Russian road roulette

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Russian road roulette?

Thursday, Oct 29, 2009 4:15PM UTC

SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgarian prosecutors are investigating a new gambling game in which drivers defy death by speeding through red lights for bets of up to 5,000 euros ($7,400), the chief prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

Known as ‘Russian road roulette’, the driver must jump red lights at busy intersections at high speed and not crash into any other cars or pedestrians, according to local media reports. Onlookers also gamble on the result.

Prosecutors launched their investigation after media reported the new game had been held at night at busy crossroads in Sofia since the summer.

In June, two people died after a motorcyclist crashed into an onlooker at a similar rally on Sofia’s ring road.

“Every time we receive a signal for such an unregulated race, we send patrols,” Commissioner Vanio Stoevski, head of the Sofia Road Police, told Reuters. Since the deaths in June, police have monitored roads where such races are typically held.

Local media report that participants in the ‘Russian road roulette’ are informed via text messages of the venue for that particular night — depending on the presence of police.

(Reporting by Irina Ivanova; editing by Erik Kirschbaum)

This should be handled in the same way as people who hire a hit man. In this case the person or persons to be killed is anonymous, but it amounts to the same thing.

Swine flu cases rise by 50% in a week

[UK] Government estimate of 78,000 newly infected up from 53,000 the week before, but figures still below virus’s summer peak

The number of new swine flu cases has risen by almost 50% in the past week, government figures showed today, although the level remains below that seen at the peak of the virus’s spread in the summer.

There were an estimated 78,000 new cases of swine flu in England in the past week, up from 53,000 in the week before – which in turn was double the number in the previous week, meaning the rate of increase has declined.

The weekly tally is also still below the 100,000 weekly cases at the peak of swine flu in July.

There are currently 751 people in hospital with the virus, of whom 157 are in intensive care. The number of swine flu deaths in England now stands at 97.

While the number of cases in the summer outbreak declined steeply, there was a widespread presumption that the H1N1 virus would again spread rapidly with the onset of winter, when seasonal flu outbreaks tend to peak. …

via Swine flu cases rise by 50% in a week | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Fighting a Sore Throat with Indoor Plants and a Cigarette Smoke Remover

I’ve had a sore throat and swollen glands for about two weeks now. I’ve had tests for strep and mono (negative) and also my immune system’s RH factors, white blood cell counts, are normal. The doctor says I have a virus and some viruses just take your body a few weeks to fight. I had a similar virus in January (the whole month!) As a normally healthy person, this is very frustrating!

Tips for sore throat:

1. Change toothbrush
2. wash bedding including pillow cases
3. replace pillows
4. suck on zinc lozenges
5. floss three times a day
6. use a tongue scraper/cleaner
7. gargle with salt water
8. sleep with wet washcloth over nose and mouth
9. get dental exam (is decay in a tooth making you sick?)
10. get away from cigarette smoke
11. clean the freeway pollution from inside your home
12. get rid of mold (if you can see it or smell it)

I moved to get away from a smoking neighbor, but the apartment where I’m living now allows smokers and, just my luck, several live next door to me. Smoke comes through the vents and under my front door. They smoke outside my window. I can smell it inside my apartment each time I come home right, when I open my apartment door. I think this is making me sick. See:

http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Secondhand-Smoke-Coming-Into-Your-Apartment

Here is another tip:

Get a 20 inch box fan. The older models are better than new models in the stores because the old models are quieter and move less air. The newer models sound like jet planes and move so much air it can be irritating. THe good part, there are millions of the old box fans in garages and basements all over the country.

Buy the Allergen Filtrete 1000 furnace filter by 3M in the red and white wrapper. Use masking tape, or duct tape to tape the filter sealing the edge completely to the back of the fan, so the air is pulled thru the filter. If you attach the filter to the front of the fan very little air will pass through, and it puts a bad load on the motor. Run the fan on low 24 hrs.

