akemi

"25 Tips To Live By For The Happiest New Year" by addicted2success.com

2012-02-16T07:18:00.001-08:00

25 Tips To Live By For The Happiest New Year Of 2012

Drink plenty of water.
Try something challenging and new.
Play all sorts of games, video games, board games, aslong as they aren’t games with others feelings.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
Eat more food that is close to its natural state, and less processed or manufactured.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Remember that however good or bad a situation is, it will change.
Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.
Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
Forgive. Don’t ruin your present happiness.
Don’t judge. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
Stop negative thoughts on things you can’t control. Invest energy in the positive present moment.
Agree to disagree.
Have faith.
Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one else does.
Give something good to others every day.
Smile and laugh more.
Dream more while you are awake.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
Call your friends and family often. Stay in touch.
Do the right thing.
Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
Remember that no one is in charge of your happiness except you.
[source]

2012-02-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

2011-07-21T18:20:00.001-07:00

daddy

2011-06-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

this woman....

2011-06-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

...taught me more about loyalty and patience than anyone else. I love her for that and for many other reasons. :)

wine and blueberries go well together.

2011-06-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

dammn it. i miss him.
or whatever i thought him to be.

this kid stomped our snowman's remains...

2011-06-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

...then the father and son turned their backs on it.

looping

2011-06-25T05:17:00.000-07:00

Human beings don't just fall under categories. We don't just happen to be professors, or cheerleaders, Americans or Pakistanis, gay or straight. We think of ourselves as being these kinds of people. And with these thoughts comes a whole matrix of associations, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, interests, anxieties and expectations.

[source]

the date is significant

2011-06-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

so is the picture.

counting

2011-06-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

6 weeks smoke free
8 weeks single

diana-double exposure

2011-06-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

2011-06-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Erethism 7

2011-06-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

I miss this place and time.

I forgot the title of this book.

2011-06-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

i really don't know how to untie knots

2011-06-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

2011-05-29T09:25:00.001-07:00

5 weeks.

GQ Quote

2011-04-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

"The family, at least the one that you put together, is the basic unit of society, and it should get the best of your attention."

2011-04-28T11:35:00.001-07:00

so, yea. i'm single now.

(well, at least since april 24th.)

HAH!

2011-02-13T04:21:00.000-08:00

"I date the realisation that, despite all that united us, my wife was perhaps not the person from whom Zeus's cruel stroke had severed me, to a moment shortly after our move in together when she introduced me to a kettle she'd bought for the house. It was practical, efficient, but exactly the kind of kettle I hated. If we were actually in love, how was she able to declare a household item beautiful which I found ugly?"

[Source]

Campus

2011-02-02T12:40:00.001-08:00

So many students walk around this campus with this look of terror for their faces. Where's the enlightenment and excitement of knowledge?

green!

2011-01-27T08:26:00.001-08:00

warning

2010-10-28T12:47:00.001-07:00

step one

oh dear- my admissions letter

2010-10-07T09:41:00.001-07:00

now I have to open it

clouds

2010-09-30T15:18:00.001-07:00

clouds

tree!

2010-09-28T22:43:00.001-07:00

on elizabeth av

circa 2001. he wouldn't hold still.

2010-09-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

her spine is broke. i know.

2010-09-14T23:35:00.000-07:00

oil paint and oil pastels

2010-09-14T23:16:00.001-07:00

such a fucking struggle

i'm concerned for eve's soul

2010-09-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

Read the complete story here.

page 141

2010-09-11T01:17:00.001-07:00

late night light reading

page 93

2010-09-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

"Apparently overcome with excitement, Charlotte dropped to the ground and began stuffing handfuls of crisp autumn leaves in her mouth."

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

2010-09-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to identify whether one is unintelligent or unprepared.

recursive query

2010-09-07T22:25:00.001-07:00

allelomimetic behavior, isoperimetrical, maori death wailing, mate atua, mate taua, mate tara whare/mate ailu, college applications, impact of socio-political thought and theory on the progressive movement, "hoping to trim the political power of corporate interests, some western states inaugurated the initiative, referendum, and recall" (Boyer, 655), habeas corpus, biological and environmental research information system internship, gilgamesh, and the odyssey by the following night fall.

how my nook saved my life

2010-09-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

No, my life wasn't really in danger. I just like the Brontë sisters that much.

page 19

2010-09-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

"Do you prefer reading to cards?" said he; "that is rather singular."

