Ecological risk grows as Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks in Gulf

Up to 7,400 barrels of crude oil a day could be spewing into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico after Tuesday night’s explosion aboard the semi-submersible Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig caused it to capsize and sink Thursday morning.

After listing for most of Wednesday, the $600 million platform 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana sank in 5,000 feet of water at about 10 a.m. Thursday. Seventeen people were injured, and 11 are still missing from the explosion. The rest of the crew of 126 filed into lifeboats or jumped nearly 100 feet from the platform before being pulled from the water by Coast Guard rescue crews.

As the intense fire burned the spewing oil off on Wednesday, early indications were that the rig fire didn’t present significant danger to the coastal ecosystem. But with the rig now sunk and the fire out, concerns are now growing that the situation could mirror a deep-water spill caused by a fire on the West Atlas rig off Australia last year, which environmentalists likened to a “disaster movie.”

“This is already a serious accident, and if this crude is allowed to flow uncontrolled out of the well for days or weeks, the environmental impact could be really substantial,” says Robert Bryce, an energy expert at the Manhattan Institute and author of “Power Hungry: The myths of ‘green’ energy and the real fuels of the future.” “They now have to figure out how to stop the blowout from the well. There are a tremendous number of unknowns now.”

Coast Guard officials estimated that up to 13,000 gallons of crude an hour was coming out of the exploratory hole 41 miles offshore of Plaquemines Parish, La. An early suggestion that damage would be minimal because the fire was consuming most of the fuel “does have the potential to change,” BP official David Rainey told the New York Times.

via Ecological risk grows as Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks in Gulf / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com.

Bees see world 5 times faster than humans

Bees see the world almost five times faster than humans, says new research.

This gives bumblebees the fastest colour vision of all animals, allowing them to easily navigate shady bushes to find food, says Peter Skorupski and Lars Chittka from the University of London.

The ability to see at high speed is common in fast-flying insects; allowing them to escape predators and catch their mates mid-air.

However, until now it wasn’t known whether the bees’ full colour vision was able to keep up with their high speed flight. This research sheds new light on the matter; suggesting that although slower, it is also about twice as fast as human vision.

Skorupski says: “We can’t easily follow a fast flying insect by eye, but they can follow each other, thanks to their very fast vision.”

“How fast you can see depends on how quickly the light-detecting cells in your eye can capture snapshots of the world and send them to you brain. Most flying insects can see much quicker than humans, for example so they can avoid getting swatted!” said Skorupski.

Bumblebees use their advanced colour vision in many ways. Skorupski explains: “Bees were the first animals that scientists proved to have colour vision, and they have since been shown to put it to good use; navigating dappled light and shady areas, recognising shapes like their hive entrance, and particularly for finding nectar-bearing coloured flowers.” …

via Bees see world 5 times faster than humans.

What would it be like if we could upgrade our eyes to the speed of bees?

Archaeologists unearth 6th century Ikea-style temple

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed the remains of a 6th century BC temple-style building complete with detailed assembly instructions which they have likened to an Ikea do-it-yourself furniture pack. Nearly every remaining part of the elaborate structure, excavated near the southern city of Potenza, is inscribed with detailed instructions on how it should be built.The team believe the building, at Torre Satriano, may have been a temple or palace.

It has been found in a region of southern Italy in which colonists and traders from Ancient Greece settled from the 8th century BC onwards.

They established a number of independent city-states along the coast and in Sicily that together were known as Magna Graecia.

The archaeologists have speculated that the indigenous, pre-Roman nobility may have developed a taste for Greek fashion and that enterprising local builders came up with the idea of relatively cheap, DIY buildings to satisfy local demand.

Each stone component bears identification symbols showing how they fit together, just like a bed or book case produced by the Swedish low-cost furniture manufacturer.

The symbols would have indicated to builders how “male” components fitted into “female” joints.

The coded symbols also appear on red and black decorative panels known as “cymatiums”.

“All the cymatiums and several sections of frieze also have inscriptions relating to the roof assembly system,” Massimo Osanna, the director of the archaeology department at Basilicata University, said.

“So far, around a hundred inscribed fragments have been recovered …

via Archaeologists unearth 6th century Ikea-style temple – Telegraph.

New evidence that green tea may help fight glaucoma and other eye diseases

Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea — renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties — do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases. It appears in ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Chi Pui Pang and colleagues point out that so-called green tea “catechins” have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of protecting the eye. Those include vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Until now, however, nobody knew if the catechins in green tea actually passed from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the tissues of the eye.

Pang and his colleagues resolved that uncertainty in experiments with laboratory rats that drank green tea. Analysis of eye tissues showed beyond a doubt that eye structures absorbed significant amounts of individual catechins. The retina, for example, absorbed the highest levels of gallocatechin, while the aqueous humor tended to absorb epigallocatechin. The effects of green tea catechins in reducing harmful oxidative stress in the eye lasted for up to 20 hours. “Our results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress,” the report concludes.

via New evidence that green tea may help fight glaucoma and other eye diseases.