I have tested every model of filter. Only the Filtrete 1000 works. If you have cigarette smoke the 1000 rapidly turns grey, then coal black. Other Filtrete filters including the 700 model, or the 1200 utlra model stay white no matter how long you use them. The 1200 is supposed to be the top of the line, but it does not have the affinity for smoke particles like the 1000. I can buy the 1000 at Target, or Sears Home Hardware. Walmarts does not carry the 1000. You can also get them on the net cheaper in quantity. … 3M says the Filtrete lasts about 3 months. For us, a filter lasted about 4 weeks before it was black as coal and clogged with a mass of dust. You could tell it was spent because you would start to notice the cigarette scent again, and the fan would become louder due to the load. Putting in a new filter made a fast improvement in the smell. … (Lasko Model 3900) is designed to handle the load a filter puts on a fan motor. – thathomesite

Worth a try. I’m going to get this fan and this filter.

I also now live near a freeway. After a good night’s sleep in my new place, my throat is actually worse! Since moving again is not an option, I’m going to attempt to health-ify my environment.

I’ll start today by sealing off all the vents with plastic sheeting and duct tape (I’d rather be cold than sick.) See cautions about airflow, however…  My plan is to have a fan that brings  air in though a good filter on one side of the apartment and vent it out the other. Is there ANY kind of filter can stop particulate matter, Trichloroethylene, Benzene, and Formaldehyde and the other nasty things in cigarette smoke? Here is a list of cancer causing agents and poisons from a cigarette:

• Tar – a mixture of dangerous chemicals
• Arsenic – used in wood preservatives
• Benzene – an industrial solvent, refined from crude oil
• Cadmium – used in batteries
• Formaldehyde – used in mortuaries and paint manufacturing
• Polonium-210 – a highly radioactive element
• Chromium – used to manufacture dye, paints and alloys
• 1,3-Butadiene – used in rubber manufacturing
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – a group of dangerous DNA-damaging chemicals
• Nitrosamines – another group of DNA-damaging chemicals
• Acrolein – formerly used as a chemical weapon
• Hydrogen cyanide – used as an industrial pesticide
• Carbon monoxide – found in car exhausts and used in chemicals manufacturing
• Nitrogen oxides – a major component of smog
• Ammonia – used to make fertilisers and explosives

After that, house plants to remove the Trichloroethylene, Benzene, and Formaldehyde in my air from the freeway.

The toxic gas formaldehyde is contained in building materials including carpeting, curtains, plywood, and adhesives. As it is emitted from these sources, it deteriorates the air quality, which can lead to “multiple chemical sensitivity” and “sick building syndrome”, medical conditions with symptoms such as allergies, asthma, and headaches. The prevalence of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds VOC is greater in new construction.

Researchers are studying the ability of plants to reduce formaldehyde levels in the air. A study led by Kwang Jin Kim of Korea’s National Horticultural Research Institute compared the absorption rate of two types of houseplants. The results of the experiment on Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) and Fatsia japonica, an evergreen shrub, were published in the Journal of American Society for Horticultural Science.

During the study, equal amounts of formaldehyde were pumped into containers holding each type of plant in three configurations: whole, roots-only with the leafy portion cut off, and aerial-only, with the below-ground portion sealed off, leaving the stem and leaves exposed.

The results showed the combined total of aerial-only and roots-only portions was similar to the amount removed by whole plants. Complete plants removed approximately 80% of the formaldehyde within 4 hours.

… Researchers consider microorganisms living among the soil and root system to be a major contributor to the reduction. Japonica were planted in larger pots than the ficus, which may account for the lower night reduction rate of the latter. More knowledge of the contributions of microorganisms is cited by the study to be important in further understanding the air purifying potential of plants.

via Indoor Plants Can Reduce Formaldehyde Levels.