"I prefer a great many things to cards, Mr. Hurst," said Elizabeth; "Not the least of which is the sensation of a newly sharpened blade as it punctures the round belly of a man." Mr. Hurst was silent for the remainder of the evening."

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

there are too many crazy people in the world

2010-09-03T23:29:00.001-07:00

i'm glad i don't connect well with others

sketchy

2010-08-27T12:03:00.001-07:00

decisions

shaken, not stirred

2010-08-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

there are some things that i doubt i will ever recover from. like frightening silhouettes.
-
on a different note, these are what have been occupying my time:

this one is for eve

sketchy

2010-08-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

give up.

2010-08-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

validation

2010-08-11T00:55:00.001-07:00

3 classes left, and then, I can feel semi-accomplished.

2010-08-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

2010-08-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Αλκυόνη

2010-07-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

2010-07-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

To the root

2010-07-29T20:46:00.001-07:00

59 days

2010-07-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

I wish I didn't have a penchant for counting

page 475

2010-07-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

"This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. "Think of his misery; think of his danger--look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair--soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?"

Sill indomitable was the reply--"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad--as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate the shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth--so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane--quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

page 473

2010-07-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

"I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol. One drear word comprised my intolerable duty -- "Depart!"

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

I love this word: ostentatious

2010-07-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

It implies that the person is farcial, regardless of the person's wealth.

os·ten·ta·tious [os-ten-tey-shuhs, -tuhn-] /ˌɒstɛnˈteɪʃəs, -tən-/

–adjective
1. characterized by or given to pretentious or conspicuous show in an attempt to impress others

2. (of actions, manner, qualities exhibited, etc.) intended to attract notice

From Ostentation:

os·ten·ta·tion [os-ten-tey-shuhn, -tuhn-] /ˌɒstɛnˈteɪʃən, -tən-/

–noun
1. pretentious or conspicuous show, as of wealth or importance; display intended to impress others.

2. Archaic. the act of showing or exhibiting; display.

Origin:
1425–75; late ME ostentacioun < MF ostentation < L ostentātiōn- (s. of ostentātiō ), equiv. to ostentāt ( us ) ptp. of ostentāre to display, exhibit, freq. of ostendere to present, display (equiv. to os-, var of ob- ob- + ten ( dere ) to stretch + -t- freq. suffix + -ātus -ate1 ) + -iōn- -ion

These people usually end up alone, no matter how many people or objects they surround themselves with.

2010-06-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

"I could taste the peach and feel the soft air blowing from a subway grating on my legs and I could smell lilac and garbage and expensive perfume and I knew that it would cost something sooner or later—because I did not belong there, did not come from there—but when you are twenty-two or twenty-three, you figure that later you will have a high emotional balance, and be able to pay whatever it costs."

Goodbye to All That
by Joan Didion

i want what these people have

2010-06-24T13:35:00.001-07:00

2010-06-24T13:32:00.001-07:00

2010-06-24T08:59:00.001-07:00

2010-06-24T08:51:00.001-07:00

It’s been 39 days.

2010-06-04T12:05:00.002-07:00

2010-06-04T12:05:00.001-07:00

2010-06-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

2010-04-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

2010-04-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

page 42

2010-04-12T23:09:00.001-07:00

K

2010-04-09T21:54:00.001-07:00

2010-04-02T20:13:00.001-07:00

2010-04-02T20:10:00.001-07:00

2010-04-02T20:06:00.001-07:00

2010-04-02T19:57:00.001-07:00

2010-03-31T06:17:00.001-07:00

A Memory of Dad

2010-03-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

2010-03-26T18:16:00.003-07:00

2010-03-26T18:16:00.001-07:00

2010-03-24T13:06:00.001-07:00

2010-03-16T01:29:00.001-07:00

2010-03-14T12:08:00.001-07:00

Just a portion

2009-07-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

You should not let poet's lie to you

2009-02-26T01:57:00.001-08:00

Bjork's T.V. - The top video clips of the week are here

Snow

2009-01-19T23:42:00.001-08:00

I recorded these for my bestfriend, since she wouldn't wake up to go outside and look at it with me.

Insects

2008-12-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

Insect sketches from my mini sketch book:

Apples

2008-12-07T15:38:00.001-08:00

Concept sketches from my mini sketch book:

Kahlil Gibran

2008-10-22T22:00:00.001-07:00

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother."

