Phone box has new life as library

A traditional red phone box has been recycled into one of the country’s smallest lending libraries – stocking 100 books.

Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library around the clock, selecting books, DVDs and CDs.

Users simply stock it with a book they have read, swapping it for one they have not.

“It’s really taken off. The books are constantly changing,” said parish councillor Bob Dolby.

He added: “It is completely full at the moment with books. Anyone is free to come and take a book and leave one that you have already read.

“This facility has turned a piece of street furniture into a community service in constant use.”

A resident dreamed up the idea when the village lost its phone box and mobile library in quick succession.

Westbury-sub-Mendip Parish Council bought the phone box from BT in a national scheme for a token £1.

BT has received 770 applications for communities to ‘adopt a kiosk’, and so far 350 boxes have been handed over to parish councils.

Phone boxes have been turned into art installations, a shower and even a public toilet.

via BBC News – Phone box has new life as library.

Hello. I am the King of Nigeria… No, really.

A safety inspector working at East Midlands Airport has returned to his birthplace in Nigeria – to be crowned a KING.

Christopher Ejiofor, 63, from Littleover near Derby, fled the West African county in 1970 after a brutal civil war.

He had been a military adviser for General Odumegwu Odjukwu – who finished on the losing side of the country's civil war from 1967 to 1970.

He was imprisoned and had to escape with his wife Christine, now 62, while under fire from enemy troops, first to Gabon and then to Britain.

But on Saturday Mr Ejiofor returned to his home country with his family to be crowned elected King of Igwe and given the name 'Ezekwesili' – meaning worthy to be king.

The father-of-four has moved his entire family from their semi-detatched house in Derby to a Nigerian mansion to rule his 100,000 subjects.

He will be crowned in a traditional Nigerian ceremony greeted by thousands of his subjects where he will hold an eight foot tall sceptre and sit on a huge oak throne adorned with cherubs.

Mr Ejiofor said the ceremony would be a traditional Nigerian coronation.

He said: ‘A Nigerian coronation is not like a British coronation – it is more like a big party.

‘I will accept the crown and sceptre and then I will be officially declared King by the Bishop of Enugu.

‘There will be a day of celebration with music and dancing right through the night.

‘I have visited Nigeria to see if I can make a difference over there but now have the opportunity to make real change.

‘The province has huge natural resources and is a beautiful place to live, it just needs the structure to exploit these resources.

‘Over the years, people have fled to Europe in search of a better chance in life – I want to give them that chance in their homeland.’ …

via Airport worker Christopher Ejiofor returns home to Nigeria – to be crowned KING | Mail Online.

Hopefully Christopher can help Nigeria become known world wide for something more popular than the email scams which frequently originate from within his kingdom.

10,000 E. African albinos in hiding after killings

The mistaken belief that albino body parts have magical powers has driven thousands of Africa’s albinos into hiding, fearful of losing their lives and limbs to unscrupulous dealers who can make up to $75,000 selling a complete dismembered set.

Mary Owido, who lacks pigment that gives color to skin, eyes and hair, says she is only comfortable when at work or at home with her husband and children.

“Wherever I go people start talking about me, saying that my legs and hands can fetch a fortune in Tanzania,” said Owido, 36, a mother of six. “This kind of talk scares me. I am afraid of going out alone.”

Since 2007, 44 albinos have been killed in Tanzania and 14 others have been slain in Burundi, sparking widespread fear among albinos in East Africa.

At least 10,000 have been displaced or gone into hiding since the killings began, according to a report released this week by the International Federation for the Red Cross and Crescent societies.

East Africa’s latest albino murder happened in Tanzania’s Mwanza region in late October, when albino hunters beheaded 10-year-old Gasper Elikana and chopped off his leg, the report said. The killing left Elikana’s father, who tried to defend his son, seriously injured.

Albinism is a hereditary condition, but occurs only when both parents have albinism genes. All six of Owido’s children have normal skin color.

