Right Truth

11 years after, WTC debris still sifted for remains

NEW YORK — Loved ones of the 1,100 people whose remains haven't been found since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center are watching with interest as more debris from the site is sifted for bone fragments and other human remains.

Since Monday, employees from New York City's Office of Chief Medical Examiner have been spending weekdays at a landfill on Staten Island sifting through construction debris from the twin towers.

Employees are searching for bone fragments and other remains from the day when two hijacked commercial jets hit the buildings, taking the lives of almost 2,800 people. This is the fourth time since the attacks that the medical examiner's office is going through debris taken from the site, now home to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

This time the search uses a new technology that, the medical examiner's office says, could help it better analyze DNA. The office did not respond to questions via phone or e-mail about details on the new technology.

So far, workers have found 53 potential human remains since Monday, according to daily e-mailed statements from Ellen Borakove, director of public affairs for the medical examiner. The sifting process is expected to continue for eight to 10 weeks, Borakove's office said.  (continue at USA Today)

Women really do have smaller brains... but they use them more efficiently than men

Daily Mail UK:

Female brains are typically 8 per cent smaller

However they are more efficient at tracking changes and inductive reasoning

A woman’s works more efficiently than the man’s by using less energy and fewer brain cells to achieve the same, or even better results. 

It could be because while men have more of the bundles of brain cells essential for reasoning - neurons - the women have more connections between theirs, enabling quicker thinking despite having less grey matter.

The new research, carried out by University of California neuroscientists assisted by colleagues in Madrid, set out to question why women, with brains typically 8 per cent small than those of men, were of equal intelligence.

It focused on the section of the brain known as the hippocampus - vital for a useful memory and emotions.

In men, the larger the hippocampus, and the more neurons, the higher the intelligence.

But the researchers found that in women, a larger hippocampus, typically of course smaller than men’s, was no indication of greater intelligence - and even suggested that the smaller the hippocampus, the better.

The scientists carried out psychological tests on 59 women and 45 men aged from 18 to 27. 

In line with previous studies they found the women were better at inductive reasoning and tracking a changing situation, while the men showed greater prowess at spatial reasoning.  (continue at Daily Mail UK)

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Sally Ride, first American woman in space, dead at age 61

Sally Kristen Ride, (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012), inspired so many throughout her life.  She loved space.  She loved children.  She died too soon.  She died yesterday after a 17 month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Ride made history in 1983 as a crew member on the space shuttle Challenger, breaking the gender barrier for U.S. spaceflight. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, but it took another 20 years for NASA to follow suit. [snip]

Ride was a mission specialist on her first mission, STS-7, which put the Canadian Anik C-2 and the Indonesian Palapa B-1 communication satellites into orbit. In an 2008 interview timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the flight, Ride acknowledged that her status as the first American woman "carried huge expectations along with it."

"I didn't really think about it that much at the time ... but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space," she said.

Images of Mars... Exploring the final frontier and beyond

Doesn't look very inviting...  NASA presents incredible 360-view of Mars, taken by the agency's Opportunity rover, sample images below,  click here to see the super large, high-resolution version (it may take a few seconds to load) (hat tip SBYNews)

We might not be able to get there yet, but as NASA says, 'this is the next best thing'.

From fresh rover tracks to an impact crater blasted billions of years ago, a newly completed view from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the ruddy terrain where the voyaging robot spent the Martian winter.

This scene, recorded from the mast-mounted color camera includes the rover's own solar arrays and deck in the foreground, provides a sense of sitting on top of the rover and taking in the view.

A winter on Mars: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the ruddy terrain which the voyaging robot spent the Martian winter

A close-up of the left-hand-side of the image: The high-resolution picture is extremely detailed, and can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of the article

FROM THE HILLS TO THE VALLEYS: WHAT THIS IMAGE TELLS US ABOUT MARS

This full-circle scene combines 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. It shows the terrain that surrounded the rover while it was stationary for four months of work during its most recent Martian winter.

Opportunity's Pancam took the component images between the 2,811th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's Mars surface mission (Dec. 21, 2011) and Sol 2,947 (May 8, 2012).

Opportunity spent those months on a northward sloped outcrop, 'Greeley Haven,' which angled the rover's solar panels toward the sun low in the northern sky during southern hemisphere winter.

