Fast Human Evolution Tweaked by Migrations

Image Source Impact LabWhen groups of humans migrate into different environments, their extended genome begins to adapt to the new environment almost immediately. How does this happen? Geneticists do not know, precisely, but they are betting that this fast-adaptation occurs by other means than traditional natural selection.

In recent years, geneticists have identified a handful of genes that have helped human populations adapt to new environments within just a few thousand years—a strikingly short timescale in evolutionary terms. However, the team found that for most genes, it can take at least 50,000-100,000 years for natural selection to spread favorable traits through a human population. According to their analysis, gene variants tend to be distributed throughout the world in patterns that reflect ancient population movements and other aspects of population history.

“We don’t think that selection has been strong enough to completely fine-tune the adaptation of individual human populations to their local environments,” says co-author Jonathan Pritchard. “In addition to selection, demographic history — how populations have moved around — has exerted a strong effect on the distribution of variants.”

To determine whether the frequency of a particular variant resulted from natural selection, Pritchard and his colleagues compared the distribution of variants in parts of the genome that affect the structure and regulation of proteins to the distribution of variants in parts of the genome that do not affect proteins. Since these neutral parts of the genome are less likely to be affected by natural selection, they reasoned that studying variants in these regions should reflect the demographic history of populations.

The researchers found that many previously identified genetic signals of selection may have been created by historical and demographic factors rather than by selection. When the team compared closely related populations they found few large genetic differences. If the individual populations’ environments were exerting strong selective pressure, such differences should have been apparent.

Selection may still be occurring in many regions of the genome, says Pritchard. But if so, it is exerting a moderate effect on many genes that together influence a biological characteristic. “We don’t know enough yet about the genetics of most human traits to be able to pick out all of the relevant variation,” says Pritchard. _ImpactLab_(from sciencenews)

Scientists are just beginning to understand the significance of the small differences in genotype between extended breeding populations of humans. Because phenotypic differences are significant -- not just morphologically and in terms of physical performance, but in behavioural and cognitive characteristics such as intelligence, executive function, etc. -- between human populations, it is obvious that the slight genotypic differences that exist are meaningful. Scientists need to learn more about how human populations diverged, and what it means for the future.

Clearly the evolutionary stresses presented to isolated villagers living at 10,000 feet in the Andes are much different than evolutionary stresses to coastal city-dwellers in a modern society. Even inside that coastal city, if distinct breeding populations exist within quasi-isolated communities, evolutionary stresses will be somewhat distinct -- and lead to further divergence.

Given the "neo-tribalist" emphasis of the modern political, academic, and popular societal lebensreich, the equalising forces of assimilation have been obstructed by forces of post-modern political correctness and identity dogma. Electing pro-affirmative action presidents and selecting pro-affirmative action Supreme Court justices only hastens the trend toward neo-divergence of core breeding populations.

The level of inter-breeding between populations may seem to contradict this idea, but in reality inter-breeding often has the opposite effect -- enhancing a sense of "separateness" and neo-segregation. A good look at Obama's first auto-biography should illustrate the point well. ("Am I black enough ...?") In the black community of the US, one often finds an elite strata that is composed largely of mixed-race persons who are often more stridently opposed to physical and social assimilation (Reverend Wright) than a typical American black chosen at random.

It is an interesting dynamic, and one that does not lend itself to a closing of gaps of intelligence or executive function. To accomplish that, we will need to understand a lot more about the subtle genetics of differences, and how the (chosen and unchosen) environment plays into that subtlety.

Magic Helical Bullets to Kill Cancer and Bacteria?

The compound [Fe2L3]4+ is an iron triple helicate with three organic strands wrapped around two iron centres to give a helix which looks cylindrical in shape and neatly fits within the major groove of a DNA helix. It is about the same size as the parts of a protein that recognise and bind with particular sequences of DNA. The high positive charge of the compound enhances its ability to bind to DNA which is negatively charged.

When the iron-helicate binds to the major groove of DNA it coils the DNA so that it is no longer available to bind to anything else and is not able to drive biological or chemical processes. _PO

The interesting structure known as [Fe(2)L(3)](4+) was first researched as a treatment for cancer. But University of Warwick researchers have discovered that the metallomolecule is a particularly potent killer of bacteria -- even bacteria that are resistant to conventional antibiotics.

Initially the researchers focused on the application of this useful property for targeting the DNA of cancer cells as it could bind to, coil up and shut down the cancer cell's DNA either killing the cell or stopping it replicate. However the team quickly realised that it might also be a very clever way of targeting drug-resistant bacteria.

New research at the University of Warwick, led by Dr Adair Richards and Dr Albert Bolhuis, has now found that the [Fe2L3]4+ does indeed have a powerful effect on bacteria. When introduced to two test bacteria Bacillus subtilis and E. coli they found that it quickly bound to the bacteria's DNA and killed virtually every cell within two minutes of being introduced - though the concentration required for this is high. _PO

It will be important for the researchers to learn ways that the compound can be preferentially transported across bacterial membranes, to bacterial DNA. By reducing the necessary concentrations needed to kill the bacteria, and by making the construct preferentially attracted to pathological bacteria rather than to normal human cells, the safety and the efficacy of any possible future treatment using this compound will be enhanced.

