Jewish state controlled by four informal networks, not by government

Who really rules Israel?
Four informal "networks," which are unelected and often act surreptitiously, rule Israel, with "strong leaders" associated with them to some extent and even being controlled by them. The membership of these networks is not permanent and their makeup changes. Yet the members of these networks have a joint agenda, common ideological and practical perceptions, joint interests, common ways of acting, and the ability to influence public opinion, and of course influence politicians... [more]
Source : Ynet

37% Of all global seafood is now ground into feed

Fish Farming's Growing Dangers
Close to 40% of the seafood we eat nowadays comes from aquaculture; the $78 billion industry has grown 9% a year since 1975, making it the fastest-growing food group, and global demand has doubled since that time.
Here's the catch: It takes a lot of input, in the form of other, lesser fish — also known as "reduction" or "trash" fish — to produce the kind of fish we prefer to eat directly. To create 1 kg of high-protein fishmeal, which is fed to farmed fish (along with fish oil, which also comes from other fish), it takes 4.5 kg of smaller pelagic, or open-ocean, fish. "Aquaculture's current heavy reliance on wild fish for feed carries substantial ecological risks... [more]
Source : Time

Rhodiola, The Siberian remedial herb may be the next big thing

Warming to a Cold War Herb
Ramazanov found that the drink seemed to quicken his hiking and speed his recovery after a taxing mission. "Almost immediately, my mind seemed clearer," he says. "I was more energetic and less stressed. After a few days, I noticed I recovered from exercise more quickly."... [more]
Source : Science News

Simple sea creature could help to address the problem of global warming

Sea creatures' global warming fix
The salp is a transparent hollow tube, no bigger than an unshelled peanut, that swims around vacuuming up microscopic plants. Because it is efficient in sucking up marine algae that have absorbed dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2), the salp is seen by one scientist as the key to sequestering excess atmospheric gas to the ocean bottom... [more]
Source : BBC

Devil's Bible return to Czech Republic

Return of Devil's Bible to Prague draws crowds
Codex Gigas, also known as the Devil's Bible — a medieval manuscript said to have been written 800 years ago with the devil's help — has returned to Prague after an absence of 359 years. According to myth, a Benedictine monk promised to write the book overnight to atone for his sins. When he realized the task was impossible, he asked the devil for help. The page with the illustration of the devil the one visitors see... [more] & [more]
Source : Usa Today & Wikipedia

Giant Ocean Tubes Proposed as Global Warming Fix

Giant ocean-based pipes could curb global warming
Imagine an ocean full of giant pipes that pump up cold, nutrient-rich water from deep below, encouraging surface algae to bloom and suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That's the controversial new vision of James Lovelock, the independent British scientist best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, and Chris Rapley, a space physicist and director of London's Science Museum... [more]
Source : National Geographic

Disintegrating comet or asteroid 12,900 years ago exploded over North America

Blast from space may have wiped out early human culture
Woolly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats and dozens of other species of "megafauna" may have become extinct when a disintegrating comet or asteroid exploded over North America with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs, the blast, which the researchers believe occurred 12,900 years ago, may have also doomed a mysterious early human culture - known as Clovis people - while triggering a planetwide cooldown that wiped out the plant species that sustained many outsize ice age beasts... [more]
Source : IHT

Coffee and paracetamol mixing could cause liver damage

Warning Over Coffee And Paracetamol Mix
Consuming large amounts of caffeine while taking paracetamol could increase liver damage, according to a new study. Scientists found that caffeine triples the amount of a toxic by-product created when paracetamol is broken down... [more]
Source : Sky News

Silent Guardian, US army's ray weapon

The ray-gun is coming, US army's new secret weapon
When turned on, it emits an invisible, focused beam of radiation - similar to the microwaves in a domestic cooker - that are tuned to a precise frequency to stimulate human nerve endings. It can throw a wave of agony nearly half a mile. Because the beam penetrates skin only to a depth of 1/64th of an inch, it cannot, says Raytheon, cause visible, permanent injury... [more]
Source : Daily Mail

Climate change biggest security risk, says Australia's top cop

Climate 'to be bigger threat than terror'
Climate change, not terrorism, will be the main security issue of the century, with potential to cause death and destruction on an unprecedented scale, Australia's top policeman believes. In a surprise foray into the politics of global warming, Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty described how climate refugees "in their millions" could create a national security emergency for Australia... [more]
Source : The Australian

Finding that could lead to the development of medications against obesity

Brain System Serves as 'Remote Control' for Fat Metabolism
A system in the brain already known to regulate food intake also serves as a direct “remote control” for the way fat is stored and metabolized in the body, say University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers.