African albinos endure insults, discrimination and segregation throughout their lives. They also have a high risk of contracting skin cancer in a region where many jobs are outdoors.

Owido, a high school teacher in the western Kenyan town of Ahero, says she was forced to transfer from a better teaching job on the Kenya-Tanzania border town of Isebania in 2008 after an albino girl she knew was murdered and her body parts chopped off.

The surge in the use of albino body parts as good luck charms is a result of “a kind of marketing exercise by witch doctors,” the International Federation for the Red Cross and Crescent societies said.

The report says the market for albino parts exists mainly in Tanzania, where a complete set of body parts — including all limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose — can sell for $75,000. Wealthy buyers use the parts as talismans to bring them wealth and good fortune.

“Albinism is one of the most unfortunate vulnerabilities,” said International Federation for the Red Cross and Crescent societies Secretary General Bekele Geleta. “And it needs to be addressed immediately at an international level.” …

via 10,000 E. African albinos in hiding after killings – Yahoo! News.

Mass extinction: Why did half of N. America’s large mammals disappear 40,000 to 10,000 years ago?

Years of scientific debate over the extinction of ancient species in North America have yielded many theories. However, new findings from J. Tyler Faith, GW Ph.D. candidate in the hominid paleobiology doctoral program, and Todd Surovell, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, reveal that a mass extinction occurred in a geological instant.

During the late Pleistocene, 40,000 to 10,000 years ago, North America lost over 50 percent of its large mammal species. These species include mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, among many others. In total, 35 different genera (groups of species) disappeared, all of different habitat preferences and feeding habits.

What event or factor could cause such a mass extinction? The many hypotheses that have been developed over the years include: abrupt change in climate, the result of comet impact, human overkill and disease. Some researchers believe that it may be a combination of these factors, one of them, or none.

A particular issue that has also contributed to this debate focuses on the chronology of extinctions. The existing fossil record is incomplete, making it more difficult to tell whether or not the extinctions occurred in a gradual process, or took place as a synchronous event. In addition, it was previously unclear whether species are missing from the terminal Pleistocene because they had already gone extinct or because they simply have not been found yet.

However, new findings from Faith indicate that the extinction is best characterized as a sudden event that took place between 13.8 and 11.4 thousand years ago. Faith's findings support the idea that this mass extinction was due to human overkill, comet impact or other rapid events rather than a slow attrition.

“The massive extinction coincides precisely with human arrival on the continent, abrupt climate change, and a possible extraterrestrial impact event” said Faith. “It remains possible that any one of these or all, contributed to the sudden extinctions. We now have a better understanding of when the extinctions took place and the next step is to figure out why.”

via Mass extinction: Why did half of N. America’s large mammals disappear 40,000 to 10,000 years ago?.

Multiple sclerosis ‘blood blockage theory’ tested

US scientists are testing a radical new theory that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by blockages in the veins that drain the brain.

The University of Buffalo team were intrigued by the work of Italian researcher Dr Paolo Zamboni who claims 90% of MS is caused by narrowed veins.

He says the restricted drainage, visible on scans, injures the brain leading to MS.

He has already widened the blockages in a handful of patients.

The US team want to replicate his earlier work before treating patients.

Experts welcomed the research saying it was important to confirm the basic science before evaluating any therapy.

MS is a long-term inflammatory condition of the central nervous system which affects the transfer of messages from the nervous system to the rest of the body.

The Buffalo team, led by Dr Robert Zivadinov, plan to recruit 1,100 patients with MS and 600 other volunteers as controls who are either healthy or have neurological diseases other than MS.

Using Doppler ultrasound, they will scan the patients to see if they can find any blockages within the veins of the neck and brain.

If they can prove Dr Zamboni’s theory of “chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency”, they say it will change our understanding of MS.

Rewriting science

Margaret Paroski, who is chief medical officer at Kaleida Health, where the Buffalo researchers are based, said the work could overturn prevailing wisdom that the damage in MS is predominantly the result of abnormal immune responses.