Fish oil supplements provide no benefit to brain power

The largest ever trial of fish oil supplements has found no evidence that they offer benefits for cognitive function in older people.

The OPAL study investigated the effects of taking omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplements over a two year period on the cognitive function of participants aged 70-80 years.

The number of people with cognitive impairment is rising and it is estimated that by 2040, more than 81 million people globally will have dementia.

Some studies have suggested that high intakes of omega-3 fatty acids, most commonly found in oily fish, are important for the maintenance of good cognitive health in later life.

The OPAL (Older People And omega-3 Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) study, published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was a randomised controlled trial led by Alan Dangour, Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and colleagues.

The study enrolled 867 participants aged 70-80 years from General Practice clinics in England and Wales. Trial participants who all had good cognitive health at the start of the study were randomly assigned into two groups, one of which received fish oil capsules while the other group received a placebo for two years. Cognitive function was assessed at the start and end of the study by trained research nurses using a series of paper and pencil tests of memory and concentration.

After two years, those participants receiving fish oil capsules had significantly higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood than those participants receiving placebo capsules. However, cognitive function did not change over the course of the study in either group of participants and there was no evidence that the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids had a benefit for cognitive function in older people.

Dr. Alan Dangour urges caution in interpreting these results: “From the data we have collected in the OPAL study there is no evidence of an important benefit for memory or concentration of increased omega-3 fatty acid consumption over a two year period among older people with good cognitive health. However, it is important to keep in mind that poor cognitive function can take many years to develop and although this is the longest trial of its kind ever conducted, it may be that it was not long enough for any true beneficial effects to be detected among this healthy cohort of older people”.

via Fish oil supplements provide no benefit to brain power.

There is still evidence that fish oil can help high blood pressure and secondary heart disease.

See the chart of scientific evidence regarding supplements and pay attention to the supplements above the “worth it” line.

Note to self, eat more Lentinula edodes ( Shiitake mushrooms ).

High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Liver Scarring

High fructose corn syrup, which is linked to obesity, may also be harmful to the liver, according to Duke University Medical Center research.

“We found that increased consumption of high fructose corn syrup was associated with scarring in the liver, or fibrosis, among patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),” said Manal Abdelmalek, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology at Duke University Medical Center.

Her team of researchers at Duke, one of eight clinical centers in the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network, looked at 427 adults enrolled in the network. They analyzed dietary questionnaires collected within three months of the adults’ liver biopsies to determine their high fructose corn syrup intake and its association with liver scarring.

The researchers found only 19 percent of adults with NAFLD reported no intake of fructose-containing beverages, while 52 percent consumed between one and six servings a week and 29 percent consumed fructose-containing beverages on a daily basis.

An increase in consumption of fructose appeared to be correlated to increased liver fibrosis in patients with NAFLD.

“We have identified an environmental risk factor that may contribute to the metabolic syndrome of insulin resistance and the complications of the metabolic syndrome, including liver injury,” Abdelmalek said.

Research Abdelmalek published in the Journal of Hepatology in 2008 showed that, within a small subset of patients, high fructose corn syrup was associated with NAFLD. Her latest research, published online in Hepatology, goes one step further and links high fructose corn syrup to the progression of liver injury.

via High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Liver Scarring – DukeHealth.org.

The stuff is everywhere. Time to go back to my non-sweetened protein powder and get rid of the GNC stuff I’ve been taking.

Alzheimer’s drugs cause brain damage and actually worsen memory loss

Big Pharma drugs that are being used on humans right now and promoted as potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) could cause the very brain damage and memory loss they are supposed to treat. That’s the conclusion of University of California at San Diego (UCSD) scientists who just published their groundbreaking findings in the Proc

eedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers combined several high tech methods to investigate nonamyloidogenic peptides that are formed by some drugs being tested as Alzheimer’s therapies. UCSD nano-biophysicist Ratnesh Lal and his colleagues combined three dimensional computer simulations with high resolution atomic force microscopy membrane protein and cell imaging, electrical recording and various cellular assays to pinpoint the function of these substances.

The results showed that the peptides created active ion channels that caused brain cells to take in very high levels of calcium ions, eventually killing the very neurons needed for memory. To make matters worse, biomedical researchers have long considered these brain cell-killing nonamyloidogenic peptides to be non-toxic and targeted them as potential Alzheimer’s treatments.

The UCSD researchers call their discovery that these peptides may be pathogenic (disease-causing) “startling” and say it may require new evaluations into the causes of AD and Down’s Syndrome (which often causes Alzheimer’s disease symptoms by age 40).

Clearly, the new findings are a blow to the widely accepted hypothesis that amyloid beta peptides must cause AD because amyloid plaques (consisting of deteriorating neurons surrounding deposits of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid) are found in the brains of AD patients. Big Pharma researchers have developed drugs that are supposed to treat AD by increasing non-toxic peptides, thereby decreasing the impact of the “bad” peptides which generate beta-amyloid. Instead, they’ve only ended up producing more brain-damaging peptides. …

via Alzheimer’s drugs cause brain damage and actually worsen memory loss >> Four Winds 10 – fourwinds10.com.

