Tungurahua volcano erupts in Ecuador

A view of the Tungurahua volcano from Patate, Ecuador.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: CARLOS CAMPANA / AFP

Authorities say 110 families have been evacuated from the vicinity of the Tungurahua volcano, which has been spewing molten rock and ash since the weekend.

Spokeswoman Mercedes Taipe of Ecuador’s Geophysics Institute said a column of vapor and ash up to 2.5 miles high has characterized the moderate-to-strong eruption.

She said Tuesday that a half a dozen villages are being showered in ash. She had no immediate estimate on economic damage to local farming.

The 16,48-foot volcano 84 miles southeast of Quito has been active since 1999.

In July and August of 2006, eruptions of Tungurahua killed at least four people, left two missing and forced the evacuation of thousands.

– Associated Press

via Tungurahua volcano erupts in Ecuador – Framework – Photos and Video – Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times.

Curiosity captures UFOs on Mars?

It may not look like much, but on the dry and barren Mars landscape, any movement is unexpected – and some claim to be able to see a light which apparently lifts itself off the ground below

When Curiosity first touched down on Mars, Internet pranksters were quick to mock up photographs of alien life on the alien landscape.

But it seems Nasa has itself captured something very strange on camera, including a strange white light dancing across the horizon of the red planet, and four blobs hovering in the sky

While the images are certainly a curiosity, Nasa and photography experts insist that these are nothing more than blemishes on the images, picked up by the camera lens sitting on the rover at a distance of 350 million miles away.

So what are the Mars anomalies? View the videos below:

1) Some internet users claim to be able to see a speck of light rapidly traversing the Martian horizon n the images below

3) On some returned images from the Curiosity, strange pinpoints appear in the sky – are they spaceships, or just abnormalities on the camera?The Martian landscape: But what is that hovering over the background? Dots appear to float in the sky, leading some observers to suggest an alien presenceAn inverse colour image shows the ‘UFO’s in sharper detail: Experts say these are ‘dead pixels’ on the camera – others are not so sure

via Are these our Martian overlords … or just ‘dead pixels’ of a camera? Images beamed back from Curiosity lead to talk of UFOs on Mars | Mail Online.

Elderly woman ruins valuable artwork

An elderly Italian woman appears to have destroyed a valuable artwork after she took it upon herself to ‘restore’ the crumbling painting.

The image, painted by 19th-century artist Elías García Martínez, had reportedly been deteriorating for some time.

The woman in her 80s, a neighbour of the church in which the fresco is located, attempted to restore the painting ‘without permission but with good intentions’.

But a donation from the artist’s granddaughter was about to fix that when the neighbour got in first to have a crack at fixing it up.

The results were not quite as she expected, however.

Once the budding artist realised she was in over her head, she confessed to local authorities.

A professional restorer is reportedly now set to assess the damage and see if the fresco can be saved.

via Elderly woman ruins valuable artwork – Yahoo!7 News.

There are plenty of photos of Ecce Homo by 19th-century painter Elías García Martínez on the net. Thanks to the woman, more people will now know and appreciate his work.

Three separate photographs of “Ecce Homo” by painter Elias Garcia Martinez show extensive damage caused by an elderly woman who decided the masterpiece needed a little refurbishment.

But in a time of austerity, rather than calling in a professional to complete the job, the unnamed woman attempted to restore the mural herself – at a devastating cost.

via Telegraph

I like it. Its surreal. Its kind of a big-lipped alien. They should keep it. They should let everyone in the church paint over it at each service and video tape it morphing and changing into different faces.  Video of the woman and the paining in the church here.

Father’s Age Linked to Autism and Schizophrenia

 Older men are more likely than young ones to father a child who develops autism or schizophrenia, because of random mutations that become more numerous with advancing paternal age, scientists reported on Wednesday, in the first study to quantify the effect as it builds each year. The age of mothers had no bearing on the risk for these disorders, the study found.

Experts said that the finding was hardly reason to forgo fatherhood later in life, though it might have some influence on reproductive decisions. The overall risk to a man in his 40s or older is in the range of 2 percent, at most, and there are other contributing biological factors that are entirely unknown.

But the study, published online in the journal Nature, provides support for the argument that the surging rate of autism diagnoses over recent decades is attributable in part to the increasing average age of fathers, which could account for as many as 20 to 30 percent of cases.