The prevalence of antibiotic resistance has resulted in the need for new approaches to be developed to combat previously easily treatable infections. Here we investigated the potential of the synthetic metallomolecules [Fe(2)L(3)](4+) and [Cu(2)(L')(2)](2+) as antibacterial agents.... [Fe(2)L(3)](4+) binds in the major groove and causes DNA coiling... The work described here shows that ... [Fe(2)L(3)](4+) is bactericidal for Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli. We demonstrate that [Fe(2)L(3)](4+) binds bacterial DNA in vivo and, strikingly, that it kills B. subtilis cells very rapidly. _IntJnlAntimicrobialAgents

Cytocidal approaches are valuable medically to the extent they can be targeted and controlled -- with only limited damage to normal cells and tissues.

One of the main pillars of the SENS anti-aging approach is the elimination of superfluous and dangerous cells that have outlived their usefulness. The more precisely that one can target cytotoxic molecules, the more useful they will be for anti-aging therapies in addition to more conventional medical disciplines such as oncology and infectious disease.

200 km Inflatable Tower to the Edge of Space

Update 9 June 09: From Brian Wang -- The Space Elevator Climbing and Beaming Competition will be held next month, 14 - 16 July 2009, at Edwards AFB in the California Mojave desert. I wonder if it is too late for the York University team below to enter?

The team [York University] envisages assembling the structure from a series of modules constructed from Kevlar-polyethylene composite tubes made rigid by inflating them with a lightweight gas such as helium. To test the idea, they built a 7-metre scale model made up of six modules (see image). Each module was built out of three laminated polyethylene tubes 8 centimetres in diameter, mounted around circular spacers and inflated with air. _NewScientist

An inflatable tower 200 km in height could provide rapid transit service to the edge of space. Electromagnetic accelerator propulsion integrated into the tower would propel the "space train" on its routine daily journey to the edge of the atmosphere. From that vantage point, human expansion into the greater universe could be catapulted via several different means.

To stay upright and withstand winds, full-scale structures would require gyroscopes and active stabilisation systems in each module. The team modelled a 15-kilometre tower made up of 100 modules, each one 150 metres tall and 230 metres in diameter, built from inflatable tubes 2 metres across. Quine estimates it would weigh about 800,000 tonnes when pressurised - around twice the weight of the world's largest supertanker.

"Twenty kilometres up is about as dark as outer space. You can see about 600 kilometres in any direction," Quine says. Tourists could get a view almost like that from space, but without the difficulties of coping with zero gravity. He calculates the tower could be extended up to low Earth orbit at 200 kilometres.

The tower does a similar job to the much-vaunted space elevator. But while the elevator envisages using ribbons woven from superstrong nanotubes - a material that is as yet non-existent - the tower would use materials that are already available. And should something go wrong with the tower, failure of a few modules would not cause the whole structure to collapse. _NewScientist

All that is needed to jump-start the movement of humans into permanent space industries and settlements is a low cost portal to the edge of space. From there the normal human instincts of exploration, expansion, and development would take over. The fact that a single asteroid can be worth trillions of dollars for its mineral value alone, would be enough to fuel a new gold rush.

The new age of space exploration will introduce an element of hope into the human psyche that has been sadly lacking recently. Humans need the idea of an open future, to avoid the malaise and societal implosion that is beginning to set in around the developed world.

A huge tower of this type would provide many possibilities for energy supplies, tourist and industrial operations, residential spaces, and commercial enterprises of all kinds. The space operations would create an order of magnitude commercial expansion beyond that. Just for starters.

The space elevator concept has stalled, somewhat, due to the lack of any current materials capable of sustaining the stresses involved. This new approach is exactly what is needed to get the conceptual gears of space access moving again.

Brian Wang has more at Nextbigfuture

President Obama Ascends to Heaven from Cairo Mosque

Obama Points to Heavenly Choir Ready to Receive Him
President Obama ascended to heaven from the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo, to join a heavenly choir of angels. In a final statement before departing his home planet, Obama apologised for the harm done to the world by previous US administrations. His last act as US President was to officially dissolve the United States.

"It's all one world now. I have done as much as I can, it is now up to you. If you want nuclear weapons, there is no one left to stop you. If you want to destroy all the Zionist states in the world, who is to say you can't? The economies of all the European governments around the world are now as good as dead. My job is done. Good-bye."

Hillary Clinton -- who was present at the ascension -- was initially too flabbergasted to speak. After 30 seconds she recovered, however, and spoke into the microphone -- despite the lack of a teleprompter (the ascended president's teleprompter had ascended with him).

"I am now in control," the Secretary of State declared. "I am now carrying the football, and Air Force One is right here. From that airplane I could order the destruction of the entire world." She glanced around quickly on hearing angry shouts from Iman Abdel Fateh and Dr. Zahi Hawass who were also in attendance at the mosque ascension.

"Oh don't worry, Imam! I'm not going to destroy anybody! I just want the people back home to understand that they still have to pay their taxes and obey the speed limits and all. Barack's ascension doesn't change a thing as far as how the US government does its job back home. Despite what Barack said, the US still exists. And despite what he said to the European press, the US isn't really a Muslim country you know."