The outcrop's informal name is a tribute to Ronald Greeley (1939-2011), who was a member of the mission team and who taught generations of planetary scientists at Arizona State University, Tempe. The site is near the northern tip of the 'Cape York' segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.  (continue at Mail Online)

 

When I was a small child, I read a book in our school library -- can't remember the name of it now -- where two children become stowaways on a rocket ship headed to Mars.  It was an incredible story.  Using my imagination I could picture myself aboard that ship, sharing the adventures of those children, and eventually landing on Mars.  Books bring such joy to us, inspiring us to reach, plan, build, explore. 

The United States had their own space program soon thereafter.  Things only imagined suddenly became real possibilities.  We orbited space, we landed people on the moon, it truly was "Space, the final frontier".  Perhaps these images and the story behind them will stir the imagination of children today.  In spite of our current President Barack Obama and his clamp down on NASA, we can still have hope of exploring everything that is 'out there'.

Mermaids do not exist - it is now official.

According to the US government National Ocean Service, (NOAA) science has found no evidence that mermaids exist.  Why did they feel the need to address the topic of mermaids? 

Apparently at least two people had written to the agency asking about the creatures   after watching a May 2012 broadcast of Mermaids: The Body Found, on the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet network,   a work of fiction but its wink-and-nod format apparently led some viewers to believe it was a science education show,  according to the BBC .  (Sorry folks, it's just a costume)

I'm assuming these were two adults that made the inquiry, not children.  However it is no wonder kids are screwed up when the Discovery Channel presents myth as fact and kids grow up with annimated movies and video games that look better than real life.

Although we don't hear much about mermen, I'm assuming they are a myth too, or do we need the National Ocean Service to make a pronouncement about that too?  Perhaps do a study?

Here is a screen grab from the NOAA site:

 

Julius Robert Oppenheimer – father of the atom bomb

By Karen Holt, The Historic Examiner

The son of a German Jewish immigrant, Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904 in New York City.  His father, Julius Oppenheimer, immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1888 and made a fortune importing textiles.  His mother, Ella Friedman, was born in America and studied art in Paris. 

The family moved to an apartment on the eleventh floor of 155 Riverside Drive, near West 88th Street in Manhattan. In 1912, this area was known for luxurious mansions and town houses.  The art collection owned by the Oppenheimer family included pieces by Pablo Picasso and Édouard Vuillard, in addition to three original paintings by Vincent van Gogh.    (Julius Robert Oppenheimer Photo credit: atomicarchive.com)

Robert attended the Ethical Culture School throughout his primary and secondary years.  One who found great interest in foreign languages; Oppenheimer learned Greek, Latin and French, in addition to German and English. In later years, he would learn Dutch in six weeks as he prepared to present a technical speech in the Netherlands. 

Technology can now see what people are thinking. Be afraid

via The Economist:

For the moment, mind-reading is still science fiction. But that may not be true for much longer. Several lines of inquiry (see article) are converging on the idea that the neurological activity of the brain can be decoded directly, and people’s thoughts revealed without being spoken.

Just imagine the potential benefits. Such a development would allow both the fit and the disabled to operate machines merely by choosing what they want those machines to do. It would permit the profoundly handicapped—those paralysed by conditions such as motor-neuron disease and cerebral palsy—to communicate more easily than is now possible even with the text-based speech engines used by the likes of Stephen Hawking. It might unlock the mental prisons of people apparently in comas, who nevertheless show some signs of neural activity. For the able-bodied, it could allow workers to dictate documents silently to computers simply by thinking about what they want to say. The most profound implication, however, is that it would abolish the ability to lie.

Who could object to that? Thou shalt not bear false witness. Tell the truth, and shame the Devil. Transparency, management-speak for honesty, is put forward as the answer to most of today’s ills. But the truth of the matter—honestly—is that this would lead to disaster, for lying is at the heart of civilisation. (continue reading at The Economist, hat tip Marcus Wilder)

I don't believe anyone wants the rest of the world to read their every thought.  Feelings would be hurt, secrets would be secret no more.  I seem to remember episodes of the Twilight Zone where a man could suddenly read minds, it did not end well.  I also remember an episode of the original Star Trek where alien minds had advanced to the point they no longer could speak verbally and communicates only by reading minds.  Sounds like a terrible future. Remember, it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature. 

As the above article states, "Information technology already means that physical privacy has become a scarce commodity. Websites track your interests and purchases. Mobile phones give away your location. Video cameras record what you are up to. Lose mental privacy as well, and there really will be nowhere to hide.".  Not exactly mind reading, but a start in that direction.

