Is there a forum, user's group, or ?? that deals with nuclear reactors and engineering? A search found a lot of topics about nuclear, but I didn't notice a particular forum or group. Thanks.
Meet the First US Public Electric Vehicle Quick Charge Station [It’s Electric]
Congratulations, citizens of Portland! Specifically, citizens of Portland who own an electric car. You, my fine fellows, are the only persons in the country with the power to charge your lithium ion battery to 80% in under 30 minutes. More »
Visible Oil Still in the Gulf While People Eat the Seafood
The media and our government can’t find the oil and they still say most of it’s gone. That isn’t true, according to eye witness accounts, and many websites and radio shows have personal observations of people still seeing the oil. Like most people, I don’t live there, so I can’t know what is being seen in the Gulf States. All I can do is rely on eye witness reports and photos online, like this one:
The MODIS / Aqua satellite image above, taken at 2 pm Central time on July 28, shows oil slicks and sheen (encircled with orange line) that we think are likely attributable to the BP / Deepwater Horizon oil spill, spread out across 11,832 square miles (30,644 km2) in the Gulf of Mexico.
I have been hearing on radio shows that people in the Gulf are still observing oil, oil sheen, oil in the grass and seaweed, and there are no cleanup people anywhere to be seen. It’s like if it’s not being recorded on TV every day, most of the country doesn’t see it, and BP is apparently not going to clean it up.
That’s not right. BP needs to be there cleaning up what oil remains. It doesn’t help that our government has already reopening water for fishing. Has water testing been extensively done? Has the EPA really exhaustively tested the waters where fish is being taken? That would be hard to believe. I would never eat seafood from the Gulf yet — maybe in a year or two. I don’t care how many businesses close, if that seafood has oil in it, or chemical dispersants, it’s not fit to eat and it could harm people.  A person’s health is more important than an industry’s bottom line. That is my personal viewpoint, and I’m very concerned that fishing is already opening up in many areas of the Gulf where people are observing visible oil nearby.  Oil doesn’t disappear that fast. The Corexit and other dispersants don’t just disappear quickly either. How about the non-visible oil, the oil in the water column? If the oil has sunk to the bottom, it will stay there, and it’s still in the food chain.
Below is a video of how people are concerned that BP is not sticking around to clean up the oil in the Gulf, as they said they would. The video is from PBS, and it also reports that there is still a great deal of oil in the Gulf. Are people really eating the seafood from that area? They are taking a big chance with their lives, if they are. This video is from August 5th, 2010.
Read the Transcript: http://to.pbs.org/9f5T5Q
The government reports that most of the oil is gone from Gulf waters and shorelines but assures that cleanup efforts will continue. Tom Bearden reports from Venice, Louisiana.
One man in this video says: “There is tons of oil in the [...]
Medical School Students At Stanford University Get An Apple IPad During … – City Town Info Education Channel
 Medgadget.com | Medical School Students At Stanford University Get An Apple IPad During ... City Town Info Education Channel Because of its portability, SF Gate added, Stanford medical school officials believe the device will improve students' learning experiences. ... iPads to be Trialed for Use in Medical EducationMedgadget.com Stanford to issue new medical students iPadsSan Francisco Chronicle UCI medical students will also receive iPadsScope (blog) |
Fake Melted Food an Effective and Sociopathic Way to Save Your Seat [Fakefood]
The typical seat-saving trick at the movies is leaving behind a jacket or bag. But what if you don't have a jacket? It's summer! You might not even be wearing clothes! Try one of these devious faux melted treats instead. More »
From Connective-Tissue Cells to Heart Cells With No Stops In Between | 80beats
In January, we discussed a biotech first–a transformation from skin cell to brain cell, without reverting to a more mutable stem cell in between. Today a paper in the journal Cell describes a similar direct transformation in mice, from a type of structural cell called a fibroblast to heart cells. If one day scientists can entice human cells to make a similar “direct conversion,” the researchers believe this metamorphosis may prove one way to fix heart damage that’s irreparable under the current state of medicine.
The study’s authors at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of California, San Francisco, once attempted to use stem cells for heart repair with little success, Nature News reports. Though the stem cells quickly turned into the beating variety, called cardiomyocytes, they remained feeble, never transforming into the strongly beating muscle cells of a healthy heart.
“I don’t know that this [direct conversion] will entirely replace stem cells,” says Deepak Srivastava [lead author on the study]… “But it will offer another strategy that might remove some of the concerns of using stem cells.” [Nature News]
The stem cell failure spurred the team to study the cardiomyocytes in more detail, searching for proteins that activate the genes responsible for making cardiomyocytes in mice embryos. They found three essential proteins and their associated genes: Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5. After activating these genes in adult fibroblasts and implanting them back into the mice, within a day, the cells started to transform into the coveted cardiomyocytes. Eventually 20 percent converted.