After her speech, Mrs. Clinton was hustled away by secret service agents to Air Force One, where a quick conference call was set up with Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer to line up US Congressional support behind Mrs. Clinton's unorthodox succession to power. There are rumours that Ms. Pelosi is implementing plans of her own for an end run around the vice president to the presidency. News sources are remaining mum on the negotiations thus far.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden was last seen hurrying to an underground bunker in an undisclosed location. According to secret service agents on the scene, Mr. Biden was complaining -- to no one in particular -- mumbling under his breath ... "Barack gets ascended and I'm stuck in an underground bunker? What am I, chopped liver? I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this!"

When asked if he wanted to stick around and possibly get caught between Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton in an all-out war, Mr. Biden acquiesced, and was led quietly away to his bunker.

Cross posted to Abu Al Fin

Image Source

Natural Gas Is a Very Big Deal

The map of the proposed Nabucco natural gas pipeline suggests the scope of Europe's need for natural gas. With the global climate showing signs of reversing a recent warming trend, Europe risks freezing in the dark cold winter unless she finds a way to break her uneasy dependency on Russian fuels. North America and Australia already have plenty of natural gas (and coal).
Natural gas is a cleaner fossil fuel than coal or oil. Just as important, natural gas works well for fuel cells -- a form of power generation that is growing in importance. In fact, in Japan, in the UK, in the US, and in Australia, home fuel cells for combined residential provision of hot water, space heat, and electricity (CHP) is slowly becoming an important player in the overall power utility scheme.

Of course almost anyone with access to natural gas can provide home CHP (combined heat and power) using a gas-powered combustion generator. But with fuel cells, combined efficiency can reach almost 90%. With a combustion engine, combined CHP efficiencies are closer to 60%.

Regular Al Fin readers will recognise the theme of "independence" and "decentralisation" in the trend toward home generation of power. Being able to produce your own methane or methanol to power your own CHP fuel cell would be even better. Off the grid for power, hot water, heat, cooking, etc. makes you less vulnerable to the Obama / Pelosi reich energy starvation policies.

Telescoping Wing Rear-Ducted Skybike

This 3-wheel streamlined motorbike can sprout wings and fly. Designed for the road and for the sky, the Skybike can fly to 10,000 feet in cabin comfort complete with heating and cooling.

In prototype development at Swift Engineering in San Clemente, California, the SkyBike is designed to reach speeds of 80 mph over land or over 130 mph through the air. Standard features of the SkyBike will include flexible electronic instrument main panel that changes automatically from ground to flight, dual ground/air lighting system, navigation radio, ELT (emergency location transmitter) and not forgetting the comfort factor, leather seating for two plus 50 pounds luggage capacity.

Getting off the Ground

If you’re not a pilot you’ll still be able to buy an MMV, but the flight controls and wing lock will require a physical and electronic key that is granted only once proof of appropriate pilot license is shown. A better option for those without a pilot’s license might be the factory-built, ground only AeroBike.

There isn’t any word on pricing or availability for these flying motorcycles, but Samson Motorworks hopes to have ground versions available in early 2010. _Gizmag

Photogallery

Rear props or ducted fans work well for flight, and for airboats (or amphibious flyers), iceskimmers, and hovercraft. The SkyBike switches to a conventional transmission for wheeled ground travel. Should you wish to design submersible functionality into your multifunctional vehicle, you will need yet a different propulsion system.

No one said an all-purpose vehicle would be easy.

Every 20 Years, A New Era Dawns in America

* Crisis - Often defined by a major war, calamity, depression, etc. Think Revolutionary War, Civil War, and Great Depression/WWII.

* High - What follows the Crisis. Hey, we got through it, now things are looking up, up, and up. I think this is what Jim Rogers says he sees in Sri Lanka - the war is almost over, Crisis phase nearing an end, what a great time to invest. In the US, the post WWII baby boom, suburban migration, and Leave it to Beaver would make up the High. We can go to the moon, we can do anything we put our minds to.

* Awakening - A younger generation comes of age, and resents all the rules set by The Man during the High period. Since Highs follow Crises, they are characterized by rules and structure. Think 60s America as the resistance to this - Woodstock, Tie Dye, and Free Love.

* Unraveling - The Awakening uprising is integrated into mainstream culture, and society starts to split apart at the seams, hence the name Unraveling. The individual rules the day. It's "me first." Old timers lament the lack of virtue and civic spirit. Prime time for Wall Street and Las Vegas.
_SeekingAlpha

The changing of the generations -- like the turning of the seasons -- brings about new attitudes across the land. This is particularly true in the modern era of instant and ubiquitous communication. Trends, fads, memes, and myths travel at the speed of light, and are carried outward on the waves. Some flare up only to die. Others acquire traction and build in influence.

Those who tried to warn about the inevitable devastation from Obama, from Brown, from Rudd, and other bumbling radicals of the new age of carbon hysteria will not have long to wait before the unraveling turns into crisis.

Unfortunately for us, the timer's starting to tick down, and the next batch of crisis cookies are about due out of the oven here in America.

* 1773 - 1794: American Revolution

* 1860 - 1685: American Civil War

* 1929 - 1946: Great Depression leading to WWII

* 2007 - ??? : Credit Crisis, leading to recession, leading to?

About every 80 years, America is really put to the test. And remember, history is not predetermined. There was a genuine threat to our nation during each of these preceding crises.