The finding, the researchers report, could lead to the development of new and urgently needed medications to treat the growing, worldwide obesity epidemic... [more]

Source : University of Cincinnati

In September 1983 the world was closer to doomsday than it ever was

24 years on - The man who saved millions of lives
It was a cold night at the Serpukhov-15 bunker in Moscow on 26 September 1983 as Strategic Rocket Forces lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov resumed his duty, monitoring the skies of the Soviet Union, after taking a shift of someone else who couldn't go to work. Just past midnight, Petrov received a computer report he'd dreaded all his military career to see, the computer captured a nuclear military missile being launched from the US, destination Moscow... [more]
Source : MaltaStar

Reproductive process on the laboratory, banking ovarian tissue samples

Clinics to grow human eggs
A major advance in fertility treatment is signalled today as doctors unveil details of a technique that will allow human eggs to be grown in the laboratory from ovarian tissue samples. It would allow career women, or those waiting to meet the right partner, to delay motherhood for years... [more]
Source : Telegraph

Biofuels could increase global warming

Biofuels could boost global warming, finds study
Growing and burning many biofuels may actually raise rather than lower greenhouse gas emissions, a new study led by Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen has shown. The findings come in the wake of a recent OECD report, which warned nations not to rush headlong into growing energy crops because they cause food shortages and damage biodiversity... [more]
Source : Royal Society of Chemistry

Personal genome sequence on a miniature hard drive

Personal Genomes: Mainstream In Five Years, But Who Should Have Access?
Imagine this: you visit your clinician, undergo genetic testing, and then you are handed a miniature hard drive containing your personal genome sequence, which is subsequently uploaded onto publicly accessible databases. This may sound like science fiction, but it is scientific fact - the genomes of Nobel laureate James Watson and scientist Craig Venter were both published earlier this year -and the medical technology is moving at lightning speed... [more]
Source : University of Alberta

New drugs that can keep cells from dying

A Fountain of Youth in Mitochondria?
A recently discovered cell survival switch could be key to increasing longevity. Cranking up an enzyme in a cell's powerhouse--the mitochondria--makes the cell resilient to stress and death, according to a study... [more]
Source : Technology Review

Electricity and heating from McDonald's waste

McDonald's waste to power buildings
Buildings such as hospitals and theatres will be powered by rubbish from McDonald's restaurants in a new pilot scheme. The scheme will save each restaurant from sending 100 tonnes of refuse to landfill each year and could be rolled out across the country... [more]
Source : Channel 4 News

Concentrating the sun's power to provide all of the electricity of the U.S.

Sunny Outlook: Can Sunshine Provide All U.S. Electricity?
Large amounts of solar-thermal electric supply may become a reality if steam storage technology works—and new transmission infrastructure is built. In the often cloudless American Southwest, the sun pours more than eight kilowatt-hours per square meter of its energy onto the landscape... [more]
Source : Scientific American

Anna Goeldi victim of witch hunt

Europe's last witch-hunt
Fear and superstition fuelled witch-hunts all over Europe in the Middle Ages and caused the deaths of many innocent women. The last execution for witchcraft took place little more than 200 years ago but campaigners in Switzerland claim it may be time to clear Anna Goeldi's name... [more]
Source : BBC

Stem cells from adult testes could replace embryonic stem cells

Stem cells in adult testes provide alternative to embryonic stem cells for organ regeneration
Easily accessed and plentiful, adult stem cells found in a male patient's testicles might someday be used to create a wide range of tissue types to help him fight disease -- getting around the need for more controversial
embryonic stem cells... [more]
Source : Physorg

