Ten humourous tips for travelling anywhere...The first of our vlog series this video outlines our ten primary tips which advise travellers on how to have a great trip no matter where you're going.We devised these tips based on our own travelling experiences.This year we will visit a range of Australian destinations documenting the adventures these tips inspire. We will also upload various oth
Informal Guide to Melbourne
Using our ten tips we made a short trip to Melbourne the capital city of Victoria in Australia.We had an absolute ball and discovered some great things about the city. We explored suburbs such as St Kilda finding out that we preferred St Kilda East ate out went dancing and mixed with the locals...Find out what we got up to hereShort version httpwww.youtube.comwatchvGJZm3ORDSYLong v
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Cordoba Argentina
After a few days in Salta I headed down to Cordoba before heading back to Santiago. I met some cool people in Cordoba and we basically hung out the whole time two people from Argentina one from Ireland and one from Mexico. One day we went to a town called Villa Carlos Paz that was nice and had a river running through it. Other than that we just kicked back cooked hung out by the little pool
Why Can’t All Medications Come in Ice Cream-Form? | Discoblog
I scream, you scream, we all scream… for the medicine given to recovering cancer patients.
The Scientist reports that LactoPharma, (a “collaborative research venture between the University of Aukland, the New Zealand government, and the country’s largest dairy company, Fonterra Ltd.”) has created a therapeutic, strawberry-flavored ice cream called ReCharge.
ReCharge ice cream has gone through a string of taste-tests to ensure that the product satisfies the palette. However, one ingredient is a mandatory keeper: Lactoferrin, a protein found in milk that possesses the power to impede tumor growth and improve intestinal immune response. Because side effects of chemotherapy include the destruction of neutrophils (while blood cells) and intestinal cells, which often leads to infection and digestive problems, University of Auckland biologist Geoff Krissansen decided to test bovine lactoferrin on chemotherapy patients to see whether it could counter these side effects.
The Scientist reports on the results:
Indeed, when fed to mice two weeks prior to chemotherapy, bovine lactoferrin helped increase immunoresponsive cytokines in the intestine, decreasing cell damage caused by chemo, and restored both red blood cell and neutrophil numbers…. The researchers also found that another bioactive component present naturally in milk—a type of “lipid fraction,” according to Krissansen—demonstrated similar results in mice. The scientists expect to publish these results in 2010.
But why serve up the lactoferrin in ice cream-form? Kate Palmano of the Fonterra Research Center explains: “We needed to formulate a product that was acceptable and palatable to patients, but that was also suitable for the bioactives.” The bioactive in question, lactoferrin, is a protein that can change form and function in warmer temperatures. “Plus,” Palmano adds, “people going through chemotherapy typically lose their appetite. Why not give them a treat like ice cream?”
LactoPharma plans to develop more foods and pharmaceuticals incorporating milk’s protective mechanisms.
Related Content:
Discoblog: Fiber-Filled, Antioxidant-Packed Ice Cream—Brilliant? Sacrilegious? Nasty?
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: I scream! You scream! We all scream…from ice-cream headaches.
Discoblog: Not Freezing Ice Cream Would Help the Environment; Not Eating It Would, Too
Image: flickr / joyosity
Scientists Sequence DNA From the Teeming Bacterial Universe in Your Guts | 80beats
The human genome may have been sequenced back in 2004, but that was a far cry from documenting all the genes inside us. Our bodies are home to a dizzying number and variety of bacteria, and in a study published in this week’s Nature, researchers have used metagenomic sequencing to catalog the genes that belong to the microbes living in our guts.
The project, which sampled 124 European people, found that each individual had at least 160 species of bacteria living in his or her digestive tract, and there’s a lot of overlap between our guts. At least 57 species of bacteria were present in just about everybody. Overall, the researchers cataloged about 1,000 different bacteria species and figure there’s another 150 or so they haven’t found [AP].
Researcher Jeroen Raes reminds us that no matter if we’re grossed out by the fact that bacteria infest our body, we depend on them. “The bacteria help digest food, provide vitamins, protect us from invading pathogens. If there’s a disturbance, people get all sorts of diseases such as Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis, and a link has also been made to obesity” [BBC News]. In addition, he says, we have 10 times the number of bacterial cells in our bodies than human cells, and 100 times bacterial genes than our own. So we’re pretty much walking bacteria farms.
It’ll take time to sort out the tangled web of data from all those microbial species. Study coauthor Wang Jun says one of the ultimate goals is to pin down relationships between bacteria and diseases like those that Raes listed. “If you just tackle these bacteria, it is easier than treating the human body itself. If you find that a certain bug is responsible for a certain disease and you kill it, then you kill the disease,” Wang said [Reuters]. Wang is currently working on a similar study in China.