“Scientists have tried for 20 years to convert nonmuscle cells into heart muscle, but it turns out we just needed the right combination of genes at the right dose,” [study coauthor Masaki] Ieda, now at the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan, said in a statement. [Reuters]
Though Srivastava cautions that researchers must first show that human fibroblasts can use the same proteins to make the switch, he told The Telegraph that instead of removing cells, modifying them, and reintroducing them, as his team did in the mouse study, they might instead find a way to activate the conversion genes using a medication added through a tube, called a stent, in the coronary artery:
“It is ambitious, but not unreasonable, to imagine being ready for a clinical trial in the next five years.” [The Telegraph]
Related content:
80beats: A Biotech Magic Trick: Skin Cells Transformed Directly Into Brain Cells
80beats: One Step Closer To Embryo-Free (And Controversy-Free) Stem Cells
80beats: A Safer Way to Transform Skin Cells Into Stem Cells Brings Medical Trials Closer
80beats: Nanoparticles + Stem Cells = Faster Healing Wounds
80beats: Liposuction Leftovers Are a Stem Cell Bonanza
Image:Wikimedia / SubtleGuest
My First True Diva Moment | Cosmic Variance
I feel like I have successfully negotiated a Hollywood rite of passage. I was being interviewed on camera for a TV pilot, when I took off my microphone, tossed it aside, and stormed off. How awesome is that??
Not so awesome at all, actually, but it did happen. I much prefer a low-drama lifestyle, and it takes a certain kind of talent to get me that annoyed. Nothing to be proud of; I should have been more careful in learning what the show was about in the first place.
The backstory is that I was called on the phone by producers at a company I had never heard of, but that means nothing, as I haven’t heard of the vast majority of TV production companies. [Update: name of the company removed because I signed a non-disclosure agreement. They didn't complain, just being cautious.] They wanted to come to campus to interview me for a pilot they were producing. I’ve done the drill before, for respectable outlets like the History Channel, Science Channel, and National Geographic. It’s a couple of hours of work, no heavy lifting, and hopefully you get to explain some cool science that will be seen by a much larger audience than I could possibly reach by giving a thousand public lectures. And it’s fun — I get to be on TV, which growing up wasn’t the kind of thing I ever thought I’d get to do.
They explained that they wanted me to talk about quantum teleportation. I countered by mentioning that there were surely better experts that they could talk to. But they really just needed some background information about quantum mechanics and relativity, and were comforted by the fact I had appeared on camera before. And the producer emphasized that they knew perfectly well that teleportation wasn’t realistic right now, but thought it was interesting to speculate about what might ultimately be consistent with the laws of physics. So I agreed. There was a slight hint of sketchiness about the operation — they seemed to be unable to come to an agreement with Caltech in regards to consent forms, which National Geographic or the History Channel never had trouble with. But my antennae weren’t sensitive enough to set off any alarm bells.
So the taping was this afternoon, and it consisted of me chatting informally with the show’s two hosts, while taking a leisurely walk around Caltech’s quite lovely campus. But as soon as we started talking, things went rapidly downhill. The first question was what I thought about claims that people had actually built successful teleportation devices. When I expressed skepticism, one of the hosts challenged me by asking whether I would just be repeating the “party line” of the scientific establishment. I admitted that I probably would, as I think the party line is mostly right. And that we have very good reasons for thinking so.
They next asked whether it wasn’t possible that people had built teleporters by taking advantage of extra dimensions. I explained why this wasn’t possible — extra dimensions are things that physicists take very seriously, but if they are macroscopically accessible they would have shown up in experiments long ago. From there, the downhill spiral just continued. They asked whether I was familiar with the “black projects” conducted by the CIA and the military? What about eyewitness testimony of people who had been to Mars and back? Was it possible that ghosts and/or extraterrestrials used quantum mechanics to travel through walls?
It sounds even worse in retrospect than it did at the time, because they would intersperse the craziness with relatively straightforward questions about physics. But I think that even the straightforward questions were just an accident — they were trying to be goofy, but didn’t understand the difference between what is possible and what is just crazy. (”Do you think it’s possible to travel into the future at a faster rate than normal?”) The producer would occasionally interrupt with some sort of suggestion that they actually say something about quantum teleportation. “I don’t really know anything about that,” replied the host to which I was speaking.
Eventually one of the hosts mentioned psychic remote viewing, and smirked when I tried to explain that it’s easier to disbelieve a few eyewitness reports than to imagine a complete breakdown of the laws of physics. With that, after having resisted the temptation for a good fifteen minutes, I cut it off and walked away. The producers tried to get me to come back, but there was no way. I don’t know whether they will go ahead and use any of the footage from my interview; I don’t think I said anything I would later regret, but I did sign a consent form. Hopefully they will try to salvage a shred of their own respectability, and not use me on the show.
The problem for me wasn’t primarily the credulous attitude toward craziness — although there was that. The real problem was dishonesty. In their last-ditch effort to get me to come back, the producers tried to explain that they really were interested in quantum teleportation, and the hosts had simply wandered off-script. The show wouldn’t be biased in favor of the paranormal, they assured me. The problem is, nowhere in talking to me about the show was the word “paranormal” ever mentioned. I was given the impression that it was a straightforward science show, and that was simply untrue.