The findings also counter the longstanding assumption that the age of the mother is the most important factor in determining the odds of a child having developmental problems. The risk of chromosomal abnormalities, like Down syndrome, increases for older mothers, but when it comes to some complex developmental and psychiatric problems, the lion’s share of the genetic risk originates in the sperm, not the egg, the study found.

Previous studies had strongly suggested as much, including an analysis published in April that found that this risk was higher at age 35 than 25 and crept up with age. The new report quantifies that risk for the first time, calculating how much it accumulates each year.

The research team found that the average child born to a 20-year-old father had 25 random mutations that could be traced to paternal genetic material. The number increased steadily by two mutations a year, reaching 65 mutations for offspring of 40-year-old men. …

via Father’s Age Linked to Autism and Schizophrenia – NYTimes.com.

Japan’s ‘last ninja’ reveals his training secrets

A 63-YEAR-old former engineer may not fit the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. But Jinichi Kawakami is reputedly Japan’s last ninja.

As the 21st head of the Ban clan, a line of ninjas that can trace its history back some 500 years, Kawakami is considered by some to be the last living guardian of Japan’s secret spies.

“I think I’m called (the last ninja) as there is probably no other person who learned all the skills that were directly” handed down from ninja masters over the last five centuries, he said.

“Ninjas proper no longer exist,” he said as he demonstrated the tools and techniques used in espionage and sabotage by men fighting for their samurai lords in the feudal Japan of yesteryear.

… Mr Kawakami says much of the ninja’s art lies in catching people unawares, rather than in brute force.

“Humans can’t be on the alert all the time. There is always a moment when they are off guard and you catch it,” he said.

It is all about exploiting weaknesses that allows the ninja to outfox much bigger or more numerous opponents; distracting attention to allow a quick getaway.

It is possible to hide – in a manner of speaking – behind the smallest of things, Mr Kawakami said.

“If you throw a toothpick, people will look that way, giving you the chance to flee.

“We also have a saying that it is possible to escape death by perching on your enemy’s eyelashes; it means you are so close that he cannot see you.”

Mr Kawakami recently began a research job at the state-run Mie University, where he is studying the history of ninjas.

But, he said as he showed an AFP team around the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum and its trick house with hidden ladders, fake doors and an underfloor sword box, he is resigned to the fact that he is the last of his kind.

There will be no 22nd head of the Ban clan because Mr Kawakami has decided not to take on any more apprentices.

“Ninjas just don’t fit in the modern day,” he said.

via Japan’s ‘last ninja’ reveals his training secrets | News.com.au.

Why drinking alcohol is linked to breast cancer

A research team presented findings that they say may finally explain the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer. …

Alcohol consumption has long been established as a risk factor for breast cancer. But finding the direct link that makes it so has so far proved elusive. Now, Rodríguez-Fragoso and her collaborators think that they have found the answer, a protein called CYP2E1.

“We knew that CYP2E1 could break down ethanol and that doing so created unstable, highly reactive chemicals known as free radicals,” she says. Working with researcher Scott Burchiel and his group at the University of New Mexico, Rodríguez-Fragoso’s team had previously found that free radicals were associated with activation of cellular mechanisms that lead to tumor development. “The question then was, does having more CYP2E1 make you more susceptible to ethanol-induced toxicity, thereby increasing your risk of developing cancer?”

CYP2E1 is found in breast cells known as mammary epithelial cells, which are also where most breast cancers originate, suggesting to the researchers that CYP2E1 may be involved in breast cancer development. To test this hypothesis, the researchers administered ethanol to separate cultures of mammary epithelial cells that had varying levels of CYP2E1. Cells that expressed low levels of CYP2E1 were mostly immune to the effects of the ethanol treatment; however, cells with increased amounts of CYP2E1 protein were greatly affected, suggesting that women with higher expression levels of the protein would show similar responses.

Significantly, points out Rodríguez-Fragoso, “our results showed that ethanol-treated human mammary cells had an increase in free radical production, oxidative stress and the activation of cellular mechanisms that cause cells to increase their proliferation rate,” all hallmarks of cancer. “So if you are a woman who naturally expresses higher levels of CYP2E1 and you consume alcohol, you would be at a greater risk for developing breast cancer than a woman who expresses lower amounts of CYP2E1,” she explains.

via ScienceDaily

Women who express lower levels of CYP2E1 may be able to drink without getting cancer. This could explain why a glass of wine a day for one person could be fine and the same thing for another could be deadly. Bras may also cause cancer by restricting the natural flow of lymph. So, if these things are linked and the maps are correct, it seems that Russian women increase their risk by drinking, but lower their risk by more than the increase by going braless.