Strauss and Howe believe that these crises are not only unavoidable, but that they are also necessary - to cleanse society, shake out the excesses that have built up over the past three eras, and set everything on a new course going forward. _SeekingAlpha

The American cycle of crisis is apt to drive other cycles around the globe, due to the sheer immensity of the American economy -- and America's political and military influence on the globe.

Seen through this lens of "destiny", the election of catastrophic incompetents such as Obama makes more sense. While Brocko Bomba sees himself as the maker of his own destiny, in reality he is floating on the slipstream of a far larger cycle of history. He was the right man at the right time to fulfill the flow of destruction.

As always, Oynklent Green [OTC:OYNK] strategists continue to observe the developing crisis, as OYNK engineers continue to perfect the processes that will provide much of tomorrow's vital energy supplies.

Gasify Your World

Image SourceThe technology for advanced plasma gasification of garbage and hazardous waste was developed at MIT and Pacific Northwest National Lab back in the 1990s. With plasma gasification, you can eliminate waste and create useful energy and fuels in one fell swoop. Can you say, "peak garbage?"

....the technology can handle all types of waste, but some can be processed more efficiently than others. Hazardous wastes, they say, are prime candidates for plasma gasification.

"For this sort of process to work, we're focusing on waste materials that have high value in energy content," Vaillancourt said. "Smaller, more segregated waste streams, when they're sorted and prepped, optimize energy production. ... Medical wastes, shredded autos, hazardous wastes are prime candidates."

The S4 technology is currently scaled to handle 25 tons a day, Surma said. That scale is small on residential or commercial waste fronts but "perfect" for regional medical-waste processing, he said. Eventually, the company plans to process 125 tons of waste a day. _NYT_Also more here_and informative video here

Gasification technology can be adapted to turn any carbonaceous material into fuel. The technology is being adapted across much of the globe. From exclusive harbour-side communities in Victoria, BC, to the Green River oil shales of Wyoming, to the mean coal fields of Queensland, Australia, carbon is being converted from less useful to more useful forms.

Adapted from an earlier story at Al Fin Energy

Universities Exist for Themselves, Not for Students

Image Source

Surprising Facts About Some of the World's Most Successful Failures

• 1. The richest man in the world twelve years running, Bill Gates, with a net worth of $52 billion, is a dropout.
• 2. Four of the ten richest people in the world are dropouts (number 1, Bill Gates; number 6, Sheldon Adelson, worth $26 billion; number 8, Amancio Ortega, worth $24 billion, Li Ka-shing, worth 23 billion).
• 3. The world’s wealthiest high school dropout is Li Ka-shing.
• 4. Four out of five of America’s richest people are dropouts (number 1, Bill Gates; number 3, Sheldon Adelson; number 4, Lawrence Ellison, $19.5 billion; number 5, Paul Allen, 16 billion).
• 5. America’s richest elementary school dropout, the late H.L. Hunt, was worth billions.
• 6. America’s richest high school dropout, J.R. Simplot, is worth $3.2 billion.
• 7. America’s richest college dropout is Bill Gates.
• 8. Asia’s richest resident, Li Ka-shing, is a high school dropout.
• 9. Argentina's sole billionaire, Gregorio Perez, worth $1.7 billion, is a high school dropout.
• 10. Spain’s richest resident, Amancio Ortega, worth $14.8 billion, is a high school dropout.
• 11. There are 68 billionaires who are dropouts and numerous millionaires.
• 12. Many of the world’s greatest inventions were developed by dropouts, including television, radio, airplanes, cars, motion pictures, the incandescent light bulb, the car stereo tape deck, the gas mask, the traffic signal, earmuffs, the game of basketball, the sewing machine—and many more. _MillionaireDropouts

Billionaire College Dropouts

CEOs Without Degrees

The idea that a person must graduate from college before he can make something of himself is a fairly recent idea -- and a crock of excrement. University educations are taking a bigger bite of a family's budget, and offering less and less in return. The faculty and staff at too many universities have decided that it is their job to shape you and your children in their own image, while charging you an arm and a leg to do it.

Most university degrees are worth less than the paper on which the diploma is Kinko'd. It may be time to consider the alternatives to the expensive indoctrination camps they call "universities."

Online Mental Health Therapy Puts You to Sleep

A study in the June 1 issue of the journal SLEEP demonstrates that online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for chronic insomnia significantly improves insomnia severity, daytime fatigue, and sleep quality. Online treatment also reduces erroneous beliefs about sleep and pre-sleep mental arousal. _SD

81% of study participants received at least mildly improved sleep after the 5 week online program. 35% slept much better. And online psychotherapy is not just for sleep disorders.

For almost 10 years now, online mental health therapies have been providing everything from online sex therapy to online crisis therapy to routine counseling and life coaching. Take a look at some case studies of online therapies and other assessments of online therapeutic efficacy.

You can find online therapists via websites such as Etherapistsonline, Headworks, MyTherapyNet, PsychCentral, and many other sites.

Expect online health and mental health services to expand beyond the current basic level, as broadband internet speeds improve, physiological and virtual reality interfaces get better and more widespread, and as government medicine forces lower cost medical care methods to the forefront.