"I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers."

I've really missed reading Gibran

Kahlil Gibran

The Personality of Numbers

2008-10-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Wanderlust

2008-10-01T00:57:00.000-07:00

Graphing

2008-09-17T22:44:00.002-07:00

Matthew Stone

2008-03-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Matthew Stone

Phthalo Blue.

2007-07-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

I did this the day that I broke.

Another, better view:

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

2007-06-21T14:51:00.001-07:00

"My portraits are the work generated as I explore the meaning of the desire and motivations that exist in the relationships between the young men who are my friends and at times, objects of affection, and myself, the artist. Some were strangers when we met and are now friends. All of them, whomever they are, have been invited into my home to sit for me. My portraits and projects are not documentaries, though they reflect a particular social group, because they are not so concerned with the truth but with memory and my own projection."

[Website]

One of my favorite photographers. I like the series that this came from the most.

2007-05-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Guan Zeju

Art, Sex, and Mental Illness

2007-05-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

"From Lord Byron to Dylan Thomas and beyond, the famous philanderers of the art world may have had a touch of mental illness to thank for their behaviour, psychologists report today.
A survey comparing mental health and the number of sexual partners among the general population, artists and schizophrenics found that artists are more likely to share key behavioural traits with schizophrenics, and that they have on average twice as many sexual partners as the rest of the population."

"According to Dr Nettle, the results suggest that the creativity of some artists is fuelled by the unique world view mental illness can provide, but without the completely debilitating aspects of the condition. Instead, the artists are able to direct their creativity into artistic projects."

[Source]

I want to read more about this.

EOL

2007-05-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

The Encyclopedia of Life is a collaborative scientific effort led by the Field Museum, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole), Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library, a consortium including the core institutions and also the American Museum of Natural History (New York), Natural History Museum (London), New York Botanical Garden, and Royal Botanic Garden (Kew). Ultimately, the Encyclopedia of Life will provide an online database for all 1.8 million species now known to live on Earth. When completed, www.eol.org will serve as a global biodiversity tool, providing scientists, policymakers, students, and citizens information they need to discover and protect the planet and encourage learning and conservation.

[Source]

Hateful

2007-05-02T18:44:00.001-07:00

Paul Sepuya

2007-05-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

I recommend exploring his site throughly.
Oh! and his blog.

Polar bears are drowning. That's sad.

2007-04-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I just found out that Greenland's eastern peninsula had a baby! That's right, back in 2005, Dennis Schmitt discovered an island that was previously hidden by a sheet of ice stretching from the peninsula across the island. He named the island "Uunartoq Qeqertoq" or Warming Island. Little thing is two years old now. I wonder if it has a little brother or sister now?
Check out this webpage for more info.

"Hansen is the NASA scientist who heroically exposed the Bush administration’s attempt to whitewash any evidence of global warming by having political appointees from the oil business, like Philip Cooney, whitewash scientific documents to sanitize them of any affirmative global warming statements.
Hansen makes five recommendations to address global warming:

A moratorium on building any more coal-fired power plants until we have the technology to capture and sequester the CO2. Bulldoze coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester CO2.
Tax CO2 emissions.
New national energy-efficiency standards. The biggest use of energy is in buildings, but that energy consumption can be cut 50 percent using new engineering and architectural designs.
Find a way to secure ice-sheet stability — in particular in the west Antarctic — to prevent sea-level rises of up to nearly twenty feet in the next two centuries.
Ensure the independence of scientists who inform public policymakers. Make sure that appointments to scientific advisory agencies aren’t based on political partisanship, and that papers and testimony speak the truth of the facts, not the bias of a political party and that party’s benefactors. Campaign finance reform will be required to stop influence peddling."

Read, read, read!

[Source]

HIV articles

2007-04-24T16:42:00.001-07:00

So, I'm becoming more and more fascinated by microbiology and virology. I mean, even just reading these excerpts, how can anyone not be fascinated by viruses and all the other little bits that float around everywhere?

"Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found that infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is also associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction or heart attack. While rates of several cardiovascular risk factors were also increased in study participants infected with HIV, the increased incidence of heart attack was beyond what could be explained by risk factor differences. The report will be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and has been released online."

. . . and. .