See my previous post on this topic. This summary of a NASA study is from colostate:

Pollutant                         Source                     Plants that Remove Pollutant

Benzene	Inks, oils, paints, plastics,rubber, dyes, detergents,gasoline, pharmaceutical,tobacco smoke, synthetic fibers	English Ivy, Dracaena marginata, Janet Craig, Warneckei, Chrysanthemum, Gerbera Daisy, Peace lily
Formaldehyde	Foam insulation, plywood, pressed-wood products, grocery bags, waxed paper, fire retardants, adhesive binders in floor coverings, cigarette smoke, natural gas	Azalea, Philodendron, Spider plant, Golden Pothos, Bamboo palm, Corn plant, Chrysanthemum, Mother-in-law’s tongue
Trichloroethylene	Primarily used in the metal degreasing and dry cleaning industries; also in printing inks, paints, lacquers, varnishes, adhesives	Gerbera Daisy, Chrysanthemum, Peace lily, Warneckei, Dracaena marginata

Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire is drawing New York City from memory

After just 20 minutes in a helicopter above the Manhattan skyline, autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire was ready to re-create a city that took hundreds of years to build.

Wiltshire is drawing a 20-foot panoramic view of New York – all from memory.

The 35-year-old artist’s autistic disorder affects his ability to interact with other people.

It has also given him a photographic memory – and a gift for putting it on paper.

“I just looked without drawing,” said Wiltshire as he explained how he is able to draw the skyline without referring back to a photograph of the city.

“Everything is like a TV show,” he said. “I have never drawn from a sketchbook.”

Wiltshire, a Londoner, is creating the image at the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, where the public can watch him work through Friday afternoon. New York is the last in a series of eight panoramas of major cities across the world, including Dubai and Tokyo.

“This city is very beautiful,” he said, as he drew the Big Apple from the Bronx to Staten Island.

“It has got skyscrapers …and the American people.”

Wiltshire began drawing as a child, when his teachers used art to help him learn.

“Stephen used his drawings to communicate with the world,” said his sister, Annette Wiltshire, 37. “He used his drawings to learn the alphabet.”

He has his own gallery in London, which his sister helps him run.

“He’s good at picking up on things the human eye normally wouldn’t,” she said. New Yorkers watched yesterday as Wiltshire furiously moved his pen across the paper.

“I could watch him all day,” said Karen Smith, 51, of Brooklyn, who works at the Pratt Institute.

“It almost makes me cry,” said her co-worker, Emma Legge, 39.

via Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire is drawing New York City from memory.

Amazing! What difference allows his visual memory to store and recall so much compared to the rest of us?

Thirst for oil poses threat to US national security, says military adviser

America’s thirst for oil is a gathering threat to its national security – and the risk will grow further as the world’s population touches 7 billion, a military adviser to the Pentagon told the Senate today.

In a second day of debate on energy, Democratic senators today pivoted from the economy to national security to try to make the case for a climate change bill.

The threat to Americans’ security ranged from the here and now – with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq tied down by their reliance on gas-guzzling equipment – to years into the future when extreme temperatures and rising sea levels could lead to a widespread social breakdown.

“We have never before on this planet had close to 7 billion people which we will have in 2011. We have never had the unprecedented level of per capita energy use multiplied by that 7 billion people,” Dennis McGinn, a member of the Military Advisory Board, composed of senior retired admirals and generals, told the Senate. “We have a whole host of indicators, warnings and trends that tells us climate change is bad for national security.”

He said the country would face risks on multiple fronts. “America’s current energy posture constitutes a serious and urgent threat to national security – militarily, diplomatically and economically.”

The Pentagon is already beginning to focus more acutely on the threat posed by climate change.

Military research labs are exploring new energy-saving devices, and other ways of conserving fuel in the battlefield. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have made planners acutely conscious that fuel dependence is putting US forces at risk. The US marines corps recently ordered an energy audit of its operations in Afghanistan, in a bid to reduce enormous fuel costs.

“We are tied down by fuel. Fuel is a real day-today concern for our forces in the field who are tethered to that fossil fuel tail,” said Kathleen Hicks, the deputy undersecretary of defence for strategy.

