Month: September 2006

Learning, rather education, is certainly going to change one of these days. One trend is the increased use of visualization. Documentaries already enhance bulky history texts, but learning productivity has shown little increase.

Perhaps a fusion of education and docuGames?

Documentary games as listed at reSeize:

Water Cooler Games has an interesting story about documentary games (or docu-games), such as Escape from Woomera — a Half-life mod designed as a direct critique of Australia’s inhumane detention centres; Waco Resurrection that revisits the 1993 Waco tragedy, and the controversial JFK Reloaded. Ian Bogost, the author of the post, points to Cindy Poremba’s blog for more information on the topic, to which she is devoting her Ph.D. research (PDF of her research proposal).

I’m stunned we know so little about the rich. Why not?

I think we should know every detail not to harm but to help assure democracy. And to help advance our prosperity.

How do the rich get rich? I think the answers should be front page, on television, at the movies, and courses in school.

…the richest rich are doing very, very well. The top 0.01 percent of the income distribution, those now making more than $5 million a year, have increased their take of the income distribution (before taxes) from 0.86 percent in 1980 to 3.19 percent in 2004, the most recent year available. (It peaked in 2000 at 3.44 percent.)

Who is this group? They make up about 14,000 USA taxpayers. Some of them are CEOs, but the Fortune 500 has only about 500 of them. The group includes some athletes, actors, media personalities, hedge fund managers, and trial lawyers. Some of the richest rich start and run their own businesses. Some are authors…

“What kind of work are they doing to earn all this extra income?”, asks Harvard economics professor Greg Minkow.

Here’s a snippet from the comments at Minkiw’s post.

Please note the assertive belief inherent in this comment.

Please note there is length and breadth and, oh yes, deep science, but nothing about rich.

The squillionaire lifestyle redistributes income via the extended staff it accumulates; maids, housekeepers, cooks obviously, but also lawyers accountants, money managers, yacht crew, pilots, hairdressers, jewellers, interior designers and personal trainers. The market adapts to provide ways to seperate them from their income. Alternatively you could tax them and then the government could employ the cooks, maids, chauffeurs pilots etc to look after the politicians. Probably not jewellers, but policy advisers, campaign managers etc. This is not to say that the amount they are paid is “fair” but then the definition of fair reflects the eye of the beholder.

So much to say, but nothing about rich.

Is Alberta Going Broke?, asked the headline.

It’s been receiving up to 40 per cent royalties on conventional oil & gas resources. This type of revenue totaled half its budget, a record $14.3 billion last year.

Many oilsands projects are kicking into gear, which now account for about a quarter of Alberta’s energy production.

[But] to spur the massive amount of investment needed to dredge tar-like bitumen out of the often frozen earth and transform it into usable fuel, the government negotiated a new royalty regime in 1996 with the heavy-oil industry, or any producer of unconventional energy resources, requiring only a one per cent royalty on revenues until their capital costs (which tend to continue) are accounted for.

The bottom line: Of the big bundle of resource money that landed in the government’s lap last year, only $905 million came from the oilsands.

“…the quintessential product by and for uninspired times.”

The world’s most important collection of human fossils may soon be hidden from public view.

As our Neighborhood Association met to discuss emergency and disaster planning, I think it struck us all that what we were to achieve was impossible.

Could each of us safely store hundreds of gallons of water? Would any try? Could we purchase sufficient fire protection other than the frying pan extinguishers under our kitchen sink or in the garage? Would we? Were there any gas or solar generators up or down our block, or chain saws if folks are trapped, or portable heaters? Did we own any tents, tarps and outdoor gear to protect our children or our frail if buildings were destroyed? Could we help each other a few days or a week?

Would 100 people in our block survive an urban disaster?

We finished our agenda, shook hands, went home.

I would walk aching for greater confidence.

WorldChanging reminds us, “Conventional thinking about disasters in the developed world revolves around seeing that people are prepared as individuals to survive for the short time it takes the authorities to respond to the emergency situation and restore normality. Almost no thought is given to changing the models for systems to make them substantially less brittle and more resilient.”

Why did Building 7 fall?
Was there an explosion before planes hit the towers?

