Singapore Airlines ban sex on the A380

Sex ban on the Airbus A380
The A380 may have the world’s first airborne double bed, but it won’t be put to the obvious use if Singapore Airlines has its way: “If couples used our double beds to engage in inappropriate activity, we would politely ask them to desist,” said the company’s Stephen Forshaw. “There are things that are acceptable on an aircraft and things that aren’t, and the rules for behaviour in our double beds are the same ones that apply throughout the aircraft.”... [more]
Source : Timesonline

China exporting counterfeit drugs

Chinese Chemicals Flow Unchecked to Market
China has an estimated 80,000 chemical companies, and the United States Food and Drug Administration does not know how many sell ingredients used in drugs consumed by Americans.
At their worst, uncertified chemical companies contribute to China’s notoriety as the world’s biggest supplier of counterfeit drugs, which include unauthorized copies as well as substandard, even harmful, formulations... [more]
Source : Newyork Times

Key Aids strain came from Haiti

Study shows AIDS came to the U.S. via Haiti, and earlier than thought
A genetic analysis of 25-year-old blood samples has outlined a new map of the AIDS virus' journey out of Africa, showing that today's most widespread subtype first emerged in Haiti in the 1960s and arrived in the U.S. a few years later. The analysis fills in a gap in the history of the virus, whose migration has been known in only a sketchy form from its origin in Africa in the 1930s to its first detection in Los Angeles in 1981... [more]
Source : Los Angeles Times

Italy, Canneto di Caronia : Aliens blamed for fires

Aliens caused Sicily fires, say officials
Aliens were responsible for a series of unexplained fires in fridges, TV’s and mobile phones in an Italian village, according to an Italian government report. Canneto di Caronia, in northern Sicily, drew attention three years ago after residents reported everyday household objects bursting into flames... [more]
Source : Telegraph

Irregular warfare

After smart weapons, smart soldiers
Irregular warfare may keep Western armies busy for decades.
They will have to adapt if they are to overcome the odds that history suggests they are up against... [more]
Source : The Economist

Where the debate on race and intelligence is taking us

The study of mankind's genetic variations is revolutionising our understanding of human origins
One controversial study published two years ago investigated geographical differences in genes that are thought to be involved in brain development.
Bruce Lahn, a Chinese-born American at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute within Chicago University, analysed DNA variations in the genes microcephalin and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM).
Both appeared to have undergone rapid evolution during the millions of years of primate evolution that led to the human lineage.
Could these genes help to explain alleged differences in human intelligence?... [more]
Source : Independent

Ming the clam the oldest living animal

Scientists dredge up longest-lived creature, a 400-year-old clam
A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived creature discovered.
Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity... [more] & [more]
Source : BBC & Bangor university

Venice of the East Bangkok is sinking

Rising seas, sinking land threaten Thai capital
Waters, aided by sinking land, threaten to submerge Thailand's sprawling capital of more than 10 million people within this century. Bangkok is one of 13 of the world's largest 20 cities at risk of being swamped as sea levels rise in coming decades... [more]
Source : CNN

Communication signal between single bacterial cells

Researchers discovers how bacteria 'chat'
The discovery by Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School researchers of a communication factor that makes it possible for bacteria to "talk to each other" and causes their death could lead to development of a new class of antibiotics...[more]
Source : The Jerusalem Post

Dr Venter : worries about synthetic organisms are unfounded

Synthetic life 'no terror threat'
Synthetic biology can help in the fight against emerging infections, rather than aid the design of bioweapons, controversial scientist Craig Venter has told... [more]
Source : BBC

Scientists find a way to grow eyeballs in the lab

Accidental Discovery Could Lead to Creation of Human Eyes in a Lab
An accidental discovery could pave the way to one day coaxing stem cells to develop into human eyes in the lab... [more] & [more]
Source : Scientific American & University of Warwick