 

Bulletproof Skin

A bio-art project to create bulletproof skin has given a Utah State researcher even more hope his genetically engineered spider silk can be used to help surgeons heal large wounds and create artificial tendons and ligaments.

Researcher Randy Lewis and his collaborators gained worldwide attention recently when they found a commercially viable way to manufacture silk fibers using goats and silkworms that had spider genes inserted into their makeup.

Spider silk is one of the strongest fibers known and five times stronger than steel. Lewis' fibers are not that strong but much stronger than silk spun by ordinary worms.

With Lewis' help, Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi conducted an experiment weaving a lattice of human skin cells and silk that was capable of stopping bullets fired at reduced speeds. 

(Image: AP.  This undated high-speed camera image provided by Jalila Essaidi shows a .22 caliber bullet hitting but not breaking the “bulletproof” skin...  )  (continue reading at YahooNews)

Imagine the possibilities!

Bristol Bay mine project means jobs for Alaska natives

Via Beth at Blue Star Chronicles:

Environmental groups have been arguing for months that Alaska Natives don’t want the new Pebble Mine. They have also latched onto fishery groups with a bogus argument about crippling the salmon runs in the Bristol Bay area. The truth is, there are no facts to the environmentalists’ claims. Finally, we have heard from an Alaska Native who wants the public to know that we do not have to choose one or the other. In a Letter to the Editor of the Oregonian, Greg Anelon, says we can have both:

Too many Alaska natives are unemployed. Too many Alaska natives live without a year-round economy. Too many Alaska natives face significant social challenges. Visit us in the middle of winter and see for yourself. The Pebble project represents too many benefits for the people of Southwest Alaska to simply say "no" before having all the information.

Anelon takes a common-sense approach to the issues raised by the environmental activists who would prevent the mine and jobs attached to it before it even grows legs. Please help us share Greg’s voice across the blogosphere and online networks. His perspective needs to be heard.

• Read the full op-ed here: Bristol Bay mine project means jobs for Alaska natives
• Learn more at ResourcefulEarthNews.org here.

 

 

150 human-animal hybrid embryos grown secretly in UK labs

Shades of movies like Splice and the Island of Dr. Moreau, scientists create human-animal hybrid embryos apparently for the sole purpose of extracting stem cells from the creatures, or possibly growing replacement organs.  In 2010 Ohio State Senator Kris Jordan, a Republican who reps Ohio's 19th district, introduce Senate Bill 94 which would ban the creation of human-animal hybrids and was mocked by some for his efforts.  Arizona also passed a similar bill.  Meanwhile in the UK:

Scientists have created more than 150 human-animal hybrid embryos in British laboratories.

The hybrids have been produced secretively over the past three years by researchers looking into possible cures for a wide range of diseases.

The revelation comes just a day after a committee of scientists warned of a nightmare ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario in which work on human-animal creations goes too far.

Last night a campaigner against the excesses of medical research said he was disgusted that scientists were ‘dabbling in the grotesque’.

Figures seen by the Daily Mail show that 155 ‘admixed’ embryos, containing both human and animal genetic material, have been created since the introduction of the 2008 Human Fertilisation Embryology Act.

This legalised the creation of a variety of hybrids, including an animal egg fertilised by a human sperm; ‘cybrids’, in which a human nucleus is implanted into an animal cell; and ‘chimeras’, in which human cells are mixed with animal embryos.

Scientists say the techniques can be used to develop embryonic stem cells which can be used to treat a range of incurable illnesses.

We were told in 2010 that "None of the modern chimeras look like something out of Dr. Moreau's menagerie. They look like normal animals. The difference is on the inside." I guess that is supposed to make us feel comfortable with these new creations, but it doesn't.

‘Ethically it can never be justifiable – it discredits us as a country. It is dabbling in the grotesque.

‘At every stage the justification from scientists has been: if only you allow us to do this, we will find cures for every illness known to mankind. This is emotional blackmail.

‘Of the 80 treatments and cures which have come about from stem cells, all have come from adult stem cells – not embryonic ones.
‘On moral and ethical grounds this fails; and on scientific and medical ones too.’ (-- crossbench peer Lord Alton , Daily Mail)

But as happens too often in Sci-Fi movies as well as real life, the scientists will continue this research, but will move from countries where it is outlawed to countries where it is not -- yet.  We haven't even touched on how morally, etihcally, religiously wrong this is.