The US military is beginning to focus more intensely on the threat posed by climate change.

via Thirst for oil poses threat to US national security, says military adviser | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

It is time to reward people financially for saving energy and for not having kids.

Pain Of Torture Can Make Innocent Seem Guilty

The rationale behind torture is that pain will make the guilty confess, but a new study by researchers at Harvard University finds that the pain of torture can make even the innocent seem guilty.

Participants in the study met a woman suspected of cheating to win money. The woman was then “tortured” by having her hand immersed in ice water while study participants listened to the session over an intercom. She never confessed to anything, but the more she suffered during the torture, the guiltier she was perceived to be. …

“Our research suggests that torture may not uncover guilt so much as lead to its perception,” says Gray.

via Pain Of Torture Can Make Innocent Seem Guilty.

Torture does not save lives. It creates false testimonies and false guilt. Didn’t we learn that lesson during the Dark Ages? Didn’t we learn that lesson during the Salem witch trials? Let the people in Gitmo stand trail for their crimes based on the evidence, or let them go so they can try to seek a little peace in their forever damaged minds during the amount of time they may have remaining on earth.

Scientists: curry compound kills cancer cells

A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers at the Cork Cancer Research Center in Ireland treated esophageal cancer cells with curcumin — a chemical found in the spice turmeric, which gives curries a distinctive yellow color — and found it started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.

The cells also began to digest themselves, they said in a study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Previous scientific studies have suggested curcumin can suppress tumors and that people who eat lots of curry may be less prone to the disease, although curcumin loses its anti-cancer attributes quickly when ingested.

But Sharon McKenna, lead author of the Irish study, said her study suggested a potential for scientists to develop curcumin as an anti-cancer drug to treat esophageal cancer.

Cancers of the esophagus kill more than 500,000 people across the world each year. The tumors are especially deadly, with five-year survival rates of just 12 to 31 percent.

McKenna said the study showed curcumin caused the cancer cells to die “using an unexpected system of cell messages.”

Normally, faulty cells die by committing programed suicide, or apoptosis, which occurs when proteins called caspases are ‘switched on’ in cells, the researchers said.

But these cells showed no evidence of suicide, and the addition of a molecule that inhibits caspases and stops this “switch being flicked’ made no difference to the number of cells that died, suggesting curcumin attacked the cancer cells using an alternative cell signaling system.

U.S. researchers said in 2007 they had found curcumin may help stimulate immune system cells in the Alzheimer’s disease.

via NewsDaily: Scientists say curry compound kills cancer cells.

Orangutans and palm oil: What’s the connection?

Palm oil is in one in four food products that we buy. Most of the global supply comes from Indonesia and Malaysia – the only place where orang-utans live. It’s a tragic fact that every year an estimated 1,000 Orang-utans die because of palm oil..

You don’t know if palm oil is in your food because it’s not labelled properly which means you don’t have the right to choose food products that won’t destroy Orang-utan habitat. – zoo.org.au

In Willie Smits’ powerful TEDTalk, he describes his work to re-grow the rainforest in Indonesia — a triple-bottom-line effort that can benefit the local economy, the local orangutans and the green heart of the forest. The TED Blog asked Smits’ associate Richard Zimmerman, the director of Orangutan Outreach, to expand on the orangutan story:

In his TEDTalk, Willie briefly discussed the crisis facing orangutans in the wild as the Indonesian rainforest is cut down and converted into palm oil plantations. I would like to further elaborate on this, so that people might get a better grasp of what we’re dealing with in our quest to save the orangutans.

Orangutans are sentient beings who share approximately 97.8% of our DNA and express a range of emotions that is just as wide as our own. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only two places on Earth where these gentle, intelligent creatures live. The cultivation of palm oil over the last decade has directly led to the slaughter of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of old-growth rainforest. The UNEP estimates that an area of Indonesian rainforest the size of six football fields is cut down every minute of every day. Read that sentence again.