Angry mobs burning brothels in Bolivia

Prostitutes Strike in Bolivia
As of Wednesday morning, Bolivia’s "night-workers" are on strike. Up to 35,000 prostitutes across the country have refused to report for the medical checkups required every 20 days to legally work the streets. By continuing to serve clients without ensuring they're disease-free, the sex-workers' action raises the risk to public health. It comes in response to attacks in the city of El Alto last week in which citizens burned brothels and beat sex-workers in protest against legal prostitution... [more]
Source : Time

Positive events reflected on brain scans

Source of ‘optimism’ found in the brain
Two regions of the brain linked to optimism have been discovered by researchers. The identification of the sites that signal positive thinking could shed light on the causes of depression, they say... [more]
Source : New Scientist

Possible Link Between Obesity and Viral Infections

Viral Infections May Be Linked To Obesity
Experts don't dispute the important role that diet and activity play in maintaining a healthy weight. But can poor eating habits and a less active lifestyle fully explain the prevalence of obesity in the United States today? That question has led some researchers to ask whether there might be other causes for this serious problem. There are other factors at play, and viruses causing obesity may be one of them... [more]
Source : Mayo Clinic

China selling Israeli technology to Iran

Iran acquiring fighter jets that are based on Israeli technology
Iran has signed a deal with China to purchase 24 J-10 fighter jets between 2008 and 2010, Russian news agency Novosti reported. The jets were developed based on the technology of Israel's Lavi fighter jet, whose technology was sold to China against the wishes of the US... [more]
Source : The Jerusalem Post

Fish awake to the benefits of sleep

The longstanding puzzle of whether fish can sleep has been solved by a study that has shown they like a lie-in after a disturbed night
Researchers have now been able to show not just that the fish sleep, but that they can suffer from sleep deprivation and insomnia. By repeatedly disturbing the fish using mild electric shocks, researchers were able to keep the popular aquarium species awake at night... [more]
Source : The Australian

Virus-Built Electronics

A new way to fabricate nanomaterials could mean batteries and solar cells woven into clothing
In high concentrations the viruses tend to organize themselves, lining up side by side to form an orderly pattern. The viruses can be genetically engineered to bind to and organize inorganic materials such as those used in battery electrodes, transistors, and solar cells. The programmed viruses coat themselves with the materials and then, by aligning with other viruses, assemble into crystalline structures useful for making high-­performance devices... [more]
Source : Technology Review

USA : Turkeys take to cities, towns

Turkeys, once unseen in Massachusetts,are showing up in big numbers in cities and towns
The turkeys are spreading through suburbia. Wild turkeys, once eliminated in Massachusetts, are flourishing from Plymouth to Concord and - to the surprise of some wildlife officials - making forays into densely populated suburban and urban areas, including parts of Boston, Cambridge and, most recently, Brookline... [more]
Source : The Boston Globe

Harmful Biofuels

Environment: Biofuels - Great Green Hope or Swindle
Not only do most forms of biofuel production do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, growing biofuel crops uses up precious water resources, increasing the size and extent of dead zones in the oceans, boosting use of toxic pesticides and deforestation in tropical countries... [more]
Source : IPS News

AIDS : Combination therapy’ prevents the HIV virus from mutating and spreading

Researchers knock out HIV
With the latest advances in treatment, doctors have discovered that they can successfully neutralise the HIV virus. The so-called ‘combination therapy’ prevents the HIV virus from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population. To date, it represents the most significant treatment for patients suffering from HIV... [more]
Source : University Of Copenhagen

Playing God with the weather

Scientists a step closer to steering hurricanes
Scientists have made a breakthrough in man's desire to control the forces of nature – unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina... [more]
Source : Telegraph

Seeing through a child's eyes can help parents

Young toddlers think in terms of the whole object, not just parts
Seeing through a child's eyes can help parents better introduce new words to young toddlers. Young toddlers learn language, they are more likely to focus on objects rather than parts. Because of this bias, children automatically assume you are talking about an object.
So, when labeling more than just an object, adults need to do something special such as pointing at the part while saying its word or explaining what the item does."... [more]
Source : Purdue University

Moonstruck corals

Sexy corals keep 'eye' on moon, scientists say
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even lowly corals do it — but infrequently, forgoing sex for as long as a year. Scientists discovered the mysterious rite of procreation in 1981 and ever since have puzzled over its details. The moon clearly rules the synchronized mass spawning, which happens during different months in different parts of the globe, but usually in the summer.
Seven scientists from Australia, Israel and the United States report in the journal Science that corals have primitive photoreceptors, if not true eyes. In experiments, they found that the photosensitive chemicals respond to moonlight as admirably as, well, human lovers... [more]
Source : IHT

Did 'Mona Lisa' once have eyebrows?