Refreshing News: U.S. Realeases New $100 Bill (Pics)

The U.S. Treasury refreshes its currency every once in a while to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters, and this time they’re refreshing the new $100 bill. The new bill will contain a security feature called Motion, where each bill will contain up to 650,000 microlenses embedded in the printing which will allow for an underlying image to shift when the bill is moved. Yep, good old Benjamin Franklin is getting a facelift and here it is.

via Refreshing News: U.S. Realeases New $100 Bill (Pics).

I like the past $100 bill designs better. Ben is looking very green and I particularly don’t like that big orange ink well stamp. What were they thinking with that? Is that where they store the microchip dot now … instead of the eye?

Now the $5, that’s much better.

Chinese scientists clone cashmere goat

Chinese scientists have successfully cloned over a dozen goats which produce the world famous cashmere fibre used to make high-end garments.

14 such goats were cloned between February and March this year to almost double their yield from 600 grams to 1,000 grams, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cloned goats carry the expressing gene of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), known by scientists to play a role in boosting fur growth, the official agency quoted Liu Shaoqing, manager of a farm in Inner Mongolia where the experiments are going on.

The official said 12 of the 14 goats were successfully cloned to carry a special gene to produce rich cashmere, an expensive fibre used to produce expensive and extra-warm garments.

Cashmere wool is also used to make expensive shawls in higher reaches of Tibet and Xinjiang.

via Chinese scientists clone cashmere goat.

8 Invented Diseases Big Pharma Is Banking on

Since direct-to-consumer drug advertising debuted in 1997, pharma’s credo has been When The Medication Is Ready, The Disease (and Patients) Will Appear. Who knew so many people suffered from restless legs?

But pharma’s recent plan to move from mass-market molecules into more lucrative vaccines and biologics did not see the anti-vaxer movement coming: millions of Americans saying You Want to Vaccinate Me — and My Child — with WHAT?? and condemning vials of H1N1, rotavirus and MMR vaccines to sit, well, way past their expiration dates. Nor were fears of an international vaccine conspiracy helped by former CDC Director Julie Gerberding resurfacing as President of Merck Vaccines in December. (Nice revolving door if you can catch it.)

Now pharma is back to creating new diseases, patients, risks and “awareness campaigns” faster than you can say thimerosal (the vaccine preservative that started the backlash.) …

1. SERM deficiency

A pill to prevent postmenopausal osteoporosis packs the “magic three” of drug sales– fear, forever and faith–since you never know if it’s working or you need it but fear stopping….

2. Statin Deficiency

If it seems like the whole world is on statins, it’s not your imagination. Last year the FDA approved AstraZeneca’s Crestor for children as young as 10 and in March it approved Crestor for 6.5 million people who have no cholesterol or heart problems at all! (See: fear, forever and faith.) …

3. Circadian Dysrhythmia

Insomnia is a gold mine for pharma because everyone sleeps — or watches TV when they can’t. But Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata and Rozerem have reached market saturation, so pharma is rolling out subcategories like nocturnal, middle-of-the-night (MOTN) and terminal insomnia and sleep eating, sleep walking and sleep sweating (yes sweating) to boost the franchise. …

4. Adult Autism, ADHD and Refusal to Play Nicey

Having marketed adult diseases like depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in 4-year-olds to death, pharma is now finding childhood diseases in adults. Adults with ADHD have hyperactivity, impulsivity, “executive function deficits” and “difficulty with organization and time management,” says Harvard Medical School’s Joseph Biederman, in a 2004 JAMA. …

5. Asthma That Requires “Two Drugs”

Leave it to pharma to develop an asthma drug–the long-acting beta2-agonists (LABAs)– that triples the rate of asthma deaths, especially in African-Americans. …

6. “Treatment Resistant” Conditions

If an engine additive or laundry product didn’t work, who would chase it with another product–or two– because the manufacturer told them to? Who would pay $300 to $900 a month out of their pocket for antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and mood brighteners some of which don’t work? (see: fear, forever, faith.) …

7. Low T Men are you feeling run down and over the hill? Is your hair falling out, skin wrinkling and abdomen developing its own zip code? Have you lost interest in sex or worse, has your partner? (With you?) Do you need reading glasses, dental implants and heel splints? You’re not getting old, you just have Low T and are ready for the aging-is-really-just-low-hormones con that women have lived with for 60 years: hormone replacement therapy. …

8. “Spectrum” Disorders

Nothing proves pharma’s when-the-medication-is-ready credo better than the legions of people who have fibromyaglia now that Cymbalta, Savella and Lyrica are available to treat it. Still, a “grassroots” pharma front group is conducting a Fibromyalgia Is Real awareness campaign like it did for depression and bipolar disorder, just to make sure. …

via 8 Invented Diseases Big Pharma Is Banking on | | AlterNet.