Online Pharmacies: Buyers Beware

No prescription, no problem
It's surprisingly easy to purchase drugs online, a new study finds, but what you're promised may not be what you get. For between $64 and $140, the researchers acquired pills claiming to be an array of drugs popular with online buyers, including the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, the painkiller Tramadol, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, the anti-obesity drug Meridia and the tranquillizer Valium... [more]
Source : The Globe and Mail

Brazil and Banco Santander

'Republic of Santander' in Lula's Brazil
Brazil's trade minister is a former executive at Banco Santander SA. So is the man who oversees the country's monetary policy. Spain's biggest bank spent 1.8 million reais ($948,000) to back President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign in 2002. Now Santander is bidding for ABN Amro Holding NV's Brazilian unit to double its size in Latin America's largest economy. The deal would make Santander the biggest non-state bank in Brazil, ahead of Banco Itau Holding Financeira SA...[more]
Source : Bloomberg

Detecting deception, new lie detectors

Lie detectors, testing times
Lie detectors have never been so widely used. Claim on your insurance or apply for housing benefit, and you could find yourself having to satisfy a piece of machinery as well as a human inquisitor. But can the results be trusted?... [more]
Source : Guardian

American food exports piling up on chinese warehouses

China steps up scrutiny of U.S. food, delaying shipments
China has sharply increased inspections of imported U.S. food, escalating a dispute with Washington over product safety and leaving American beef piling up in warehouses and delaying shipments of black pepper and other goods. Authorities who used to inspect as little as 5 percent of imported goods now check every shipment of American poultry, snack foods and other products, companies and trade groups say... [more]
Source : IHT

Invention that creates more energy than put into it

How a miracle tube could halve heating bills
It sounds too good to be true - not to mention the fact that it violates almost every known law of physics. But British scientists claim they have invented a revolutionary device that seems to 'create' energy from virtually nothing. Their so-called thermal energy cell could soon be fitted into ordinary homes, halving domestic heating bills and making a major contribution towards cutting carbon emissions... [more]
Source : Daily Mail

Cargo ships smoke plumes cooling effect

Shipping smoke trails cool the atmosphere
Particles found in smoke plumes produced by cargo ships have been found to have a surprising cooling effect on the Earth's atmosphere. The results may alter predictions for future climate change, although some experts note that the effect is likely to be short lived, and so outweighed by the release of CO₂ in the same plumes... [more]
Source : NewScientist

Viktor Bout, illegal arms trader

Victor Bout 'Merchant of Death' still on the run
Born in Tajikistan of Russian parents, Bout came to prominence in the late 1990s for arming brutal civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola — the wars that introduced the phrase “blood diamond” into our vocabularies. A new book on Victor Bout by American journalists Doug Farah and Stephen Braun contains allegations that the Russian had a much wider remit than just Africa. The authors describe a hydra-headed network of companies which emerged from the ashes of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s - all of them associated in some way, the book says, with Mr Bout... [more] & [more]
Source : BBC & Free Times

Metrosexuals repulsed by macho advertisements

Macho advertisements are putting feminine men off products, research says
Marlboro Man, or his current macho billboard equivalent, is putting off metrosexuals from buying products, research shows. A new study shows that men with characteristics such as sensitivity and tenderness are put off products promoted by advertisements featuring squared-jawed hunks, preferring those featuring more feminine looking male models instead... [more]
Source : University of Bath

The Dark Web project to analyze extremist activities online

Scientists Use 'Dark Web' To Snag Extremists And Terrorists Online
Terrorists and extremists have set up shop on the Internet, using it to recruit new members, spread propaganda and plan attacks across the world. The size and scope of these dark corners of the Web are vast and disturbing. This is where the Dark Web project comes in. Using advanced techniques such as Web spidering, link analysis, content analysis, authorship analysis, sentiment analysis and multimedia analysis, Chen and his team can find, catalogue and analyze extremist activities online. According to Chen, scenarios involving vast amounts of information and data points are ideal challenges for computational scientists, who use the power of advanced computers and applications to find patterns and connections where humans can not... [more]
Source : National Science Foundation