"It has been recognized that many HIV-infected individuals have metabolic abnormalities – including altered levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and changes in fat distribution in the body. Researchers have reported that patients taking antiretroviral medications may have increased risk of heart attacks, but few studies have directly examined whether HIV-infected patients in general have more heart attacks than non-infected individuals do. "

I thought we were already aware that HIV affects multiple systems, and creates multiple health complications? Why would this be surprising?

[Source]

"The 12 advisers unanimously voted to urge the Food and Drug Administration to approve maraviroc, which Pfizer Inc. hopes to sell under the brand name Celsentri. It would represent the first so-called CCR5 receptor antagonist to be sold.

The drugs block a secondary but crucial doorway typically used by the human immunodeficiency virus to enter white blood cells, which are important in the immune system.

The FDA advisers recommended that Pfizer further study Celsentri's interaction with other drugs and its effects on women and minorities. The group's advice is nonbinding, but the FDA generally follows it.

The FDA and Pfizer have cited studies showing that adding Celsentri to a traditional HIV treatment regimen was more effective in dropping the virus below detectable levels. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS."

How often does the media, in all it's forms, need to tell the people that HIV causes AIDS? I've known this since I was a child. Are people still ignorant of this common bit of information? I would like to know more about this "crucial doorway" though.

[Source]

Wow, "Documents obtained by the BBC suggest British authorities ignored warnings about the risk of contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s." Apparently, British authorities were just as dense and slow moving as American authorities.

Check the rest of the article here.

"For the growing number of people with diminished immune systems - cancer patients, transplant recipients, those with HIV/AIDS - infection by a ubiquitous mold known as Aspergillus fumigatus can be a death sentence.

The fungus, which is found in the soil, on plant debris and indoor air, is easily managed by the healthy immune system. But as medical advances contribute to a growing population of people whose immune systems are weakened by disease or treatment, the opportunistic fungus poses a serious risk.

Now, however, scientists may have found a master switch, an über gene, that seems to control the mold's ability to make poison. The new finding was reported today (April 12) in the journal Public Library of Science Pathogens by a team led by Nancy P. Keller, a biologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"There is a growing problem with medical fungi in the United States," says Keller, a UW-Madison professor of plant pathology and medical microbiology. "Aspergillus fumigatus is among the most important."

Like many fungi, Aspergillus fumigatus makes a variety of poisons, presumably to give the microbe a competitive advantage in the environments it inhabits. In humans with suppressed immune systems, the mold can cause a number of diseases with mortality rates of 60 percent or more.

"The infection can be treated, but not easily," Keller explains. "Once an immunocompromised individual gets any fungal disease, it's pretty hard to treat, and the treatments themselves are often toxic. There is a 60-90 percent mortality rate with invasive aspergillosis."

[Source]

"The mountainous Chinese province of Yunnan is tucked into the country’s southwest corner, a scenic region that borders Burma, Laos and Vietnam. The province shares its rugged topography with the surrounding countries, but it shares a less favorable trait as well: a growing AIDS epidemic, driven by a thriving underground commercial sex trade and by heroin smuggled in from the opium-growing regions of its three neighbors, an area known as the “golden triangle.”
Yunnan was the point of entry for AIDS in China, with the first cases appearing in 1989, and the mutations of the virus that exist there are far more diverse than anywhere else in the country.

Researchers at Rockefeller University and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC) have been doing work in Yunnan province for close to a decade. Because all the forms of HIV in China can be traced back to the area, they’re interested in how different subtypes of the virus are related to the epidemic’s spread and how they’re evolving. Their most recent findings, announced last fall, suggest that the virus may be spread via sexual transmission more quickly than anyone believed, resulting in an HIV subtype that has the potential to kick off a whole new Chinese epidemic."

[Source]

"Taking daily selenium supplements appears to increase the level of the essential mineral in the blood and may suppress the progression of viral load in patients with HIV infection, according to an article in the January 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Advances in antiretroviral therapy (ART) have given HIV patients a longer life expectancy, according to background information in the article. However, strict adherence to the therapy is required to keep HIV viral counts low, and there is a risk of toxic effects and metabolic dysfunction. "Thus, complete control of HIV over time using ART is unlikely, and pharmacotherapeutic limitations leave a significant void in the treatment arsenal," the authors write. Selenium deficiencies have been observed in patients with HIV spectrum disease and evidence suggests that selenium supplements can improve immune functioning. "

[Source]

Buried, residual oil is still affecting wildlife decades after a spill

2007-04-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

Scientists find crab behavior is altered by polluted sediments below the surface

"Nearly four decades after a fuel oil spill polluted the beaches of Cape Cod, researchers have found the first compelling evidence for lingering, chronic biological effects on a marsh that otherwise appears to have recovered.