“When I was in medical school, we thought peptic ulcer disease was due to stress. We now know that 80% of cases are due to a bacterial infection.

“Dr Zivadinov’s work may lead to a whole different way of thinking about MS.”

Dr Zamboni, of the University of Ferrara, believes the blockages are the cause rather than the consequence of MS and that they allow iron from the blood to leak into the brain tissue, where it causes damage.

He has performed procedures similar to angioplasty to unblock the veins and get the blood flowing normally again.

He claims this “liberation procedure” can alleviate many of the symptoms of MS and is due to publish his findings in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

In an interview with CTV News in Canada he said: “I found the evidence of narrowing – narrowing of the veins just in MS patients.

“I’m fully convinced that this is very, very important for people.” …

via BBC News – Multiple sclerosis ‘blood blockage theory’ tested.

Area 51 on Google Maps

By Alton K. Marsh

Pilots avert your eyes! The airport identifier and location of Nevada’s Groom Lake—you know, where they keep the space aliens at Area 51—has been appearing in flight-planning software and on handheld GPS receivers for most of the past year as KXTA (standing for what, extraterrestrial?).

“We already know and it doesn’t matter,” said a public affairs official at Nellis Air Force Base.

The Jeppesen FliteStar flight-planning program and AOPA’s Real-Time Flight Planner even identify it as Homey Airport and add, “Private, VFR, No Fee, Customs Info Unavailable.” Well, there’s a fee. The airport is deep within heavily restricted airspace, guarded by fighter jets. First come the legal fees, the probable confiscation of your aircraft, and a personal fee in the form of jail time.

AOPA editors found KXTA clearly marked on a handheld GPS map drawn from an outdated August 2007 database. Runways are described as Runway 12-30, 5,420 feet by 120 feet, and Runway 14-32, 12,000 feet by 200 feet. That’s not quite true. One end of 14-32 continues across a dry lakebed for another 11,000 feet, but that portion is closed and partially covered with blowing sand. And there are four additional runways marked in the sand of the dry lakebed.

How do we know that? A picture of Groom Lake has been on Google Earth for years and the latest time stamps show it was updated in 2007. Photos of the place have been shown publicly since the late 1980s.

Groom Lake was outed by the Clinton Administration, which admitted only that it exists after workers filed lawsuits, claiming their health was harmed by working there. That admission of the area’s existence became necessary to handle the case in court.

While it is highly unlikely that pilots would intentionally seek to end their flying careers by raiding Homey, we can’t say the same for student pilots who may have learned only yesterday what restricted airspace is. Students, KXTA does not make a good waypoint and it’s not your friend.

via area 51 – Google Maps.

Julian Lennon, decade later, back in music biz with ‘Lucy’

A few years ago, Julian Lennon pictured himself as a man who could write music again.

“I started hearing songs, tunes, melodies and lyrics in my head and I couldn’t help myself,” he says. It was the end of a nearly decade-long drought, during which he had turned to filmmaking.

Recently, he saw himself as someone who could help independent artists get their music heard and co-founded a digital music services business. “My friends all agreed the major-label system was falling to pieces and that we needed a new way forward,” says Lennon, 46, of his theRevolution label.

Those two visions have now yielded a third: a song that will raise money to fight the autoimmune disease that killed the woman who had inspired The Beatles‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

The single Lucy will be released Dec. 15 via online music retailers worldwide to honor Lennon’s childhood friend Lucy Vodden, who died of lupus in September at age 46. The song will sell for $1.29, $2.29 or $3.29 per download (some discs are being produced as well), depending upon the retailer and how much the buyer wants to contribute, and most proceeds will go to St. Thomas’ Lupus Trust in Great Britain and the Lupus Foundation of America.

James Scott Cook, one of the new artists working with Lennon’s company, was recording a pop song he had written called Lucy when they learned of Vodden’s death. The song became a duet for charity, incorporating new lyrics by Lennon “to make it more suitable for the purpose.”