In the meantime, some, like outside researcher Elaine Holmes, were just impressed that this feat could be achieved. “It uses a large number of participants and therefore one assumes it is more representative of the ‘real’ microbial composition than previous studies. Also, it is an amazing feat of data processing” [BBC News].
Related Content:
80beats: Study: Bacteria Can Make Avatar-Like Electrical Connections In Mud
80beats: Did Your Morning Shower Spray You With Bacteria?
80beats: Your Belly Button Is a Lush Oasis for Bacteria, and That’s a Good Thing
80beats: Mutations That Kill: First Cancer Genomes Sequenced
DISCOVER: Your Genome, Now Available for a (Relative) Discount
Image: iStockphoto
Where astronomy and Trek collide: SETIcon! | Bad Astronomy
I’m very excited to announce the advent of SETIcon, a convention about astronomy, SETI, and Star Trek!
Yeah, you read that right. SETIcon guests will include many astronomers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, including David Morrison, Seth Shostak, Frank Drake, and Jill Tarter. Other astronomers will include my friends Alex Filippenko, Debra Fischer, and Kevin Grazier, and Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweikart.
Oh! And me. I’ll be there, too.
But besides astronomers and astronomy and hardcore science talks, there will also be several actors from the scifi genre there, including John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox from Enterprise; I met him at Dragon*Con and he is smart, funny, and just a generally nice guy) and Tim Russ (Tuvok from Voyager, who is an amateur astronomer). More guests have been invited, and I’m hoping to have one or two cool announcements concerning them as they confirm.
There will be panels, talks (I’ll most likely give my Death from the Skies! talk) and I just bet Kevin and I will do one of our famous panels where we nitpick movies and each other. Mostly each other. That’s a lot of fun.
SETIcon will be August 13 – 15 in Santa Clara, California. Unbelievably, tickets are only $20 a day or $35 for the weekend. That’s really cheap for something like this! Of course, more expensive tickets get you more stuff, so explore your options. I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be fun, and I hope to see lots of BABloggees there.
Hella Good: Mixing Science and California Slang to Name a Really Big Number | Discoblog
If you came across the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is a one followed by 27 zeroes, won’t you say that’s a hella lot of numbers?
UC Davis student Austin Sendek seems to think so. He has initiated a Facebook campaign to designate a scientifically accepted prefix for this number, 10^27. The prefix he chose is “hella” because it is “a hell of a lot” of numbers. It is also his way of mixing homegrown California slang with science. Sendek thinks the new prefix would be the best way to acknowledge the Golden State’s hella hot contributions to science.
If Sendek’s proposal is accepted, then hella would come right after “yotta.”
Physics World reports:
Yotta (1024), which was established in 2001, is currently the largest number established in the International System of Units (SI) — the world’s most widely used system of measurement — with zeta (1021), exa (1018) and peta (1015) following close behind.
Already, Sendek’s Facebook fan page for the new designator has racked up a huge following, with more than 30,000 fans.
But what would you use hella for in science? DISCOVER’s Cosmic Variance explains that a hellasecond is ten billion times the age of the universe, and the mass of the earth is about 6 hellagrams. Sendek says you could also use hella to describe the wattage of the Sun, the space between galaxies, or the number of atoms in a sample.
Sendek has already written to the Consultative Committee for Units (CCU) which advises the International Committee for Weights and Measures–the body that makes the final decisions on the prefixes. However, CCU’s head, Ian Mills, has said that he’s skeptical that hella will win approval.
Related Content:
Cosmic Variance: Hella…yes!
Image: Facebook/ The official petition to establish “Hella”
Monitoring The World’s Oceans | The Intersection
This is the seventh in a series of guest posts by Joel Barkan, a previous contributor to “The Intersection” and a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The renowned Scripps marine biologist Jeremy Jackson is teaching his famed “Marine Science, Economics, and Policy” course for what may be the last time this year (along with Jennifer Jacquet), and Joel will be reporting each week on the contents of the course.
I don’t want to write a post all about climate change on Chris and Sheril’s blog because my fire-retardant suit is at the cleaners. So I won’t. But I will write about what marine scientists can learn from what climate scientists are doing (no “Oceangate” jokes, please).
