee.

"If we stop investing, we will harm our economies," said Julie Robinson, space station program scientist at NASA. Robinson points out that the construction of the station was only fully completed last year, but since then there has been a surge in the amount of scientific work being done on board.

Research in orbit Research on the space station cuts across disciplines, from biotechnology to materials science, all in a series of laboratories stuffed with equipment. The space station now covers an area equivalent to a football field, orbiting the earth at more than 17,000 miles an hour.

It is run by a government consortium including the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and 11 of the 17 European Space Agency nations: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What it offers science is a stable environment in microgravity, essentially weightlessness, that can only be replicated in short bursts on Earth through the parabolic flight of aircraft used for spaceflight training and research.

Research in microgravity has led to advances in metallurgy, particularly the production of metallic foams - blocks of metal that contain bubbles - that are strong, light and provide a cushioning effect on impact. Foams are unstable, and therefore harder to study in gravity, said Professor John Banhart from the Technical University of Berlin. The car industry is excited, and lightweight crane lifting arms are already using the technology.

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Agencies plan 'Made in Space' brand campaign

Elon Musk and his mission to Mars

Next week the billionaire SA expat Elon Musk will make space flight history by docking his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station.

It was bad South African TV that gave Elon Musk part of his mysterious edge. As a 10-year-old he read whole volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica after emptying the family bookshelvesanything to avoid another episode of ChiPs or Die Man van Intersek.

Now, 29 years later, Musk is still playing video games alone into the late hours of the night.

These days it is in a basement man cave in a leased mansion in Bel Air, California, where Musk, who sold his online payment system PayPal for R11-billion in 2002, is plotting the future of the human race.

Sixteen months ago, the South African expat accomplished something only ever achieved by the governments of the United States, Russia and China. He sent a spacecraft into orbit and then recovered it.

Changing space flight Next Monday he plans to change space flight forever, becoming the first entrepreneur to dock his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station.

And it literally is his spacecraft. Beyond founding his private SpaceX company in 2002, Musk likes to remind people that he is also the self-taught chief designer of the Falcon launch rockets and their Dragon capsules.

Shortly after the symbolic end of the space-shuttle era and the transport of the shuttle Enterprise to its new home at a New York museum, Americans are struggling to digest how an African-born 39-year-old with no background in rocketry represents their future access to spacea guy so apparently whacky he once travelled to Russia to haggle with God knows who for an intercontinental ballistic missile, which he hoped to use to land a greenhouse on Mars.

It is tough for a lot of people to swallow, said Rand Simberg, a leading space industry analyst. But he is a visionary guy and I take him at his word. Barring disasters, he will be ferrying astronauts to space and he is quite serious when he said he wants to retire on Mars.

From the terse and stoic reassurances of Nasa administrators, Americans are now having to deal with this kind of rhetoric from their new doorman to the heavens: An asteroid or a super-volcano could certainly destroy us and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw: an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us, he wrote in an essay for Esquire in 2008. And that is when he is making sense.

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Elon Musk and his mission to Mars

Space oddity: Elon Musk and his mission to Mars

Next week the billionaire SA expat Elon Musk will make space flight history by docking his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station.

It was bad South African TV that gave Elon Musk part of his mysterious edge. As a 10-year-old he read whole volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica after emptying the family bookshelvesanything to avoid another episode of ChiPs or Die Man van Intersek.

Now, 29 years later, Musk is still playing video games alone into the late hours of the night.

These days it is in a basement man cave in a leased mansion in Bel Air, California, where Musk, who sold his online payment system PayPal for R11-billion in 2002, is plotting the future of the human race.

Sixteen months ago, the South African expat accomplished something only ever achieved by the governments of the United States, Russia and China. He sent a spacecraft into orbit and then recovered it.

Changing space flight Next Monday he plans to change space flight forever, becoming the first entrepreneur to dock his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station.

And it literally is his spacecraft. Beyond founding his private SpaceX company in 2002, Musk likes to remind people that he is also the self-taught chief designer of the Falcon launch rockets and their Dragon capsules.

Shortly after the symbolic end of the space-shuttle era and the transport of the shuttle Enterprise to its new home at a New York museum, Americans are struggling to digest how an African-born 39-year-old with no background in rocketry represents their future access to spacea guy so apparently whacky he once travelled to Russia to haggle with God knows who for an intercontinental ballistic missile, which he hoped to use to land a greenhouse on Mars.

It is tough for a lot of people to swallow, said Rand Simberg, a leading space industry analyst. But he is a visionary guy and I take him at his word. Barring disasters, he will be ferrying astronauts to space and he is quite serious when he said he wants to retire on Mars.

From the terse and stoic reassurances of Nasa administrators, Americans are now having to deal with this kind of rhetoric from their new doorman to the heavens: An asteroid or a super-volcano could certainly destroy us and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw: an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us, he wrote in an essay for Esquire in 2008. And that is when he is making sense.

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Space oddity: Elon Musk and his mission to Mars