There is a perfectly reasonable debate to be had, concerning the extent to which respectable scientists should publicly engage with pseudoscientific craziness. Under the right circumstances I could conceivably be willing to participate in a show that discussed paranormal phenomena, as long as I could be convinced that it was done in a sensible way and my views would be fairly represented. This was nothing like that — all of my pre-interview communication with the producers was strictly about quantum mechanics and teleportation, with no mention of pseudoscience at all. Once the cameras started rolling, it was all ghosts and remote viewing. Completely unprofessional; hopefully next time I’ll be more careful.
Also, for future reference: no brown M&M’s in the green room!
The Tiny Cannon Is Back and Destroying Bigger Stuff Than Ever [Overcompensating]
The first tiny cannon video was just an appetizer. This, the second in the series, is the main course of destruction: glass bottles, fluorescent lights, computer monitors, and another balloon—but this time it's filled with gas. [LaughingSquid] More »
Flush and Extended Diaphragm Use in Transmitters
Can anyone tell that when we use flush type diaphragm and extended diaphragm in Transmitters and their applications as well. Please someone give some literature regarding this topic.
Study Warns Private Browsing Modes Can Be Bypassed [Privacy]
In what will come as alarming news to porn lovers everywhere, a new study out of Stanford University shows that the private browsing modes now standard on most browsers can be circumvented. The culprits? Encrypted sites and your own extensions. More »
Injectable Glowing Beads In Bloodstream Can Indicate Glucose Levels [Health]
Diabetics may have yet another tool in their blood-sugar management arsenal — an implantable, fluorescent blood-sugar monitor. It involves small hydrogel beads that vary the intensity of emitted light depending on glucose concentration. They're called Life Beans. More »
AVR Studio Problem
i face a problem with my avr studio version 4.18.684 that run under windows xp
every time i try to create a hex file this message appear:FATAL ERROR:cannot open output file c:\documents and settings\--------
has anybody know what should i do ?
First Test Tube Baby Is Now a Mother Herself [Science]
Elizabeth Comeau, born in 1981 from in-vitro fertilization, was America's first test tube baby. Having recently become a mother herself, she wrote a touching article about her life as a scientific first. Check it out at the [Boston Globe] More »
Planet triangle graces the western twilit sky | Bad Astronomy
If you look west after sunset, you’ll probably spot the fourth brightest object in the sky*: Venus.
But as I looked west recently, I noticed two bright(ish) objects just above it. It didn’t take me long to figure out that they were the planets Saturn and Mars. Both looked red due to their low altitude above the horizon, and both were about the same brightness, so I wasn’t sure which was which. Happily, Sky and Telescope has a map (shown here) and a write-up of what’s what.
Interestingly, although Saturn is far larger than Mars, it’s much farther away, so they appear to be about the same brightness in the sky. All three of these planets will change their positions noticeably over the next few weeks, so you can watch as the dance of gravity morphs their configuration. Also, on August 12 and 13, the crescent Moon will slide past the trio, which should make for a very nice photo opportunity.
Not only that, but if you stay up late, you can catch the Perseid meteor shower as well. I’ll have more about that later. But until then, even people who go to bed early can spot and appreciate the view to the west.
* The first three being the Sun, the Moon, and the International Space Station.
HP CEO Mark Hurd Resigns Amidst Sexual Harassment Investigation [Hp]
HP CEO Mark Hurd has resigned over a sexual harassment allegation leveled by a former HP contractor. The company says an investigation by outside counsel found no sexual harassment violation, though there were violations of HP's Standards of Business Conduct. Updated More »
Yoko Says Beatles and iTunes Still Won’t Come Together [Beatles]
"Steve Jobs has his own idea and he's a brilliant guy... There's just an element that we're not very happy about, as people. We are holding out." So says Yoko. And as Yoko goes, so go the Beatles on iTunes. More »
Free Energy Motors
Has any CR4 member ever build or tried to build a Bedini electric motor, a so called: "Free Energy" motor. Will appreciate response // discussion.
New York Suing LCD Makers Over Price Fixing Concerns [LCD]
New York State filed suit today against several of the largest LCD manufacturers, citing concerns of price fixing schemes. Those under scrutiny include Sharp, LG, Hitachi and Samsung—the latter being the most popular LCD brand in the country. More »
Watch a School Bus Go 367 MPH On Fiery Rocket Power [Mad Science]
What happens when you strap the jet engine from a Phantom fighter plane to the back of a yellow school bus? The awesomest fire-propelled death ride around. And yes, there is a video. More »
Japan Orders Apple To Publish a Remedy For iPod Overheating Problem [Apple]
Japan's trade ministry has ordered Apple to publicize an "easy to understand" online statement detailing how first-gen iPod Nano users can receive replacement batteries. The device has been linked to 27 cases of overheating and 4 burn incidents, which Apple has determined stems from a single battery manufacturer. [Reuters] More »