Government health care cannot afford traditional-style health and mental health care services for everyone. The well-intentioned drive to give mental health treatments equivalent reimbursement status to medical care treatments is seriously flawed. Rationing is guaranteed under such a plan -- and under any government health care. Far better to use advanced technologies such as virtual reality haptics and physiological interfaces, expanded training and licensing of providers, and a "stepped" system of access -- from online to higher levels of personal care -- for all but the most emergent of situations.

With online therapies, a therapist living in Tiburon could counsel inmates in the Bakersfield City Jail. She could live in a desirable therapist-saturated neighborhood, yet still have access to plenty of clients -- and be paid! A surgeon living in Seattle might diagnose a potentially life-threatening condition for a patient living in Birmingham. He could not do the surgery, but a medical center local to the patient could take care of the problem, once diagnosed.

If you allow the client or patient to talk long enough, they will often give the clinician the diagnosis. Online therapies and diagnostic encounters allow the client / patient far more time to interact with a caregiver. As methods are improved, efficacies will improve.

Twin 710 hp 47' Catamaran Code X Yacht

The 47′ 7” catamaran comes with a hybrid engine that can either give you a thumping 710hp by twin Ilmor Formula 1 engines to propel the yacht at a speed in excess of 80 knots or a more leisurely 9 knots using its twin electric motors. The battery pack has the capability to run continuously for two hours and can be recharged using the on-board solar panels for additional leisure. _Ecofriend

Very few production water craft can do 80 knots -- particularly through ocean swell. This power catamaran yacht is obviously made for bursts of speed, but it can also troll for days on end using its twin electric motors powered by PV solar panels.

From Swiss company Code X based in Meggen on Lake Lucerne
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Regular readers already know my complaint: Although it has a modern look to it, the yacht cannot fly and it cannot run submerged like a submarine. Too many designers of toys for rich boys neglect to incorporate rich multifunctionality in their design. They seem to think if it looks cool, makes a loud vrooooom!!, and incorporates a few trendy "green" features, that everyone will oooh and aaaah over their creation.

Wake up, bozos. Time to stop designing expensive toys for the 80s and 90s that only do one or two things, and time to start thinking like 21st century engineers living in the real world. 21st century adventurers want to be able to go just about anywhere without changing vehicles frequently.

Rambling Thoughts Blog

AK's Rambling Thoughts blog is a relatively new blog potpourri of scientific and intellectual curiousity. I discovered Rambling Thoughts blog by following a link from the weekly wisdom link roundup of one of my favourites:SimoleonSense blog.

AK specialises in cell biology and evolutionary biology, but also posts thoughtful articles dealing with the brain, theoretical biology, bio-thermodynamics, and so on .... over a wide range of very important topics. The ideas are well presented, with links, illustrations, and clear, informed logic. Check out AK's Rambling Thoughts and expand your evolutionary potential.

Brave New World of Small Transcription Activators

In the quest for new approaches to treating and preventing disease, one appealing route involves turning genes on or off at will, directly intervening in ailments such as cancer and diabetes, which result when genes fail to turn on and off as they should.

Scientists at the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley have taken a step forward on that route by developing small molecules that mimic the behavior and function of a much larger and more complicated natural regulator of gene expression. The research, by associate professor of chemistry Anna Mapp and coworkers, is described in the current issue of the journal ACS Chemical Biology. _GenengNews

Throughout the lifespan of an organism, various genes are continuously being turned on and off, depending upon the needs of the cells, tissues, and organism. Disease and ageing can interfere with the normal process of gene activation and de-activation, as well as other aspects of normal gene expression. U Michigan and UC Berkeley researchers are discovering relatively simple molecules that might be used to artificially restore normal gene function in the ageing and / or diseased orgamism.

In the current work, the team showed that their ATFs bind to a protein called CBP, which interacts with many natural activators, and that the specific site where their ATFs bind is the same site utilized by the natural activators, even though the natural activators are much larger and more complex.

Then the researchers altered their ATFs in various ways and looked to see how those changes affected both binding and ability to function as transcriptional activators. Any change that prevented an ATF from binding to CBP also prevented it from doing its job. This suggests that, for ATFs as for natural activators, interaction with CBP is key to transcriptional activity.

"Taken together, the evidence suggests that the small molecules we have developed mimic both the function and the mechanism of their natural counterparts," said Mapp, who has a joint appointment in the College of Pharmacy's Department of Medicinal Chemistry. Next the researchers want to understand in more detail exactly how the small molecules bind to that site. "Then we'll use that information to design better molecules." _GenengNews

The gene expression process has many entry points. In order to tame the natural processes of disease and ageing, scientists will have to master most all of them. Like most important areas of scientific progress, these discoveries contain both promise and hazard.

Homeschooling and Home Learning

Impact LabHomeschooling these days has less to do with religion, and more to do with wise parents who want to give their children better opportunities for self-development than government schools are willing to offer.

Home schooling has grown most sharply for higher-income families. In 1999, 63.6% of home-schooling families earned less than $50,000. Now 60.0% earn more than $50,000.

Cate says many highly educated, high-income parents are "probably people who are a little bit more comfortable in taking risks" in choosing a college or line of work. "The attributes that facilitate that might also facilitate them being more comfortable with home-schooling."