Through a series of field observations and laboratory experiments with salt marsh fiddler crabs (Uca pugnax), doctoral student Jennifer Culbertson and colleagues found that burrowing behavior, escape response, feeding rate, and population abundance are significantly altered when the crabs are exposed to leftover oil compounds from a 1969 spill.

The study builds on previous work by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), which showed that oil compounds from the 1969 wreck of the barge Florida are still lingering in the sediments 8 to 20 centimeters below the surface of Wild Harbor in Falmouth, Mass. Burrowing fiddler crabs in the marsh still won't dig more than a few centimeters into the sediments in the areas most affected by the spill.

Culbertson a graduate student from the Boston University Marine Program (BUMP) and a guest student at WHOI, conducted the research in collaboration with WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy, ecologist Ivan Valiela of the Marine Biological Laboratory, and several student colleagues from WHOI and BUMP. The findings were published in the online version of Marine Pollution Bulletin on April 20, 2007 and it will appear later this spring in a printed edition.

Culbertson's experiments and field work were conducted in the summer of 2005 and 2006 in the Great Sippewissett and Wild Harbor marshes of Falmouth. On the surface, these neighboring marshes look quite similar, with common plants and animals, sediment types, and geologic histories. The difference is that WHOI researchers have detected residues of No. 2 fuel oil buried in the sediments Wild Harbor, while Great Sippewissett has no detectable residues of the 1969 spill."
[Source]

Earth's first rainforest unearthed and a Giant Mushroom

2007-04-24T15:51:00.000-07:00

"A spectacular fossilised forest has transformed our understanding of the ecology of the Earth’s first rainforests. It is 300 million years old.

The forest is composed of a bizarre mixture of extinct plants: abundant club mosses, more than 40 metres high, towering over a sub-canopy of tree ferns, intermixed with shrubs and tree-sized horsetails. Nowhere elsewhere on the planet is it possible to (literally) walk through such an extensive swathe of Carboniferous rainforest.

It was discovered by Dr Howard Falcon-Lang from the University of Bristol, UK, and US colleagues, in the underground workings of a coalmine, in Illinois, USA. The results of this work are published online today in Geology, by the Geological Society of America."

[Source]

"Scientists at the University of Chicago and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., have produced new evidence to finally resolve the mysterious identity of what they regard as one of the weirdest organisms that ever lived.

Their chemical analysis indicates that the organism was a fungus, the scientists report in the May issue of the journal of Geology, published by the Geological Society of America. Called Prototaxites (pronounced pro-toe-tax-eye-tees), the organism went extinct approximately 350 million years ago.

Prototaxites has generated controversy for more than a century. Originally classified as a conifer, scientists later argued that it was instead a lichen, various types of algae or a fungus. Whatever it was, it stood in tree-like trunks more than 20 feet tall, making it the largest-known organism on land in its day.

"No matter what argument you put forth, people say, well, that’s crazy. That doesn’t make any sense," said C. Kevin Boyce, an Assistant Professor in Geophysical Sciences at Chicago. "A 20-foot-tall fungus doesn’t make any sense. Neither does a 20-foot-tall algae make any sense, but here’s the fossil."

[Source]

Ahhhh. . . planned parenthood.

2007-04-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Start:

"So yesterday some bitch nurse at the clinic was wasting my time trying to tell me my baby Liondrae all allergic to penicillin or some shit. I don't know what kind of made-up bullshit that is. She probably, like, said it just to come off all important."

Finish:

"'Drae'll turn like four or something soon, and he's got to learn to stay away from stuff that makes him allergic, especially if I get that night manager job at the BP. It's like, cats make my eyes all watery, so I stay the fuck away from them. I don't want to find out he got sick playing with a big-ass jar of penicillin 'cause he never learned it'll hurt him. But 'Drae smart. He'll figure it out eventually, just like he did the clothes dryer."