High resolution image hints at 'Mona Lisa's' eyebrows
The "Mona Lisa" has long been shrouded in mystery, including one long-standing question about the famous lady: What happened to her eyebrows and eyelashes? Now, a French engineer and inventor says he's uncovered part of the enigma... [more]
Source : CNN

Trees with rabbit genes accelerate cleaning of soil

Mutants or saviors? Rabbit genes create trees that eat poisons
Scientists create transgenic poplars that neutralize toxins quickly. Super trees that suck up and destroy toxic chemicals from the air and water faster than regular trees are the latest creation by scientists at the University of Washington. The scientists stick a rabbit gene into poplar trees, the trees become dramatically better at eliminating a dozen kinds of pollutants commonly found on poisoned properties... [more]
Source : Seattle Post Intelligencer

A new type of contraceptive

Gene silencing could 'turn off' fertility
A gene-silencing technique that stops sperm binding to eggs might one day translate into an entirely new type of contraceptive, say researchers. The approach would avoid the harmful side-effects of hormonal birth control... [more]
Source : NewScientist

Support waning for Sarkozy

France : Is Nicolas Sarkozy's honeymoon over?
Five months into Sarkozy's presidency, a sense of unease and discontent is surfacing - not just among Sarkozy's opponents but even within the corridors of the French government and Sarkozy's governing Union for a Popular Movement party. He has incurred the wrath of loyalists in his conservative camp by giving high-level jobs to political personalities on the left. He has ruffled the feathers of some of his own ministers by contradicting them in public and sometimes even doing their jobs for them... [more]
Source : IHT

Oxytocin critically important for the development of maternal bond

Level Of Oxytocin In Pregnant Women Predicts Mother-child Bond
Humans are hard-wired to form enduring bonds with others. One of the primary bonds across the mammalian species is the mother-infant bond. Evolutionarily speaking, it is in a mother’s best interest to foster the well-being of her child; however, some mothers just seem a bit more maternal than others do. Now, new research points to a hormone that predicts the level of bonding between mother and child... [more]
Source : Science Daily

Poor cabin air quality culprit : body oils

Skin oil – ozone interactions worsen air quality in airplanes
Airline passengers and crews who gripe about poor cabin air quality could have a new culprit to blame: the oils on their skin, hair and clothing. A study in the current issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology suggests interactions between body oils and ozone found in airplane cabins could lead to the formation of chemical byproducts that might worsen nasal irritation, headaches, dry eyes and lips, and other common air traveler complaints... [more]
Source : American Chemical Society

People with genetically lower dopamine would overeat

EATING TO LIVE, LIVING TO EAT: GENES MAY MAKE SOME PEOPLE MORE MOTIVATED TO EAT, PERHAPS OVEREAT
Science has found one likely contributor to the way that some folks eat to live and others live to eat. Researchers at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, have found that people with genetically lower dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps make behaviors and substances more rewarding, find food to be more reinforcing than people without that genotype. In short, they are more motivated to eat and they eat more... [more]
Source : American Psychological Association

The Chief Constable of North Wales want all drugs legalised

UK : Legalise all drugs: chief constable demands end to 'immoral laws'
One of Britain's most senior police officers is to call for all drugs – including heroin and cocaine – to be legalised and urges the Government to declare an end to the "failed" war on illegal narcotics. In his radical analysis, which he will present to the North Wales Police Authority today, Mr Brunstrom points out that illegal drugs are now cheaper and more plentiful than ever before... [more]
Source : Independent