Here is a breast size map of the world, from which you might make some guesses about bra use around the world.  In India  you have B cups, little alcohol, and low breast cancer rates.

Another factor may be vitmain D. You might think, therefore, that time in the sun would be a factor but so far study results have not supported the idea of increased sun leading to less cancer. There was a finding that low vitamin D levels are linked to aggressive breast cancer.  Many times people want simple answers, such as breast cancer is caused by a virus. But the truth seems to be that there are multiple causes. You can’t say that pressing your foot on the gas pedal is what causes a car to go. You also can’t say that fuel, oil, tires, an ignition system, a running engine, gears, or any other one thing causes a car to go.  When conditions are just right, you get cancer, but that also means there are many different ways to stop cancer from running.

 

Helium-Breathing Gibbons Sing Like Human Sopranos

Helium-Breathing Gibbons Sing Like Human Sopranos

“Fuku-chan,” a gibbon at Fukuchiyama City Zoo in Japan, showed off her soprano singing skills for scientists.

WIRED SCIENCE | AUGUST 23, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/cxKNe

Uranium from seawater idea boosted with shrimp shells

Billions of tonnes of the uranium required for fuel pellets is found in the world’s oceans

A happy coincidence in the seafood industry has raised the prospects of harvesting uranium – the fuel source for nuclear power – from seawater.

Oceans hold billions of tonnes of uranium at tiny concentrations, but extracting it remains uneconomical.

A report at the 244th meeting of the American Chemical Society described a new technique using uranium-absorbing mats made from discarded shrimp shells.

A range of improved approaches were outlined at a symposium at the meeting.

The developments are key to a future nuclear power industry. Uranium is currently mined from ore deposits around the world, but there are fears that demand may outstrip the supply of ore as nuclear power becomes more widespread.

At issue is the tremendously low concentration of uranium in seawater: about three parts per billion, so that just 3.3mg exist in a full tonne of water. As a result, extracting it is an inherently costly process.

Much work carried out in Japan in recent decades has sought to address that.

Researchers there came up with a design of a mat of plastic fibres impregnated with molecules that both lock onto the fibres and preferentially absorb uranium. That work culminated in a 2003 field test that netted a kilogram of the metal.

The mats can reach 100m in length, suspended underwater at depths up to 200m. They are withdrawn and rinsed with an acid solution that frees the uranium, and the cycle is repeated. …

Chitin is the principal protein in crustaceans’ shells, but its toughness and its ability to be “electrospun” into fibres that can be made into mats make it an ideal sustainable and biodegradable choice for uranium harvesting.

While research is continuing, there is still some way to go to reach cost parity with the more mature – but more environmentally damaging – technology of mining uranium ores. …

via BBC News – Uranium from seawater idea boosted with shrimp shells.

Here’s an interesting pro-nuclear energy statement by a professor at the University of Pittsburgh:

… The principal risks associated with nuclear power arise from health effects of radiation. This radiation consists of subatomic particles traveling at or near the velocity of light—186,000 miles per second. They can penetrate deep inside the human body where they can damage biological cells and thereby initiate a cancer. If they strike sex cells, they can cause genetic diseases in progeny.

Radiation occurs naturally in our environment; a typical person is, and always has been struck by 15,000 particles of radiation every second from natural sources, and an average medical X-ray involves being struck by 100 billion. While this may seem to be very dangerous, it is not, because the probability for a particle of radiation entering a human body to cause a cancer or a genetic disease is only one chance in 30 million billion (30 quintillion).

Nuclear power technology produces materials that are active in emitting radiation and are therefore called “radioactive”. These materials can come into contact with people principally through small releases during routine plant operation, accidents in nuclear power plants, accidents in transporting radioactive materials, and escape of radioactive wastes from confinement systems. We will discuss these separately, but all of them taken together, with accidents treated probabilistically, will eventually expose the average American to about 0.2% of his exposure from natural radiation. Since natural radiation is estimated to cause about 1% of all cancers, radiation due to nuclear technology should eventually increase our cancer risk by 0.002% (one part in 50,000), reducing our life expectancy by less than one hour. By comparison, our loss of life expectancy from competitive electricity generation technologies, burning coal, oil, or gas, is estimated to range from 3 to 40 days.