The palm oil and timber industries are guilty of truly horrific ecological atrocities, one of which is the systematic genocide of orangutans. When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are generally shot on sight. In the absence of bullets they are beaten, burned, tortured, mutilated and often eaten as bushmeat. Babies are literally torn off their dying mothers so that they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families, who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. This is not hyperbole, mind you. It has been documented time and time again.

Some of the luckier baby orangutans are confiscated and brought to sanctuaries such as Samboja Lestari, as Willie mentioned, or the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center, which is now home to nearly 700 orphaned and displaced orangutans in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Many of these orangutans are only weeks old when they arrive, and all of them are psychologically traumatized and desperate for their mothers — who are no longer alive. And remember, these are the fortunate ones. For every one we rescue, at least six others are estimated to have been killed, along with their mothers.

via TED Blog: Orangutans and palm oil: What’s the connection?.

99 percent pure water ice found on Mars

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed sub-surface water ice that may be 99 percent pure, halfway between the North Pole and the equator on the Red Planet.

“We knew there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, but we find that it extends far closer to the equator than you would think, based on Mars’ climate today,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, a member of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, which runs the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“The other surprising discovery is that ice exposed at the bottom of these meteorite impact craters is so pure,” Byrne said.

“The thinking before was that ice accumulates below the surface between soil grains, so there would be a 50-50 mix of dirt and ice. We were able to figure out, given how long it took that ice to fade from view, that the mixture is about one percent dirt and 99 percent ice,” he added.

Scientists used several instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, in quick succession in detecting and confirming highly pure, bright ice exposed in new craters, ranging from 1.5 feet to 8 feet deep, at five different Martian sites.

In August 2008, the orbiter’s Context camera team examined their images for any dark spots or other changes that weren’t visible in earlier images of the same area. Meteorites usually leave dark marks when they crash into dust-covered Mars terrain.

The HiRISE team, which bases its operations at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, followed up in September 2008 by taking high-resolution images of the dark spots.

“We saw something very unusual when we followed up on the first of these impact craters, and that was this bright blue material poking up from the bottom of the crater. It looked a lot like water ice. And sure enough, when we started monitoring this material, it faded away like you’d expect water ice to fade, because water ice is unstable on Mars’ surface and turns directly into water vapor in the atmosphere,” Byrne said.

A few days later that September, the orbiter’s “CRISM” team used their Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and got the spectral signature of water ice exposed in one of the impact craters, further clinching the discovery.

How far water ice extends toward the equator depends largely on how much water has been available in the Martian atmosphere in the recent past.

“The ice is a relic of a more humid climate not very long ago, perhaps just several thousand years ago,” Byrne said. (ANI)

via 99 percent pure water ice found on Mars.

Fossilised world’s biggest sea monster found on UK coast

A fossil hunter has found the remains of what is thought to be the world’s biggest sea monster on the south coast of England.

The ferocious creature, which was 15.8 metres long and lived 150 million years ago, was so powerful it could have bitten a car in half and had a Tyrannosaurus rex for breakfast, scientists said.

The 8ft long skull of the pliosaur was found on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast after storms brought down limestone cliffs.

Weighing up to 12 tons, the pliosaurs were a short-necked form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that dominated the oceans during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They had immensely powerful jaws and a set of razor-sharp teeth.

Richard Forrest, a palaeontologist and plesiosaur expert, said the T. rex was a “kitten” compared with the pliosaur.

“One of the things that is very clear from looking at this specimen is just how powerful this animal was,” he said.

“If we look at the lower jaw this is the point at which the muscles attach and then you’ve got the great beam coming forward; that bone is roughly the strength of steel.

“So it was an enormously powerful biting machine. These things were big enough and powerful enough to bite a small car in half.

“It would take a human in one gulp. It would take T. rex in one gulp. Compared to this beast, T. rex was a kitten.”

via Fossilised pliosaur sea monster found on UK coast.