Worse than a war, workplace deaths in Italy

'White deaths': Italy's secret shame
On Sunday, Italy's National Day for Work Victims, she will be speaking out once more about the plague of deaths that has been called "worse than a war" by the country's respected independent research institute, Eurispes. Eurispes calculates that more people died at their workplace in Italy between 2003 and 2006 than among coalition troops on the battlefield during the same period of the second Gulf War... [more]
Source : BBC

Thailand : The Burma Connection

Desperate Burmese Labor in Thailand
Every day, Burmese women cross the border into Thailand to work in the textile industry. The low-cost lingerie they make often ends up in U.S. stores -- under labels that say "Made in Thailand"... [more]
Source : WSJ

The Russian Business Network sells Web site hosting to people engaged in criminal activity, the security experts say

Shadowy Russian Firm Seen as Conduit for Cybercrime
An Internet business based in St. Petersburg has become a world hub for Web sites devoted to child pornography, spamming and identity theft, according to computer security experts. They say Russian authorities have provided little help in efforts to shut down the company... [more]
Source : Washington Post

Ahmadinejad and a Murder in Vienna

Iranian President's Hitman Past?
Vienna, 1989. Three leaders of an Iranian Kurdish group lie dead in an apartment. Outside, two Iranian agents drag their wounded colleague into the street. A man pulls up on a motorbike, exchanges words with the agents, and one mounts the bike. They speed off. Sixteen years later, a "Witness D" claims to have identified the man on the motorcycle as none other than Iran's controversial President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... [more] & [more]
Source : World politics review & Eurosoc

The metabolic system of the chocolate lover

Study finds that people are programmed to love chocolate
For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests.
The signature reads ‘chocolate lover’ in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others... [more]
Source : Physorg

A futuristic scheme to collect solar energy on satellites and beam it to Earth

Pentagon backs plan to beam solar power from space
Space-based solar power would use kilometre-sized solar panel arrays to gather sunlight in orbit. It would then beam power down to Earth in the form of microwaves or a laser, which would be collected in antennas on the ground and then converted to electricity. Unlike solar panels based on the ground, solar power satellites placed in geostationary orbit above the Earth could operate at night and during cloudy conditions... [more]
Source : NewScientist

Quantum teleportation

Just how close are we to teleportation?
Teleportation, long a staple of the world of science fiction -- what episode of Star Trek would be complete without Captain Kirk et al "beaming" off the Enterprise onto the surface of some distant planet? -- is being talked of as a serious scientific possibility. More than just talked of, indeed: over the last couple of years physicists working independently in Austria, Australia and Denmark have all achieved a rudimentary form of teleportation, albeit at the quantum level of atoms and photons rather than the macro level of objects and actual people... [more]
Source : CNN

Stress and Heart Disease

How Stress Harms the Heart
Researchers have long suspected that stress does the body harm, but bulletproof clinical evidence linking stress to heart attacks and other disease has been elusive — partly because stress is such a personal and variable thing. Only recently have such studies started to gather critical mass... [more]
Source : Time

Wealthier populations in India and China are shifting away from traditional meals

Rising Economic Growth in China, India Contributes to Food 'Inflation'
Dramatic economic growth in China and India has lifted millions of their citizens out of poverty and improved living standards. Such success, however, has some far-reaching consequences. The amount of food needed to meet the needs of wealthier populations contributes to volatile global agricultural prices.... [more]
Source : VOA

Astronomers Find Dust in the Wind of Black Holes

Dusty Winds Bursting Out Of Black Holes May Have Seeded Planets with life
New findings from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that space dust -- the same stuff that makes up living creatures and planets -- was manufactured in large quantities in the winds of black holes that populated our early universe. The findings are a significant new clue in an unsolved mystery: where did all the dust in the young universe originate?... [more]
Source : NASA The Spitzer Space Telescope

Kangaroo consumption urged by Greenpeace to curb greenhouse emissions

Australia : Greenpeace urges kangaroo consumption to fight global warmingMore kangaroos should be slaughtered and eaten to help save the world from global warming, environmental activists say. The controversial call to cut down on beef and serve more of the national symbol on dinner plates follows a report on curbing greenhouse gas emissionsdamaging the planet... [more]
Source : Herald and Weekly Times