[Source: Middle]

Trees

2007-04-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

I can't tell if the media didn't do their research or if the whoever is responsible in NYC didn't do their research. Planting more boreal trees, just reduces shade temperatures, but actually contributes to over all global warming. Using a tree as a carbon sink is only efficient (according to current studies) in tropical regions. So why play this off as a environmentally friendly ploy from the mayor, when it sounds more like a beautification project? (Either way, I like more trees.)

"One million new trees will join the urban landscape of New York City by the year 2017 to reduce air pollution, cool temperatures and help improve the city's long term sustainability, officials said Saturday. The tree program is one of 127 environmental proposals that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was set to outline Sunday in a speech at the Museum of Natural History, timed with the observance of Earth Day.

His administration has been working for more than a year on the package of ideas, which is also expected to include a controversial plan to charge motorists extra for driving into certain parts of Manhattan, as a way to cut down on traffic congestion and pollution.

Bloomberg, whose second term expires at the end of 2009, has a goal of reducing New York City's carbon emissions by 30 percent over the next two decades. He has said that the population is likely to grow by another million in that time - up from 8.2 million today - and that the city needs a plan now to deal with the strain on infrastructure and the environment.

The effort was put together by the mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability.

On Saturday, city officials announced the tree program, which is to begin this July.

For the next 10 years, the city will plant 23,000 trees each year along city streets, to reach a goal of having a tree in "every single place where it is possible to plant a street tree," Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said."

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"Before compact fluorescent light bulbs and ethanol, the first line of defense against global warming was planting trees.
Forests, after all, cool the atmosphere by drinking in carbon dioxide from the air. A new study, however, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that forests' other climatic effects can cancel out their carbon cleaning advantage in some parts of the world. Using a three-dimensional climate model, the research team mimicked full global deforestation and also studied the effects of clear-cutting in different regions of latitude, such as the tropics and boreal zones. Apparently, these natural carbon sinks only do their job effectively in tropical regions; in other areas, they have either no impact or actually contribute to warming the planet. In fact, according to this model, by the year 2100, if all the forests were cut and left to rot, the annual global mean temperature would decrease by more than 0.5 degree Fahrenheit."

[Source]

HIV

2007-04-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

"A natural ingredient of human blood has been shown to block HIV, raising hopes of a new class of drugs to treat infection with the virus.

The molecule works in a way different to current antiretroviral therapies, and so could be a new line of attack.
Researchers found its potency could be boosted by making tiny changes to its chemical structure. It also worked against drug resistant HIV strains."

[Source]

"A peptide found in human blood inhibited 60 strains of HIV from infecting cells in laboratory tests, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Cell, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Researchers found the peptide can inhibit HIV strains that have developed resistance to existing medications --a discovery that could lead to the development of new HIV/AIDS drugs -- the Chronicle reports. Frank Kirchhoff of the University of Ulm in Germany and colleagues found the peptide, which they call VIRIP, in the residue left in filters used by kidney dialysis patients to clean their blood."

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[More]

dynein-LC8 interaction

2007-04-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

"A molecule thought crucial to ferrying the deadly rabies virus into the brain, where it eventually kills, apparently isn’t. The surprising finding, say researchers at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, may change the way scientists think about how central nervous system-attacking viruses such as herpes viruses invade the brain and cause disease."

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I want more information on this.

Green Nanotechnology

2007-04-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON, DC -- The ability to eliminate waste and toxins from production processes early on, to create more efficient and flexible solar panels, and to remove contaminants from water, is becoming an exciting reality with nanotechnology. This "green nanotechnology" involves designing nanoproducts for the environment and with the environment in mind. Green nano is not just a niche among a few scientists or environmentalists. The investment community has recognized these green nano advances as big business and rewarded corporate innovators. A recent article, "Green is Gold," advises investors: "Nowhere is the vision of technology in the service of sustainability more promising than in the field of nanotechnology," (Forex Market, 3/15/07).

[Source]

[Webcast] (Thursday, April 26, 2007, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.)

Monkey Prostitution

2007-04-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

"Out of the corner of his eye, Chen saw that one monkey gave a coin to another (instead of rushing to exchange it for treats.) He thinks, am I witnessing the first instance of monkey altruism? No. He was actually witnessing something he said he really wished he hadn't seen," said Dubner.

After a brief grooming ritual, the monkeys who exchanged the coin started to have sex. Immediately after the incident, the paid monkey went over to Chen to get food in exchange for returning the coin, Dubner said."

[Source]