Lennon says he was “3 or 4″ when he showed his father his crayon drawing of his friend and described it as “Lucy in the sky with diamonds.” John used the phrase as the basis for the psychedelic hit that appeared on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

He lost track of Vodden but reconnected after learning she had lupus. “She created millions with her name. The least I could do was try to support her and make sure she was comfortable.”

The single is Lennon’s first release in a decade, and next summer he’ll follow with an album, Everything Changes,and a tour. The album “is about life, momentum, about what we have to deal with on an everyday basis,” says Lennon, who lives in Italy but plans to spend more time in New York to work on his label.

He says he and his father were repairing their relationship when Lennon was killed in 1980.

via Julian Lennon, decade later, back in music biz with ‘Lucy’ – USATODAY.com.

Posting slow … Up in the snow

Posting slow … Up in the snow, originally uploaded by xeno735.

Climbing Mt Shasta

US police ‘shot dead in ambush’ in Washington state

Four police officers have been shot dead in an ambush at a coffee shop in Washington State, police say.

Officials said at least one gunman walked into a coffee shop in Parkland, near the McChord Air Force Base, and opened fire.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the officers had been targeted and it was not believed to have been a robbery.

Other customers were in the coffee shop at the time but no-one else was injured in the attack.

Parkland is in Pierce County, 40 miles south of Seattle.

Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said the officers had been working on their laptops in the coffee shop when the shooting happened on Sunday morning.

“It was just a flat out ambush,” he said. “None of the employees or any of the people inside the store were targeted or hit or wounded.

“So we believe this was a cold, calculated killing of four police officers.”

First reports said there had been two gunmen but Mr Troyer told the BBC he now believed there was only one.

He said the suspect is a black male in his late 20s or early 30s who was scruffy, wearing a black coat and blue jeans.

Families of the four officers were being informed.

Theron Zahn, of KOMO-TV, told the BBC that a huge police operation involving hundreds of officers was under way.

“Police helicopters are in the air using their infra-red cameras for anyone who may be hiding nearby. It is a massive manhunt.”

Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen.

via BBC News – US police ‘shot dead in ambush’ in Washington state.

Scientists Make Fuel from CO2 Emissions and Sunlight : Gas 2.0

Scientists from Sandia National Labs have successfully field-tested a machine that uses solar energy to convert CO2 waste from power plants into fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

Cylindrical in shape, the device has both a hot and cold chamber with 14 Frisbee-like rings in the middle. The rings’ outer edges–made of iron oxide–are solar heated to 2,700 degrees which forces the composite to lose oxygen atoms.

As the rings rotate (one revolution a minute), they move in towards the cool chamber. There, carbon dioxide is added and the iron oxide composite takes back its missing oxygen atoms. The resulting carbon monoxide would be used in creating a synthesized liquid combustible fuel.

Invented by Rich Diver, we first discussed the device in January of last year. Until recently, it had only been tested in a laboratory. But a fully hand-built, and much larger, version was just successfully tested. “This is a first-of-its-kind prototype we’re evaluating,” Diver explains.

The device is called the Counter-Rotating-Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator or the CR5 for short. I think we’ll stick to that shorter title for now. This method of forced-photosynthesis was initially designed for creating cheap abundant hydrogen fuel.

 

“In the short term we see this as an alternative to sequestration,” SNL Advanced Materials Laboratory chemical engineer James Miller, who has also been part of the research, adds.

This type of CO₂ recycling could take trapped carbon waste from power plants and then returned for production, instead of releasing it to the air. Though, the resulting syngas does just burn right back into CO₂–not exactly ideal.

Regardless, we’re looking at 15-20 years before the tech is market ready. Researcher’s hope to achieve an efficiency of a few percent which is about double that of real-world photosynthesis.  …

via Scientists Make Fuel from CO2 Emissions and Sunlight : Gas 2.0.

Too bad it is 15 to 20 years away.