Each week, I write in this space about a different threat that will inevitably doom our oceans if we fail to act. But which threat is the most critical? At least climate scientists have agreed on a general consensus: most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely due to increased greenhouse gas concentrations as a result of human activities. UC San Diego’s own Naomi Oreskes, in a 2004 Science essay, analyzed nearly a thousand abstracts published in the ISI database between 1993 and 2003 that contained the keywords “climate change.” Three-quarters of them accepted the consensus view and not a single one challenged it. This means climate scientists know the problem (greenhouse gas emissions) and how to address it (reduce emissions). Of course, it’s not that simple, but it’s a basic cause and effect that advocates can rally behind.
It’s not quite so straightforward for marine scientists. Ask one why the oceans are in danger and he’ll say it’s because of overfishing. Ask another and she’ll say it’s because of pollution. Ask a third and the reason will be coastal development. We know we have problems, but we struggle to agree on the most pressing. Marine scientists also don’t have something like the Keeling Curve to present as a simple, obvious symbol of human impacts on the oceans. Most importantly, the world lacks something like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess ocean health and inform policy decisions. As a result, the marine conservation movement often feels as unorganized and unfocused as a third grade recess.
Dr. Jackson and Dr. Jacquet have challenged us to brainstorm creative solutions for marine management. The student presenters in this week’s class offered some thought-provoking ideas. They cooked up the “Intergovernmental Panel on the Degradation of the Marine Environment,” though Dr. Jacquet suggested substituting “Ocean” for “Marine Environment” to create the snazzy acronym IPDO. Like IPCC does for climate change, IPDO would evaluate the state of the marine environment as a basis for informed policy action. IPDO would also consolidate marine management into a single group, as opposed to the current bewildering myriad of agencies with jurisdiction. The students gave IPDO the hypothetical power to sanction or fine countries for violating certain standards of marine ecosystem health. IPDO would also maintain a points system to evaluate countries based on their protection (or abuse) of the oceans. Every five years or so, IPDO would publish a report on the state of our oceans, much like the IPCC’s Synthesis Report, and reveal which nations were champions of ocean conservation and which were the culprits for ocean degradation. Could the public, international shame of such a ranking motivate the offending countries to change their ways?
At one point, it was suggested that the IPDO could even collaborate with the International Olympic Committee to ban countries from the Games for particularly brazen acts of ocean destruction. Can you imagine if China had been barred from the Vancouver Games for its taste for shark fin soup, or Iceland for its high seas bottom trawling? It’s a crazy idea, but it’s going to take a lot of crazy ideas to thwart the barrage of threats to our oceans.
SMBC on TV science | Bad Astronomy
Yeah, Zach’s pretty close on this one…
 |
… but who knows? Maybe things’ll change for science on TV. Maybe sometime soon.
Please Don’t Let Laser-Based Instruments Catch On [Lasers]
Last night here in NYC, British pop singer Little Boots used a huge laser harp on stage. We've seen these things before and I just don't get it. Let's just stick with the normal instruments, shall we? [BrooklynVegan]
How To: Heroically Salvage a Scratched-Up iPhone [Guides]
One drop. Five minutes in a pocket with your keys. Three months of regular use. This is all it takes for an iPhone's backplate to go from a mirror-like shine to a scratched-to-hell eyesore. Here's how to fix it.
MacRumors forum member Shenaniganz08 salvaged an iPhone 3G from eBay, sanding, buffing and polishing it back from the brink of a life in a case, which would be dumb, because cases are dumb. (I mean, not really, but that's kind of the premise of this whole process, right? Anyway.) Here's what you need:
• Sandpaper 320(or 500),800,1000,1500,2000,2500,3000 grit
• 3M Rubbing compound
• Machine Polisher ( Power Drill or small buffer)
• Microfibers
• Sticky tack and or tape
What's great about this is that you don't need to buy almost anything. Half the stuff you need—the microfibers, the polishing disc and the rubbing compound—is included in a $15 3M headlight restoration kit , and you can use just about any crappy household drill for the buffing stage.
In any case, the results are stunning, and the documentation meticulous, so if you've got a few hours, a few bucks and an iPhone that looks like a piece of shitty sea glass, why not? [Macrumors via Gadget Lab]
Conflicting and Colliding Messages
Shelby has frank discussion with NASA Administrator, WAFF
"A frank discussion took place on Capitol Hill Thursday between Senator Richard Shelby and NASA administrator Charlie Bolden. It took place behind closed doors in Senator Shelby's office. Bolden and Shelby are very far apart on NASA's vision and therefore NASA's budget. In fact, many in Congress don't even see a vision for the space agency if there is no government owned and operated human space flight program , namely Constellation, once the shuttle retires."