Among the other findings:

• 3.9% of white families home-school, up from 2% in 1999.

• 6.8% of college-educated parents home-school, up from 4.9% in 1999.

Michelle Blimes home-schools her three daughters in Orem, Utah. Initially it was for academics, and now she sees social benefits. "They should be able to enjoy playing and being kids before being thrown into the teen culture," Blimes says. _USAToday_via_ImpactLab

Another interesting article on child development from Impact Lab deals with exposure to an "always on" television in early childhood.

Parents talk less to their children if the TV is on and youngsters also speak less, American researchers have found.

A study of children and babies from two-months-old to four-years-old found that for every hour the television was on, parents said between 500 and 1,000 fewer words to their children. _Impactlab

Very young children crave face to face contact with other humans -- particularly their parents. If parents delegate the responsibility of helping the child's mind grow to a television set or other disinterested party, the child is likely to suffer.

The developmental windows of brain development pass very quickly in early childhood. Modern methods of child-raising tend to ignore these passing windows, thus dooming future generations to live as only fractional versions of what they could have been.

On Growing Competent Hands

Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things. One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.” _NYT

Political science graduate Matthew Crawford quit his job at a think tank to become a motorcycle mechanic. Here are his words, from an NYT Magazine extract of his new book.

The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid. This is not my experience. I have a small business as a motorcycle mechanic in Richmond, Va., which I started in 2002. I work on Japanese and European motorcycles, mostly older bikes with some “vintage” cachet that makes people willing to spend money on them. I have found the satisfactions of the work to be very much bound up with the intellectual challenges it presents. And yet my decision to go into this line of work is a choice that seems to perplex many people.

After finishing a Ph.D. in political philosophy at the University of Chicago in 2000, I managed to stay on with a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the university’s Committee on Social Thought. The academic job market was utterly bleak. In a state of professional panic, I retreated to a makeshift workshop I set up in the basement of a Hyde Park apartment building, where I spent the winter tearing down an old Honda motorcycle and rebuilding it. The physicality of it, and the clear specificity of what the project required of me, was a balm....

...in the spring I landed a job as executive director of a policy organization in Washington. This felt like a coup. But certain perversities became apparent as I settled into the job. It sometimes required me to reason backward, from desired conclusion to suitable premise. The organization had taken certain positions, and there were some facts it was more fond of than others. As its figurehead, I was making arguments I didn’t fully buy myself. Further, my boss seemed intent on retraining me according to a certain cognitive style — that of the corporate world, from which he had recently come. This style demanded that I project an image of rationality but not indulge too much in actual reasoning....

...After five months at the think tank, I’d saved enough money to buy some tools I needed, and I quit and went into business fixing bikes. My shop rate is $40 per hour. Other shops have rates as high as $70 per hour, but I tend to work pretty slowly. Further, only about half the time I spend in the shop ends up being billable (I have no employees; every little chore falls to me), so it usually works out closer to $20 per hour — a modest but decent wage. The business goes up and down; when it is down I have supplemented it with writing. The work is sometimes frustrating, but it is never irrational.

And it frequently requires complex thinking. In fixing motorcycles you come up with several imagined trains of cause and effect for manifest symptoms, and you judge their likelihood before tearing anything down. This imagining relies on a mental library that you develop. An internal combustion engine can work in any number of ways, and different manufacturers have tried different approaches. Each has its own proclivities for failure. You also develop a library of sounds and smells and feels. For example, the backfire of a too-lean fuel mixture is subtly different from an ignition backfire....

...Some diagnostic situations contain a lot of variables. Any given symptom may have several possible causes, and further, these causes may interact with one another and therefore be difficult to isolate. In deciding how to proceed, there often comes a point where you have to step back and get a larger gestalt. Have a cigarette and walk around the lift. The gap between theory and practice stretches out in front of you, and this is where it gets interesting. What you need now is the kind of judgment that arises only from experience; hunches rather than rules. For me, at least, there is more real thinking going on in the bike shop than there was in the think tank.

Put differently, mechanical work has required me to cultivate different intellectual habits. Further, habits of mind have an ethical dimension that we don’t often think about. Good diagnosis requires attentiveness to the machine, almost a conversation with it, rather than assertiveness, as in the position papers produced on K Street. Cognitive psychologists speak of “metacognition,” which is the activity of stepping back and thinking about your own thinking. It is what you do when you stop for a moment in your pursuit of a solution, and wonder whether your understanding of the problem is adequate. The slap of worn-out pistons hitting their cylinders can sound a lot like loose valve tappets, so to be a good mechanic you have to be constantly open to the possibility that you may be mistaken. This is a virtue that is at once cognitive and moral. It seems to develop because the mechanic, if he is the sort who goes on to become good at it, internalizes the healthy functioning of the motorcycle as an object of passionate concern. How else can you explain the elation he gets when he identifies the root cause of some problem? ...

...There is good reason to suppose that responsibility has to be installed in the foundation of your mental equipment — at the level of perception and habit. There is an ethic of paying attention that develops in the trades through hard experience. It inflects your perception of the world and your habitual responses to it. This is due to the immediate feedback you get from material objects and to the fact that the work is typically situated in face-to-face interactions between tradesman and customer....