A new way of collecting solar energy

Novel energy sources, heat from the street
Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best. To absorb heat from the sun efficiently—to use it, for example, to heat water—you need large, flat, black surfaces. One way to do that is to construct those surfaces specially, on the roofs of buildings. But why go to all that trouble when cities are full of black surfaces already, in the form of asphalted roads?... [more]
Source : Economist

Washed-up bales of drugs bring millions of dollars to poor fishing communities

Cocaine galore! Villagers live it up on profits from 'white lobster'
For the fishing villages scattered across these remote central American shores there was seldom reason to welcome visits from the outside world. But that was before the "white lobster", and before everything changed. Now the villagers rise at first light to scan the horizon in hope of seeing a very different type of intruder. What they are looking for, and what they have coyly euphemised, are big, bulging bags of Colombian cocaine. A combination of law enforcement, geography and ocean currents has washed tonnes of the drug, and millions of dollars, into what was one of the Caribbean's most desolate and isolated regions... [more]
Source : Guardian

World Bank, the real causes of prosperity

The Secrets of Intangible Wealth
A Mexican migrant to the U.S. is five times more productive than one who stays home. Why is that? The answer is not the obvious one: This country has more machinery or tools or natural resources. Instead, according to some remarkable but largely ignored research—by the World Bank, of all places—it is because the average American has access to over $418,000 in intangible wealth, while the stay-at-home Mexican's intangible wealth is just $34,000... [more]
Source : Reason Online

How boomers' failing taste buds are shaping the future of American food

Some like it hot
Why is hot so hot? The conventional explanation is that the nation has an increasingly adventurous palate.
But some food scientists and market researchers think there is a more surprising reason for the broad nationwide shift toward bolder flavors: The baby boomers, that huge, youth-chasing, all-important demographic, are getting old.
As they age, they are losing their ability to taste - and turning to spicier, higher-flavor foods to overcome their dulled senses... [more]
Source : The Boston Globe

Christopher Columbus's mysterious origins

Seeking Columbus's origins, with a swab
When schoolchildren turn to the chapter on Christopher Columbus's humble origins as the son of a weaver in Genoa, they are not generally told that he might instead have been born out of wedlock to a Portuguese prince. Or that he might have been a Jew whose parents converted to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Or a rebel in the medieval kingdom of Catalonia. In 2004, a Spanish geneticist, Dr. Jose Lorente, extracted genetic material from a cache of Columbus's bones in Seville to settle a dispute about where he was buried... [more]
Source : IHT

Network of plants

Plant Networks Can Send Warnings, Spread Viruses
Much like how humans now send instant messages to each other on the Internet, plants such as strawberry and clover can exchange information along linked networks, ongoing research suggests... [more]
Source : National Geographic

Archimedes lost work resurface on a prayer book

A long-lost text by the ancient Greek mathematician shows that he had begun to discover the principles of calculus
An intensive research effort over the last nine years has led to the decoding of much of the almost-obliterated Greek text. The results were more revolutionary than anyone had expected.
The researchers have discovered that Archimedes was working out principles that, centuries later, would form the heart of calculus and that he had a more sophisticated understanding of the concept of infinity than anyone had realized... [more]
Source : Science News

The Pelamis machines : The world's first commercial wavefarm

World’s First Commercial Wave Farm set to Open in Portugal
Portugal is poised to open what will be the world's first commercial wavefarm, and while the coastline's formidable surf will be a source of electricity, the engineers need a decent "weather window" to be able to get their machinery out to sea. The Pelamis machines, named after the Latin for sea snake and developed by a Scottish company that leads the world in one of the newest renewable energy fields, are a series of red tubes, each about the size of a small commuter train, linked together, and pointed in the direction of the waves. The waves travel down the tubes, causing them to bob up and down, and a hydraulic system harnesses this movement to generate electricity... [more]
Source : Next Energy News