Cows given waterbeds to improve milk

Cows at Brue Valley Farms, in Glastonbury, Somerset, are also treated to classical music in the milking shed.

The cattle can spend up to 18 hours a day lounging on their specially-designed rubber beds, which are cleaned and filled with 50 litres of fresh water every day.

Bosses at the farm, which has been producing Farmhouse Cheddar for half a century, say their unusual methods have helped to produce a better quality product.

Robert Clapp, Director of Herds, said: “In order to make the best possible cheese you need to be completely ‘cow centric.’

“It’s not about what is best for the farmer, but about what is best for the cow.

“Our herds enjoy top quality treatment and in return they create delicious, creamy milk that goes into producing the best quality Farmhouse Cheddar.”

The 35-year-old added: “We treat our cows as individuals and care for every aspect of their lives including socialising and comfort as well as obvious needs such as food and health care.”

via Cows given waterbeds to improve milk – Telegraph.

Doctors remove world’s largest malignant tumour from woman

Medics say they believe the malignant tumour is the biggest ever removed in the world. Malignant tumours of this type usually weigh between 4lbs and 7lbs.

Lead surgeon Dr Oscar Lopez said: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it in my 34 years of medical service.

‘In medical literature a giant tumour is one that weighs more than 8.8lbs. But we’ve not found any references to a larger tumour.

‘Its weight is comparable to that of a four-year-old boy’s. In layman’s terms, it was as if this woman had been pregnant with quintuplets.

‘I haven’t been able to establish its length but it’s diameter is similar to the oil cans they sell in petrol stations.’

The woman, who comes from the town of Lomas de Zamora on the outskirts of Buenos Aires where the surgery took place, had suffered constant abdominal growth for the past year and a half.

She had trouble performing everyday tasks like walking and bending down to tie up her shoe laces.

She was referred to Gandulfo Hospital, where surgeons operated on her, from another medical centre.

A team of specialists performed a laparotomy on the woman. This meant they cut through her abdominal wall before separating her intestines and bladder and removing her uterus, ovaries and the tumour.

The woman is now back at home after being kept in hospital for five days following the operation. …

via Doctors remove world’s largest malignant tumour from woman – weighing FOUR STONE | Mail Online.

The tumor, a Critilian from Alpha Centauri 253 named Groxfamator, was given a temporary visa and will be meeting with world leaders next Monday to discuss opportunities for mutual exploitation of earth resources.

Genetically engineered frog-insect nose can control robots

In what seems like a Cthulian moment of experimentation, scientists have fashioned a biotech “nose” by genetically engineering frog cells to behave like insect nose cells. And then they turned the hybrid cells into a control device for a robot.

Why would they do this? The idea is to create a biosensor that responds to specific chemicals in the environment. It could, for example, be used as a warning system that sniffs out toxins that human noses can’t smell. The results of their experiment, published over the weekend in the Proceedings of the Academy of Science, suggest that the nose works:

According to the authors, in tests the “bio-hybrid” sensor was able to differentiate between nearly identical chemicals, such as compounds that have similar chemical formulas but slightly different molecular structures.

But here’s where things get even more interesting:

To test the device’s potential in a portable system, the researchers amplified the sensor’s output and used it to actuate a robot that was equipped with an electric motor. The authors suggest that the sensor may enhance the portability of current odor detection systems, and could be incorporated into a variety of applications, such as environmental monitoring and food administration.

What that means is that when the “nose” smells something specific, it will cause the robot to react in a pre-programmed way. For example, if it smelled something rotting in a commercial kitchen, the frog-insect nose could direct the robot to locate the source of the smell and then say, “Something is rotten right here! Clean it up now, human slaves.” …

via Genetically engineered frog-insect nose can control robots.

Scheme to ‘pull electricity from the air’ sparks debate

Tiny charges gathered directly from humid air could be harnessed to generate electricity, researchers say.

Dr Fernando Galembeck told the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston that the technique exploited a little-known atmospheric effect.

Tests had shown that metals could be used to gather the charges, he said, opening up a potential energy source in humid climates.

However, experts disagree about the mechanism and the scale of the effect.

“The basic idea is that when you have any solid or liquid in a humid environment, you have absorption of water at the surface,” Dr Galembeck, from the University of Campinas in Brazil, told BBC News.

“The work I’m presenting here shows that metals placed under a wet environment actually become charged.”

Dr Galembeck and his colleagues isolated various metals and pairs of metals separated by a non-conducting separator – a capacitor, in effect – and allowed nitrogen gas with varying amounts of water vapour to pass over them.

What the team found was that charge built up on the metals – in varying amounts, and either positive or negative. Such charge could be connected to a circuit periodically to create useful electricity.

The effect is incredibly small – gathering an amount of charge 100 million times smaller over a given area than a solar cell produces – but seems to represent a means of charge accumulation that has been overlooked until now.

Dr Galembeck suggests that with further development, the principle could be extended to become a renewable energy resource in humid parts of the world, such as the tropics.

