Posts
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
SCIENCE VIDEOS: Hih-Speed Robot Hand (Ishikawa Komuro´s Lab)
Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation.
For more information, see Hizook.com -- http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/08/03...
Friday, 21 August 2009
Twisting and Turning DNA to Build Tools for the Body (International Herald Tribune; 13.08.09)
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cance Institute and Harvard University have taken a step toward creating parts for molecular machines out of DNA. In a paper in Science, Hendrik Dietz, now with the Technical University of Munich, Shawn M. Douglas and William H. Shih describe twisting and curving DNA into shapes using strands of DNA that self-assemble into rigid bundles, with the individual double helixes joined by strong cross-links. Manipulating the base pairs in the helixes causes the bundles to bend in a specific direction. The goal is to build a machine that could, say, deliver a drug to a precise spot in the body. Henry Fountain
A 12-tooth gear, at about one-tenth of a micrometer, assembled from strands of DNA. Science/AAS
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Saturday, 15 August 2009
The Many Musketeers - One for all, all for one: Paulson, Kashari, Rubin, Goldman Sachs, etc.
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Bush's Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, was chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs before he joined the government in 2006. He used to be the Goldman CEO and spent $85 billion to buy a failing insurance giant that happened to owe his former firm a lot of money.
Paulson appointed former Goldman Sachs vice-president, Neel Kashkari, to decide who got the bailout money as head of the Office of Financial Stability. Kashkari, in turn, appointed Reuben Jeffery, a Managing Partner at Goldman Sachs, as interim chief investment officer.
Other important players in the Treasury were Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C Forst, and Robert K Steel, all Goldman people. Goldman executives at the key New York Federal Reserve Bank were also involved in the bailout discussions,
including Stephen Friedman, the head of the board of governors.
Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, who did so much to prepare the ground for the collapse of 2008, was CEO at Goldman Sachs. Rubin, the Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, was also named in Obama's interim team.
Two of Rubin's 'protégés', Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, were appointed by Obama to decide his economic policy. Goldman Sachs paid Summers $135,000 for a single day's 'appearance' in 2008. Geithner, a former executive of Kissinger Associates and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, appointed Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson, as his chief of staff at the Treasury.
Who was the biggest single private donor to Obama's election campaign? Goldman Sachs.
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Bush's Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, was chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs before he joined the government in 2006. He used to be the Goldman CEO and spent $85 billion to buy a failing insurance giant that happened to owe his former firm a lot of money.
Paulson appointed former Goldman Sachs vice-president, Neel Kashkari, to decide who got the bailout money as head of the Office of Financial Stability. Kashkari, in turn, appointed Reuben Jeffery, a Managing Partner at Goldman Sachs, as interim chief investment officer.
Other important players in the Treasury were Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C Forst, and Robert K Steel, all Goldman people. Goldman executives at the key New York Federal Reserve Bank were also involved in the bailout discussions,
including Stephen Friedman, the head of the board of governors.Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, who did so much to prepare the ground for the collapse of 2008, was CEO at Goldman Sachs. Rubin, the Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, was also named in Obama's interim team.
Two of Rubin's 'protégés', Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, were appointed by Obama to decide his economic policy. Goldman Sachs paid Summers $135,000 for a single day's 'appearance' in 2008. Geithner, a former executive of Kissinger Associates and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, appointed Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Mark Patterson, as his chief of staff at the Treasury.
Who was the biggest single private donor to Obama's election campaign? Goldman Sachs.
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Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Britain revealed as a dumper of toxic waste (The Times; July 18, 2009)
The Times
July 18, 2009
Ben Webster, Environment Editor, and Dom Phillips in São Paulo
Britain was accused yesterday of dumping toxic household and industrial waste in developing countries on two continents in breach of an international convention.
Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, ordered an investigation into two British companies linked to 90 shipping containers containing 1,400 tonnes of waste. They included syringes, condoms and nappies. The companies that received the waste — sent from Felixstowe to three Brazilian ports — said that they had been expecting recyclable plastic.
In a separate case, the Ministry of Defence was unable to explain how one of its computers was found by The Times on a notorious dump on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana. Children as young as 5 extract scrap metal from electrical items there and are exposed to potentially lethal chemicals.
Inspectors from Brazil’s environment agency, Ibama, found hospital waste in several containers, reportedly including bags of blood. Another container was full of dirty toys with a note in Portuguese saying they should be washed before being given to “poor Brazilian children”.
Ingrid Oberg, an Ibama official, who opened containers found in the port of Santos on national television news, said: “Whoever put this rubbish into the containers in the UK knew what they were doing and knew where they were going, so it is a criminal act. England needs to assume responsibility.”
Roberto Messias, Ibama’s president, said: “We will ask for the repatriation of this garbage. Clearly, Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world.” The agency said that it was considering taking action against two British companies it believed were connected to yesterday’s find — Worldwide Biorecyclables Ltd and UK Multiplas Recycling Ltd.
Mr Benn admitted that there could be weaknesses in the enforcement of rules on sending waste overseas, including a European directive banning the export of any electrical waste. Speaking to The Times about the discoveries in Brazil, he said: “If, having looked into this particular case, there are lessons that need to be learnt about enforcement, then we will do that.”
July 18, 2009
Ben Webster, Environment Editor, and Dom Phillips in São Paulo
Britain was accused yesterday of dumping toxic household and industrial waste in developing countries on two continents in breach of an international convention.
Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, ordered an investigation into two British companies linked to 90 shipping containers containing 1,400 tonnes of waste. They included syringes, condoms and nappies. The companies that received the waste — sent from Felixstowe to three Brazilian ports — said that they had been expecting recyclable plastic.
In a separate case, the Ministry of Defence was unable to explain how one of its computers was found by The Times on a notorious dump on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana. Children as young as 5 extract scrap metal from electrical items there and are exposed to potentially lethal chemicals.
Inspectors from Brazil’s environment agency, Ibama, found hospital waste in several containers, reportedly including bags of blood. Another container was full of dirty toys with a note in Portuguese saying they should be washed before being given to “poor Brazilian children”.
Ingrid Oberg, an Ibama official, who opened containers found in the port of Santos on national television news, said: “Whoever put this rubbish into the containers in the UK knew what they were doing and knew where they were going, so it is a criminal act. England needs to assume responsibility.”
Roberto Messias, Ibama’s president, said: “We will ask for the repatriation of this garbage. Clearly, Brazil is not a big rubbish dump of the world.” The agency said that it was considering taking action against two British companies it believed were connected to yesterday’s find — Worldwide Biorecyclables Ltd and UK Multiplas Recycling Ltd.
Mr Benn admitted that there could be weaknesses in the enforcement of rules on sending waste overseas, including a European directive banning the export of any electrical waste. Speaking to The Times about the discoveries in Brazil, he said: “If, having looked into this particular case, there are lessons that need to be learnt about enforcement, then we will do that.”
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Early Britons May Have Been Cannibals (The Times; 08.08.09)
Early Britons could have been cannibals, research has suggested. Cut marks made by a stone tool, and a fracture, were noticed on a 9,000-year-old human arm bone found in 1866 in Kent´s Cavern, Devon. Rich Schulting, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford, said: "The location of the fracture is where the cut would be made if dismemberment had taken place. The fact the markings are all in the same place indicates they were made to remove muscle attachments from the bone while it was still ´fresh´."
The bone is part of an exhibition at Torquay Museum until September 6.
http://www.kents-cavern.co.uk/
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