Should we ask for additional investigations? See the Google Video

Science Blog reports
Researchers at Purdue University have created a simulation that uses scientific principles to study in detail what likely happened when a commercial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

George W. Bush at 60 is a quarter of an inch shorter than he was just a year ago.

…men and women shrink as they age. The lubricants in our joints dry up, our bones lose mineral density, and even our brains become physically smaller. Clint Eastwood and wrestler Hulk Hogan have each lost about three inches since their prime.

But it’s young people who start the process:

…the human brain stops growing in its early 20s.
…strength peaks around 25.
…height loss starts around 30.
…eyes start to go in your 40s.

[read more]

Where’s the nearest microbial soup, bubbling with germs and parasites?

The nearest swimming pool.

And the hotter the water temperature, the better the habitat for bacteria. Hot tubs and natural spas with mineral water are an ideal breeding ground…

It [has been] difficult to directly link outbreaks of illness with pool water because the evidence is usually circumstantial, according to the WHO…

Evidence is showing that there are serious risks in our current management of pools and tubs. Public pools may be monitored more frequently, but all of us should test our procedures and make certain we are not swimming in bacteria.

Up to one-third of men of all ages are chronically plagued by premature ejaculation.

“We tend to think of this as, ‘Oh, it affects novices, the first time, and young people,'” Pryor said Thursday from Minneapolis. “But no. There are some people who have this who are older, and oftentimes it affects them their entire lives.”

“Here’s something you take whenever you want to have intercourse, like an hour or so before, and it had a low incidence of side-effects. And all of a sudden, they were lasting three, four times what they were before.”

Dapoxetine is the first drug especially targeted towards this common problem, reports the CBC.

PREMATUREEJACULATION.COM
Registrant: Johnson & Johnson

“Light is a drug,” said Terry McGowan, an electrical engineer who spent his career at General Motors.

“You have to measure it. You have to provide enough of it at the right time, at the right intensity and the right colour to make the human being function.”

Flu cases in the U.S. start to take off after Thanksgiving, when more people fly to be with family.

The CBC reports that John Brownstein of Children’s Hospital Boston and his colleagues looked at how flu spreads between cities and regions and calculated the rate of spread each year.

They also found that the airline shutdown of 9/11 delayed the flu season.

In the years before 9/11, flu deaths in the U.S. tended to peak around Feb. 17, the researchers reported in the journal PLoS Medicine. In the flu season after the attacks, the peak date was delayed by 13 days, to March 2. In France, where there were no flight restrictions, there was no delay in the 2001-2002 season.

Ceres, a plant genetics company in California, is at work on turning switch grass, a Prairie States native, into an energy crop.

Richard W. Hamilton, the Ceres chief executive, was quoted as saying, “You could turn Oklahoma into an OPEC member by converting all its farmland to switch grass.”

Developing energy crops could mean new applications of genetic engineering, which for years has been aimed at making plants resistant to insects and herbicides, but would now include altering their fundamental structure. One goal, for example, is to reduce the amount of lignin, a substance that gives plants the stiffness to stand upright but interferes with turning a plant’s cellulose into ethanol.

Such prospects are starting to alarm some environmentalists, who worry that altered plants will cross-pollinate in the wild, resulting in forests that practically droop for want of lignin. And some oppose the notion of altering corn to feed the nation’s addiction to automobiles. From 08.Sep.06 The New York Times

The role of the plant’s pores in defense against invading bacteria has been redefined by a new look at the behavior of one the plant’s first lines of defense against disease.

Pores called stomata are like tiny mouths that open and close during photosynthesis, exchanging gases. In sunshine, the stomata open. In darkness, they close to conserve water.

It has been assumed that these tiny ports were busy with their photosynthesis business and were merely unwitting doorways to invading bacteria but recent discoveries show that stomata are an intricate part of the plant’s immune system that can sense danger and respond by shutting down.

It appears those plant-based bacteria produce a phytotoxin, a chemical called coronatine, to force the pores back open. For bacteria, entry is crucial to causing disease and probably survival. They could die if left lingering on the surface. Animal-based bacteria do not produce coronatine.