NASA Chief Denies Talk of Averting Obama Plan, NY Times
"In a statement NASA released Thursday, General Bolden said, "I did not ask anyone for an alternative to the president's plan and budget."
A Strategic Retreat From Leadership, Rep. Mike Coffman, Huffington Post
"Seeking to put his stamp on America's storied adventures in rocketry and robotics, the president could have gone boldly in new directions, using past achievements as a springboard to new destinations. But his proposed budget for space exploration describes an approach that is both reckless and naïve."
Thodio A-Box Bulletproof Speakers Are Perfect For Your Bunker [Speakers]
Back in 2007, Thodio made the lovingly hand-crafted iBox speakers. But you know what? That was then. In today's rough and tumble world, your iPod needs speakers wrought with freakin kevlar. Welcome, survivalists, to the Thodio A-Box.
The innards are the same as the iBox, with your choice between two 25 watt amplifier or a "heavy duty" 70 watts. But really, the guts aren't the selling point for this bad boy. Heck, even Thodio knows that:
The iPod/mp3 player can be connected on the outside of the A-BOX as well as the inside so you can listen to your tunes while running around with the A-BOX for example or just protecting your iPod from bullets and stuff.
You know, bullets and stuff. What else does the heavy version offer? If the speakers are driven too loud, you get a "funky disco effect."
Sure, the heavy duty version'll run you $611, but that's a small price to pay for being able to dance under the funky disco lights of your blown-out speakers, firing round after round at it late into the night. [Thodio via The Awesomer]
Jalalabad’s Fab Fi: How Junk Was Turned Into a High-Speed Wireless Network [Wi-Fi]
Members of MIT's Bits and Atoms lab visited Afghanistan some time ago. While there, they showed locals how to turn pieces of board, wire, a plastic tub and some cans into reflectors for a wireless network. The result? Fab Fi.
The project resulted in 25 simultaneous live nodes being up in the city of Jalalabad and residents being able to enjoy a stable connection all over the place. Locals are even expanding the network by adding more reflectors and routers. There are some difficulties in actually obtaining the routers though, but the MIT crew—now dubbed the Jalalabad Fab Lab—are helping resolve those by shipping routers over.
On the surface this is a tale of some clever University MacGyvers, a small place in Afghanistan, and a makeshift Wi-Fi network, but the greater idea is that people came together to provide a new method of communication to an area where Skype calls and quick Google searches weren't a common luxury. Sure, now the area is exposed to time wasters and Internet porn, but it's also been provided some new opportunities to learn and explore. [Free Range International via Futurismic via Boing Boing]
Feature Film Review: Alice in Wonderland
An exotic adventure tale about a young woman's trip to an alternate reality and the testing of her will power, resourcefulness, and courage in the face of weirdness and danger.
Victoria Jackson: There’s a Communist in the White House
From Eric Dondero:
Just released video from rightwing comedienne Victoria Jackson. "There's a Communist living in the White House; now what are we going to do about it." Jackson is a former SNL cast member, Dennis Miller friend, and diehard Tea Party activist.
Not the catchiest tune around. But the lyrics are spot on.
Just 4 million? What 23andMe is worth.
So by now I am certain everyone in the DTC genomics world has seen this BNET story
From the Story
"Is it really the best time for 23andMe, a leader in recreational genetic testing to be handing $4 million to an executive officer? That’s the news from their SEC filing. The official explanation is the $4 mm was a payback to a company officer for a loan, with the money coming from the company’s series B financing, which included an investment from Google. "
Ahem.......
Most people are running around spelling doom for 23andMe. I know, I have done it in the past
I have flayed them for playing doctor even begged my associates in the past to as well.
Listen, if anyone has a beef with these guys. I do. They had this thought to replace physicians, which is a foolish way to think. You cannot replace doctors. Just empower them. Which is what should have been done here, but instead they were too busy playing Doctor on Oprah and GMA......
But the question "Are these guys going under?" is a foolish question. Drew was right. They are not going under. They, just like ACORN are changing faces to try anew........
The industry is morphing here. They see that the only sustainable solution is partnered with health care practitioners is a smart way which benefits all, but most importantly, the patient....
The Sherpa Says: The question should be, "What is this 4 million dollars for?"
Electroform Stencil – Trapezoidal Hole Standard
In IPC 7525, item 4.4.5 trapezoidal apertures, there describes for Chemical etch stencils, the trapezoidal dimension can be specified as 1/2 Z. But for Laser cut and Electroform stencils, there only states "trapezoidal aperature is an inherent part of process. Stencil vendors should be contacted for