...The good life comes in a variety of forms. This variety has become difficult to see; our field of aspiration has narrowed into certain channels. But the current perplexity in the economy seems to be softening our gaze. Our peripheral vision is perhaps recovering, allowing us to consider the full range of lives worth choosing. For anyone who feels ill suited by disposition to spend his days sitting in an office, the question of what a good job looks like is now wide open.

And so on. Crawford's writing career is apt to eclipse his mechanical career, particularly if he begins to get invitations for speaking engagements and his book sales take off. But those who span the two worlds -- the intellectual and the practical -- have a duty to point out when society goes badly wrong in neglecting a vital pillar.

Children need to learn "hands-on competence" at the earliest possible age. That is the best way to instill genuine self-confidence, and the courage to push ahead to gain more real world expertise and achievement. Instead, children are taught by the products of an effete, incompetent university system of education that neglects the competence of the hands in favour of the indoctrination of the mind. The worst of both worlds, manifesting itself in hapless markets and worthless elected officials.

Some will wake up, but most will slumber and slide down the slope into the common pit. There, they will find politicians, community activists, social workers, and a mob of other publicly funded vampires, assuring the thrashing hapless incompetents that the government is there to help them. It really is.

Brave Latvian Blondes March to Raise Spirits of Countrymen! I Feel Better Already!

While the blondes of Sweden are forced to dye their hair black to avoid roving Muslim rape gangs, the blondes of Latvia are bravely stepping out and speaking out for freedom, democracy, and the care-free life of blondes.

Led by an orchestra, the first-ever blonde parade featured women dressed in pink and white, some accompanied by lapdogs, in a charity fund-raising event that organisers hope will become an annual event.

"I'm not stupid. I'm beautiful and I'll prove it," Ilona Zigure, a participant, said.

Organisers said they were determined to bring positive energy to their country, expected to see its economy contract by 16 per cent this year.

The parade was part of a "Blonde Weekend" which also featured a blonde golf tournament, a little lady fashion show, an evening ball, and a children's drawing competition. _Telegraph

Meanwhile, across the water in Norway and Sweden, advance planners for jihadi gangs are checking ferry schedules and evaluating Latvian mosques and halal food shops and restaurants via the internet. Too many Swedish blondes have dyed their hair dark, it seems. Time to explore new territory.

Fast Track Cures for Sickle Cell, Spherocytosis, and Other Blood Diseases

Blood disorders are likely to be the first targets for therapy because corrected cells can easily be transferred back to the patient via bone-marrow transplants. _TechnologyReview

Salk Institute researchers in La Jolla have demonstrated a technique that opens the door to cures for several genetic blood diseases. It involves taking a patient's skin cells, treating them genetically to correct the inherited disorder, next turning the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), then differentiating those iPS into blood progenitor cells. These progenitor cells can be implanted into the patient to provide a supply of normal blood cells.

"This is an exciting bit of science," says Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, who was not directly involved in the research. "It's likely to be the first of a slew of similar papers that may offer hope for conditions where today there is no real therapy, let alone a cure."

So far, Belmonte's approach is applicable only to diseases in which the genetic defect that underlies the disease has been identified. "But there are quite a few of these--and the number will increase," says Mason. Blood disorders are likely to be the first targets for therapy because corrected cells can easily be transferred back to the patient via bone-marrow transplants.

Belmonte adds that in the future, the correction of more-complex genetic disorders might become possible, thereby significantly increasing the number of diseases that might be treated with altered iPS cells. _TechnologyReview

If the bone marrow can be "re-stocked" with viable normal blood progenitor cells, the inherited blood disorder may indeed be cured. The concept can be extended to other inherited and acquired genetic diseases with extensive work.

For parents and health care workers, life-threatening childhood diseases are one of the greatest possible tragedies of existence. Most fatal infectious diseases of childhood have been controlled in the developed world. Now it is time to cure the inherited disorders of childhood that destroy so many lives long before their time.

More from Brian Wang at NextBigFuture on the coming revolution in stem cell replacement therapies.

New Magnetic Refrigeration Cycle More Efficient

Image Source

Here is a clever way of saving energy, from New Energy and Fuel. The magnetic refrigeration cycle (left and above a-b-c-d) is analogous to the conventional refrigeration cycle using compressed refrigerant, seen in the 1-2-3-4 image at left. But it is more efficient.

“ Magnetic cooling and refrigeration is 20 to 30 percent more energy efficient than conventional vapor-compression refrigeration. The magnetic refrigerants are solids, so the hazardous, ozone-depleting and greenhouse chemicals are completely eliminated, making magnetic refrigeration one of the few, positively clean technologies.”

....Refrigeration and air conditioning units pose a major load to the planet’s energy consumption - in the U.S. in the summer months they account for approximately 50 percent of the country’s energy use. _NewEnergyandFuel

The basic concept is simple. A magnetocaloric material heats up when magnetized ; if cooled and then demagnetized , its temperature drops dramatically. [The material is then re-magnetised to repeat the cycle. AF]

Credit: Talbott, National Institute of Standards and Technology. via NewEnergyandFuelNot only is the process more efficient, but it is simpler and less prone to breakdowns and leaks. You will still need thermostats, fans, blowers, and heat-exchange apparatus, but there will be no expensive compressors and refrigerant, no long liquid and vapour refrigerant lines prone to leaks.