There has been much misunderstanding on genetic diseases due to radiation. The risks are somewhat less than the cancer risks; for example, among the Japanese A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there have been about 400 extra cancer deaths among the 100,000 people in the follow-up group, but there have been no extra genetic diseases among their progeny. Since there is no possible way for the cells in our bodies to distinguish between natural radiation and radiation from the nuclear industry, the latter cannot cause new types of genetic diseases or deformities (e.g., bionic man), or threaten the “human race”. Other causes of genetic disease include delayed parenthood (children of older parents have higher incidence) and men wearing pants (this warms the gonads, increasing the frequency of spontaneous mutations). The genetic risks of nuclear power are equivalent to delaying parenthood by 2.5 days, or of men wearing pants an extra 8 hours per year. Much can be done to avert genetic diseases utilizing currently available technology; if 1% of the taxes paid by the nuclear industry were used to further implement this technology, 80 cases of genetic disease would be averted for each case caused by the nuclear industry. …

via Umich.edu

Well, it could be that there were only 400 extra cancer deaths in the follow up group, but “some estimates state up to 200,000 had died by 1950, due to cancer and other long-term effects.^[ref] Which is it, 400 or 200,000?

Ref: Rezelman, David; F.G. Gosling and Terrence R. Fehner (2000). “The atomic bombing of Hiroshima”. The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History. US Department of Energy. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved 18 September 2007.

I recommend do it yourself Geothermal as a cheap way to heat and cool your home. More about that in the next post.

I’m a fan of

 

Leicester couple pelted by raining yellow plastic balls

A husband and wife have been left puzzled after hundreds of tiny yellow plastic balls rained in their garden.

Dylis Scott and her husband Tony were in their garage on Monica Road, Leicester, on Sunday when the balls fell from the sky during a storm.

Mrs Scott said they started hitting the car and garage door and “shooting at me”.

The Met Office said it was possible for weather systems to lift things such as dust and deposit them many miles away.

In January it was reported that 3cm diameter blue balls came raining down during a hailstorm in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Theories on what the balls could have been included crystals used in floral displays or ammunition for a toy gun.

‘Heck, what’s happening?’

On Sunday Mrs Scott said she had gone inside after she heard thunder while she was painting outside.

“Suddenly all these little tiny, bright yellow balls came down with the rain, and they were hitting the car, hitting the garage door, and shooting at me,” the 70-year-old said.

“I looked outside and all over the lawn were all these yellow balls. And it was absolutely pelting down.

“I thought ‘Heck, what’s happening?’ I’m only doing painting and they are sending all these yellow balls down.”

Mrs Scott also saw some of the balls deposited down the road.

Most of the balls have now disappeared and Mr Scott thinks they were washed away by the rain.

‘What are they?’

Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright, a physicist at the Cavendish Laboratory, based at the University of Cambridge, said particles of matter can be picked up by the wind and transported in the rain.

“Because these [yellow balls] are very light it wouldn’t need to be very strong and it could potentially transport them a reasonable distance,” she said.

“The bigger question is what are they, and where has it grabbed it from?”

A Met Office spokesperson said: “Although we can’t say whether this occurrence was weather related, it is possible for weather systems to lift things such as dust and deposit them many miles away.

via BBC News – Leicester couple pelted by raining yellow plastic balls.

Childcare workers charged over toddler ‘fight club’

Three US childcare workers videotaped a fight between 3-year-old children in their care and encouraged the toddlers to pummel each other as they laughed about it, according to court documents.

The three Delaware women were charged on Monday with assault and other offences after police obtained the video. Officials suspended the licence of their employer, the Hands of Our Future daycare, the same day.

Officials say the incident occurred in March.

Clearly one of the children is crying and does not want to continue on and he is pushed back into the fray by one of the adults,’ Dover Police Captain Tim Stump told KYW-TV.

A mother of a child at the same day care, Cristyal Slack, said that her four-year-old daughter was in the room and witnessed the attack when the fight happened in March.

‘That pissed me off just because I feel if my daughter is around anything, I should have known,’ Slack said.

‘I can’t ever believe in a million years,’ another stunned mother, Amy Bickling, said, ‘I mean I would have to see the proof to believe it.’

via Childcare workers charged over toddler ‘fight club’.