However, while the prospect of free electricity from the air is tantalising, the prospect of harnessing enough of it to be widely useful is still a matter of some debate.

Hywel Morgan of the University of Southampton says that a similar effect has been known for some time; he points out that tribocharging – the generation of charge by rubbing wool over amber or water droplets over water droplets – is the origin of thunderstorms.

Continue reading the main story

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There have been many attempts to harness electricity from the atmosphere and most had bad endings”

End Quote Francesco Galembeck University of Campinas

“What we think is happening is he’s pumping the water vapour across his capacitor and during the pumping mechanism, tribocharging the water vapour.”

That would result in a charge, but would not be the same as simply pulling the charge from still, wet air.

Marin Soljacic, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist behind a wireless power transmission technology, known as Witricity, disagrees.

He calls the paper “very interesting” and “a good area of research”.

He concurs, however, that the amount of charge gathered in the initial tests suggests the effect may be difficult to put to good use, saying that “at this point it is far-fetched to see how it could be used for everyday applications”.

“It really warrants future research and understanding what all the limitations of this are, how far it can go,” he told BBC News. …

via BBC News – Scheme to ‘pull electricity from the air’ sparks debate.

Scientists develop ‘dry water’

The substance resembles powdered sugar and is expected to make a big commercial splash.

Each particle of dry water contains a water droplet surrounded by a sandy silica coating. In fact, 95% of dry water is “wet” water.

One of its key properties is a powerful ability to absorb gases.

Scientists believe dry water could be used to combat global warming by soaking up and trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Tests show that it is more than three times better at absorbing carbon dioxide as ordinary water. Dry water may also prove useful for storing methane and expanding the energy source potential of the natural gas.

Dr Ben Carter, from the University of Liverpool, presented his research on dry water at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. He said: “There’s nothing else quite like it. Hopefully, we may see dry water making waves in the future.”

Another application demonstrated by Dr Carter’s team was using dry water as a catalyst to speed up reactions between hydrogen and maleic acid. This produces succinic acid, a key raw material widely used to make drugs, food ingredients, and consumer products.

Usually hydrogen and maleic acid have to be stirred together to make succinic acid. But this is not necessary when using dry water particles containing maleic acid, making the process greener and more energy efficient.

“If you can remove the need to stir your reactions, then potentially you’re making considerable energy savings,” said Dr Carter.

The technology could be adapted to create “dry” powder emulsions, mixtures of two or more unblendable liquids such as oil and water, the researchers believe. Dry emulsions could make it safer and easier to store and transport potentially harmful liquids.

via Scientists develop ‘dry water’ – Yahoo! News UK.

China’s ‘Hippo Man’ to Receive Free Treatment for Nose Tumor

Doctors have agreed to treat China’s “Hippo Man” for free, potentially curing a cancerous tumor that has deformed his face and put his life at risk.

Last year, Fei Jianjun, 41, first noticed a small red bump on the tip of his nose.

“I didn’t pay much attention as it’s only a small bump,” he told Rex USA.

But the bump grew rapidly and now covers almost half his face.Fei is unable to breathe through his nose, and the swelling has pushed his eyes to the sides of his head.

Some residents of the village of Maxiang in China’s Jilin province mock Fei when he goes outside, and others are reportedly fearful he will spread his affliction to them.

“I try my best not to go out, as my family is too poor to compensate others if I scare them and make them sick,” Fei told the press.

Fei and his family are unable to afford medical treatment for the tumor and have been taking on odd jobs to cover the cost of pain relievers.

via China’s ‘Hippo Man’ to Receive Free Treatment for Nose Tumor.

Hitler ‘had Jewish and African roots’, DNA tests show

Adolf Hitler is likely to have had Jewish and African roots, DNA tests have shown.

Saliva samples taken from 39 relatives of the Nazi leader show he may have had biological links to the “subhuman” races that he tried to exterminate during the Holocaust.

Jean-Paul Mulders, a Belgian journalist, and Marc Vermeeren, a historian, tracked down the Fuhrer’s relatives, including an Austrian farmer who was his cousin, earlier this year.

A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.

“One can from this postulate that Hitler was related to people whom he despised,” Mr Mulders wrote in the Belgian magazine, Knack.

Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.

Knack, which published the findings, says the DNA was tested under stringent laboratory conditions.

“This is a surprising result,” said Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven.

“The affair is fascinating if one compares it with the conception of the world of the Nazis, in which race and blood was central.

“Hitler’s concern over his descent was not unjustified. He was apparently not “pure” or ‘Ayran’.”

It is not the first time that historians have suggested Hitler had Jewish ancestry.

His father, Alois, is thought to have been the illegitimate offspring of a maid called Maria Schickelgruber and a 19-year-old Jewish man called Frankenberger.

via Hitler ‘had Jewish and African roots’, DNA tests show – Telegraph.

Former FBI Agent Says Oswald Didn’t Kill Kennedy

A retired FBI Agent from Summit County is making claims regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that go beyond conspiracy theories.