Few people understand the huge impending financial impact of Montreal Protocol rules as implemented by the US EPA and other national environmental agencies. Based upon extremely questionable science, reliable and safe refrigerants are soon to be replaced by much more expensive refrigerants that require much more expensive and delicate mechanical systems -- more prone to break down and much harder to repair.

The cost of keeping cool is just about the shoot through the roof, thanks to the EPA and its buddies. That is why more efficient alternatives such as the magnetic refrigeration cycle are so welcome. Technology to the rescue, to save us from our own bureaucratic idiocy.

How To Escape a Burning Skyscraper

Image SourceFor $1500 you can soon buy this device, which will allow you to zoom down the side of a 100 story building in perfect safety. High rise safety is anything but guaranteed, and anything that may add to your survival safety margin is worth considering.

Based on the concept of a fishing reel, the device is a simple harness to lower people to the ground, letting the individual plan his own escape, unless he is buckled in the pressure. The user is expected to open a small container, which is to be hooked to some steady anchor, on support of which the user can slip into a one size fits all harness, automatically controlled centrifugal braking to manage the descent.

The device along with the automatic braking system that takes less than four minutes to climb down a 100 story building also has a manual backup brake lever, in case the automatic system fails. California’s Vallejo Fire Department has conducted successful tests of the device, and now Stone is planning to market the Rescue Reel, which will be ready to buy at about $1,500. _Gizmowatch_via_ImpactLab

Will You Be Punked by Political Peak Oil?

Update2: This UPI piece discusses the likely demand destruction on the overall economy caused by the current premature raising of oil and gasoline prices. This is not a good time for the strong-arm price manipulators of politicians, big international speculators, and oil dictators to be pushing oil prices beyond market factors.Image SourceUpdate: Commenter James objects that the chart above should not be taken as too ominous a sign of future economic woes. This analysis from Global Economic Trend Analysis appears to support James' rather relaxed attitude toward the ARM reset schedule. I recommend a reading of the links under both images of this post, top and bottom. Unfortunately, ARM resets may turn out to be the least of our problems.

It is the prematurity of all the recovery talk that makes recent oil price jumps appear so clearly manipulated -- at least in large part. It is true that recent low oil prices have led to production slowdowns in existing fields and delayed exploration and development of new fields. In addition, political peak oil -- the suppression of fossil fuel exploration, discovery, recovery, and refining instituted by the Brocko Bomba administration in conjunction with the Nancy Pelosi congress in the name of carbon hysteria -- is another part of the problem. Political discord in Nigeria and the middle east is another. And of course, OPEC countries plus Russia are collaborating to prop up the world market price of oil via production caps. Lastly, big international commodity speculators are pouring their assets into oil as a hedge against a predicted US fiscal catastrophe under this inexperienced administration and incompetent congress.

Storage tankers across the globe may be brimming with oil that no one is buying because of the global economic downturn, but the traditional laws of supply and demand don't always apply to oil prices. Drivers have faced rising prices at the gas pump in recent months, as investors and oil-producing countries hoard supplies in anticipation of a global economic recovery later this year.

The 12 member countries of the OPEC cartel voted in Vienna on Thursday to maintain output at current levels rather than increase supplies in order to bring some relief to consumers, particularly in the gas-guzzling West. The OPEC oil ministers, whose countries account for about 40% of the world's entire crude-oil supply, also renewed their commitment to stick to their agreed quotas, rather than ship extra oil, as they began doing last April when several members ignored their agreed output limits. OPEC leaders, many of whose economies are heavily dependent on oil exports, have struggled to stabilize prices at a level that suits their own economic needs amid falling demand and rising supplies. Prices had rocketed to a record level of $147 a barrel last July before plummeting to $30 just five months later and beginning a new climb. (See pictures of South Africa's oil-from-coal refinery.)

Oil analysts believe OPEC's decisions on Thursday could help push oil prices even higher; oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange have risen 36% in just two months, to about $63.46 a barrel on Thursday. And that appears to be on track to achieve targets set by OPEC leaders. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi - OPEC's key power player - said Wednesday that oil prices ought to rise to between $75 and $80 a barrel by the end of the year. "Demand is picking up, especially in Asia," he told reporters puffing alongside him as he jogged through the streets of Vienna. "The price rise is a function of optimism that better things are coming in the future." _Time

It all depends upon an economic recovery that is running on fumes, and due to hit some very large obstacles in the near future. Some very smart analysts and speculators are betting on oil going up near $100 a barrel toward the end of 2009. But we are still in the earliest, rosiest, most honey-moonish stages of the Bomba presidency. All of Brocko's moves up to now have been clownish and inept -- to informed observers (not to the media of course).

Considering all the conflicting forces in play, higher oil and gasoline prices through the summer appear likely. But as the demand destruction from price manipulation plus political peak oil begins to choke off economic activity and demand for fuels and commodities -- once again -- the nascent "recovery" is apt to die soon after childbirth. Choked by not-so-loving step parents and state guardians. Shortly afterward, the next round of financial collapses should hit.

The global economy is in ICU, and global speculators + OPEC and friends, with the friendly cooperation of western governments, are trying to squeeze the near-corpse for everything it can give. Not very smart.Image Source

H/T Survival Blog