“Now that we know a key step in bacteria’s attack, we have something we can learn to interfere with,” Melotto said. “From this we can learn about disease resistance.”

Marylaine reports

“only a select few records have actually altered the course of
music… our panel of critics argues for 50 albums that caused
a revolution” and explain what wouldn’t have happened without
each one.

How’s that for a potential display, conversation
starter, and lure to your CD collections?

at the Guardian’s Observer

Mind Hacks reports

A curious news report from what sounds like a difficult court case:

A man has been acquitted of raping a woman – because she had at least 14 personalities.

In a bizarre case, a jury was told that the 40-year-old man was accused of sexually assaulting the woman 11 times in her home in 2004 while some of her alter egos looked on and at times intervened.

During the District Court trial that finished last Tuesday, the court was told three of the 33-year-old woman’s personalities were present at one of the alleged incidents.

The complainant said two identities had been at other incidents.

Top WA criminal lawyer Judith Fordham, who watched the case, said it was the strangest she had seen.

“Although there have been many cases in our courts where the accused has a mental illness, and some where victims or alleged victims suffer from mental illness, in 20 years as a lawyer I have never seen anything quite like this,” she said.

The King of Tonga, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, has died in a New Zealand hospital at the age of 88 after a long illness. BBC

There are few monarchy and of these less hierarchy. Tonga’s King has crossed only one of many bridges in his unique local and global life, if indeed there are such metaphor in the heart of Tonga.

Much of the region may be up for grabs now. Not merely after signature contracts and agreements may fail to convert into the future, but also because more than one generation owns plans that have waited patiently and impatiently to gain influence.

It’s critical to be fair.

All dealing must be fair. Commercial pioneers that have enjoyed the King’s surety must invent new arrangements that are fair.

Local agitants must be fair.

Fairness is the one good activity for Tonga.

HUMANS SENSE MIND’S INCENSE

NAME ONE SCHOOL GREATER THAN SOCIETY
OR TEST GREATER THAN ANXIETY.
SUGGEST THE CRITERION
OF LOVE FOR A CENTURION
OR HOW TO JOSTLE THE ETHERIOUS
THAT ACTIVATES THE SERIOUS
REDUCING THE EERINESS
HIDING IN OUR WEARINESS

SUGGEST HOW TO CLEAR STEAMINESS
IN THE SILK CLOUDS OF DREAMINESS
OR HOW TO FIND THE ESTEEMABLE
IN THE SCRAP AND REDEEMABLE
THAT HIDES OUR OMNIETY
IN DRAPES OF PLEBIETY

NAME ONE JOURNEY GREATER THAN HEART
OR ONE DIPLOMACY GREATER THAN ART
SUGGEST REMINDING THE PEERLESS
TO REMEMBER THE CHEERLESS
OR TO BALANCE THE PEACEABLE
WITH THE HUNGRY UNCEASABLE
THAT MAKE SO MANY ANESTHESIAN
IN OUR LAND SO ARTESIAN

NAME MOTIVES MORE WORTHY
OR STRUGGLES MORE EARTHY

Why don’t our stem cells continue to divide to produce cells needed to repair and maintain the body? Three research groups at Harvard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at University of Michican have found very strong evidence that as cells age they make more of a protein that slows down cells in order to reduce the risk of cancer.

“The good news is that we can get older before we get cancer,” said Sean Morrison, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Michigan, and lead author on one of the three papers. “The bad news is that our tissues can’t repair themselves as well.”

Much more at Future Pundit

Irrigation for agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world’s fresh water consumption — even more in areas of intensive farming and arid or semi-arid conditions.

Vines are staging a global coup.

Vines are taking over more terrain,
clambering up more walls
and smothering more trees.

Plants infiltrate.

And plants dominate.

Vines sense where to climb.

Washington Post

That’s not power but tyranny,
a much more common thing.

No direction than from our hope to our good will.

Maybe getting in a car and just driving north until I see the first polar bear. Or driving south until I see a bandit in a taxi on a stone road.

Stars speak too weak for hearts to hear.

We argue random. Yearn for place.

Travel will do just fine.

Real friendship is not for moments but how you survive the course of friendship over time. We are imperfect. Our humanness accompanies each friend.