Don Adams speaks clearly and concisely when describing the events of November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was killed, and he doesn’t waiver from his position that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

“It is a fact,” says Adams, and he says he has the FBI documents to prove it.

At his home in Akron, Ohio, Adams is surrounded by thousands of reports and records from the National Archives and Records Administration. His name appears on many of the papers, but he says other reports have been doctored, or are missing, “Everything I had done is gone. It’s all gone,” Adams said.

The Army veteran joined the FBI after serving in the Korean war. He trained in Washington, D.C., and Quantico, Virginia, and was assigned to an FBI field office in Thomasville, Georgia.

One of Adams first assignments was investigating an extreme right radical, with connections to the States Rights Party and KKK named Joseph Adams Milteer. “He was reportedly one of most violent men in the country,” said Adams.

One week after completing the investigation, President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas.

Agent Adams located Milteer in Quintan, Georgia on November 27, 1963, but according to Adams, the Senior Agent in charge would not allow a proper interrogation.

“I said, ‘Boss wait a minute, we have an opportunity to elicit tremendous information from him’ and he replied ’5 questions and nothing more’.”

Years later, while searching the archives Adams learned that Milteer had threatened to kill President Kennedy November 9, 1963, just weeks before the assassination, and that FBI agents had allegedly lied about his whereabouts immediately following threat.

In a tape recording Adams played for Fox 8 News, Milteer tells an informant the best way to get the president, “is from an office building with a high powered rifle.”

The informant asks if they are really going to kill President Kennedy and on the tape recording Milteer responds, “Oh yes. It’s in the works.” Adams wonders why the FBI and Secret Service permitted the President to travel to Dallas with that knowledge.

“[They] should have stopped the President from traveling instantly.” said Adams.

And an FBI record states that after the assassination, “a jubilant” Milteer bragged to the informant, “You thought I was kidding when I said he would be killed from a window with a high powered rifle.”

Adams questions why Milteer appears in a photograph near President Kennedy’s limousine before the shooting, but was never mentioned in the Warren Commission Report.

Adams suspects Milteer was definitely involved in President Kennedy’s death, but he says Oswald absolutely was not.

In 1964 Adams was transferred to Dallas, Texas. He watched the now famous Zapruder film and chased leads connected to Kennedy’s death. The Warren Commission report said three bullets were fired from behind the president, but Adams claims there were clearly 11 shots fired, including a frontal shot that struck President Kennedy’s neck.

Adams claims that he mentioned his findings to Senior FBI Agents, and was told by one unnamed agent, “Don be careful what you say and how you say it.”

Adams says witnesses at the Book Depository saw Oswald in the break room drinking a Coke at the exact time of the shooting.

According to Adams, even if Oswald was on the building’s sixth floor, Adams informed Senior FBI Agents that Oswald could not have possibly fired three shots in seven-and-a-half seconds, from a bolt action rifle so precisely while looking through a scope. Adams alleges he was again warned to keep quiet.

“I said, ‘I’m gonna tell you right now guys, no way in the world he fire those shots’ and boy I was really cautioned then.” said Adams.

Adams has hundreds of other facts and papers that he says prove the Warren Commission’s report was erronious.

… Adams says he is not seeking fame and fortune, rather truth and justice. He wants another commission established to re-investigate what really happened in Dallas before all of the agents and witnesses are gone.

“When we die off, when we’re gone, no one will talk about these things.” said Adams, “I hope the truth gets told whatever it is.” …

via Former FBI Agent Says Oswald Didn’t Kill Kennedy – WJW.

Facebook Death Threats Come True: Colombian Teens Murdered Off ‘Hit List’

A status update nobody wants to see: Three Colombian teenagers have been killed after their names appeared, along with 97 others, on a multipart “hit list” posted on Facebook, according to multiple international reports.

Even more frightening, police don’t know who is responsible for the killings and the list itself, or the reason for the selection of names that appear upon it, although some of the victims allegedly had ties to members of drug gangs.

Colombian news website El Espacio reports that it was the work of Los Rastrojos (“The Stubble”), which has been described as “one of the most powerful neo-paramilitary drug organizations of the country,” and has a history of making and following through on death threats.

Some reports suggest that the list could be the work of rival paramilitary groups — possibly even Colombia’s most infamous, FARC — that operate in the region around Puerto Asis, a small city close to the southern border with Ecuador. For the past 10 years, the town has been “ground zero for the US-backed military assault on coca-growing areas in Colombia,” according to Mother Jones.

via Facebook Death Threats Come True: Colombian Teens Murdered Off ‘Hit List’.

Rare ‘fire tornado’ filmed in Brazil

A ‘fire tornado’ has been caught on camera in the Brazilian municipality of Aracatuba, caused by strong, dry winds that fanned wildfires.

A whirlwind of flames spiralling several metres high danced across fields, bringing traffic to a halt on a nearby road, before it disappeared.

The phenomenon followed weeks of drought which have sparked brush fires across the country.

via BBC News – Rare ‘fire tornado’ filmed in Brazil.