German frustration with French leader mounts

Merkel To Sarkozy: Hands Off
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that she does not relish being kissed and pawed every time she meets France's Nicolas Sarkozy. The French President has cultivated a touchy-feeling relationship with his German counterpart, tutoyer-ing and embracing her like a long-lost friend since even before he became President. Frau Merkel - a studious East German minister's daughter - appears to have put up with the Latin Sarkozy's affections at the outset, but has become increasingly weary of his affections... [more]
Source : Eursoc

Americans are now too fat for many cars' carrying capacity

Car weight limits are a big problem for fat Americans
Some motorists may be too big for their cars. The growing girth of Americans is colliding with government-mandated warning labels on all 2006 or newer cars that list the maximum weight — passengers and cargo — that's safe to carry... [more]
Source : USA TODAY

Magnetic Refrigeration, Quiet and Environmentally Friendly

Researchers are developing the power free refrigerator
Danish researchers are developing a technology to cool food, houses and vehicles by means of a magnetic cooling system. The perspective is energy efficient, environmentally and almost noiseless cooling. An ordinary magnet may be the answer to the question of how the world is to keep cool in times when global warming is about to increase the world market for coolness... [more]
Source : Copenhagen Capacity

Pet custody and animal rights

Lawyer for the dog
Inside the booming field of animal law, in which animals have their own interests -- and their own lawyers. Pet custody disputes have become an increasingly common fixture in divorce cases... [more]
Source : The Boston Globe

Pollution : Health hazard for joggers

Pollution: Dangerous to Joggers
Living in a bustling, vibrant city can certainly expose you to a lot of things, not the least of which is air pollution. Tiny particulates in the air have always been a risk for the lungs, setting off respiratory illness like asthma and emphysema, and researchers from Scotland now report that the heavily contaminated air in urban areas could also be hazardous to the heart... [more]
Source : Time

Shrinking Kilogram Bewilders Physicists

Reference kilo shows mysterious weight loss
The accurate weight of a kilogram has been thrown into confusion after the international prototype for the metric mass has mysteriously started losing weight. The 118-year-old cylinder prototype, kept under lock and key outside Paris, has lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, Paris, said they currently can't explain the shrinkage... [more]
Source : The Sun

The Diamond synchrotron, a light source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun

'Super-scope' to see hidden texts
The hidden content in ancient works could be illuminated by a light source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun. The technique employs Britain's new facility, the Diamond synchrotron, and could be used on works such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or musical scores by Bach. Intense light beams will enable scientists to uncover the text in scrolls and books without having to open - and potentially damage - them... [more]
Source : BBC

Quantum threat to our secret data

Quantum computers threaten security
Quantum computers could soon be used to break the codes and encryption systems that protect private data used by businesses and banks. The computers, which can run a routine called Shor's algorithm, could have profound consequences for the way information is protected in the future, it is claimed... [more] & [more]
Source : The Press Association & RxPG

Chocoholics, addiction to chocolate

Chocolate Addiction due to Sugar and Fat, New Study Finds
Evidence and logic, however, find little support for this. Substances present in chocolate which have been highlighted as potentially pharmacologically significant include serotonin, tryptophan, phenylethylamine, tyramine and cannabinoids. However, many of these compounds exist in higher concentrations in other foods with less appeal than chocolate... [more]
Source : University of Bristol

Russian army tests the father of all bombs

Russia tests 'world's biggest vacuum bomb'
Russia tested the world's most powerful air-delivered vacuum bomb that generates a shockwave similar to a nuclear blast, the armed forces said, as the country moves to reassert its global military power. The bomb is ``comparable to a nuclear weapon in its power and efficiency,'' Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said on state television. Unlike a nuclear bomb, it doesn't leave radioactive contamination, he added... [more]
Source : Bloomberg

Death of a gifted parrot

Death of Alex, the parrot that learnt to count and communicate
Alex, the world renowned African Grey parrot made famous by the ground-breaking cognition and communication research conducted by Brandeis scientist Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., died at the age of 31 on September 6, 2007. Dr. Pepperberg’s pioneering research resulted in Alex learning elements of English speech to identify 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities up to and including 6 and a zero-like concept... [more]
Source : ScienceMode

Allergies : The hygiene hypothesis

The hygiene hypothesis: Are cleanlier lifestyles causing more allergies for kids?
A little dirt never hurt. But in today’s super-clean world, vaccinations, anti-bacterial soaps, and airtight doors and windows are keeping dirt and disease-causing germs at bay. While staying germ-free can prevent the spread of disease and infections, leading a cleanlier lifestyle may be responsible for an increase in allergies among children... [more]
Source : University of Michigan

French legal dossier investigating the 1997 car crash of Princess Diana missing

Princess Diana Legal Dossier Has Disappeared
The inquiry into the death of late British royal Diana, Princess Of Wales, has suffered a setback - the French legal dossier investigating the 1997 car crash has gone missing. A spokesman for the Paris central court building confirms, "The paperwork is not immediately available."... [more]
Source : The Post Chronicle

A new Chinese export: higher prices

Fixing Chinese goods will be costly
For years, American consumers have enjoyed falling prices for goods made in China thanks to relentless cost cutting by retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. But the spate of product recalls in recent months -- Mattel announced another last week -- has exposed deep fault lines in Chinese manufacturing. Manufacturers and analysts say some of the quality breakdowns are a result of financially strapped factories substituting materials or taking other shortcuts to cover higher operating costs... [more]
Source : Los Angeles Times

China : Post-Mao era sees revival of 'second wives' tradition

Concubine culture brings trouble for China's bosses
China's concubines have struck again. A corrupt senior official in Shaanxi province has been brought down by his 11 mistresses, according to reports in the state media yesterday. According to one recent survey, 90% of the senior officials convicted of serious corruption in the past five years kept mistresses.
In many cases, they are accused of abusing their positions to make enough money to shower their lovers with gifts... [more]
Source : Guardian

Belgium could be divided

Cracks appear in Belgium’s long marriage
A collapse of trust between Dutch-speaking and French-speaking Belgian politicians is fuelling support for the country to split. King Albert II cut short his holiday to make a dramatic plea for national unity, but not even his intervention has stopped Belgians from thinking the unthinkable: would the two squabbling halves of their country be better off apart?... [more]
Source : Timesonline

PACMAN USED TO STUDY FEAR

The video game PacMan has been used to investigate fear - by giving electric shocks
A version of the iconic video game Pac Man that delivers electric shocks to players has been used to investigate how fear affects the brain. Researchers found that the closer the gamers got to danger, the more they simply acted on instinct... [more]
Source : Daily Mail

Devices powered by living cells could lead to new types of robots

Machines Powered by Heart Muscles
Researchers at Harvard University have made several small mechanical devices powered by heart muscle harvested from rats. The mechanical devices include pumps, a device that "walks," and one that swims.
The scientists made the novel machines to study the behavior of muscles and provide a platform for testing heart drugs. But one day these devices could be used as parts of new types of robots that can change shape... [more]
Source : Technology Review

Stem cells to grow replacement cartilage

Embryonic Stem Cells Used To Grow Cartilage
Bioengineers have developed a new technique for growing cartilage from human embryonic stem cells, a method that could be used to grow replacement cartilage for the surgical repair of knee, jaw, hip and other joints... [more]
Source : Rice University

ARJ21 The first commercial aircraft, cockpit and fuselage made in China

China displays a mock-up of its new regional jetliner
The China Aviation Industry Corporation 1, a minnow in aircraft manufacturing, drew a steady stream of visitors curious to take a look inside a mock-up of its most ambitious project: a regional jetliner for the domestic and international markets now being developed at a factory in Shanghai. The ARJ21, the designation given to the aircraft, has yet to go on its maiden test flight. That is due to come in March next year. The mock-up at the Asian Aerospace show in Hong Kong was of only the cockpit and part of the fuselage... [more]
Source : IHT

France, conflict about energy and competition

In France, energy control becomes patriotic
The battlefield is almost ready for the French President's first collision with Brussels, and Nicolas Sarkozy has prepared his artillery to deliver the first barrage. This conflict is about energy and markets, about competition, state intervention and industrial policy. The European Commission wants to rip apart the continent's giant utilities, force them to divest the networks of pipelines and power grids that allow incumbent firms to maintain their grip on customers and markets. Neelie Kroes, the Competition Commissioner, wants to declare open season, hoping it will drop prices, but France is moving in the other direction... [more]
Source : The Globe and Mail