Amesj's Odditorium

[alkemical]

http://www.universetoday.com/95183/i...for-an-answer/

Is Earth Alive? Scientists Seek Sulfur For An Answer


One facet of the Gaia theory is that sulfur compounds would be created by microscopic marine organisms — such as phytoplankton and algae — and these compounds could be transmitted into the air, and eventually (in some form) to the land, thus helping to support a sulfur cycle.

Sulfur is a key element in both organic and inorganic compounds. The tenth most abundant element in the Universe, sulfur is crucial to climate regulation — as well as life as we know it.

In particular, two sulfur compounds – dimethylsulfoniopropionate and its atmospherically-oxidized version, dimethylsulfide — are considered to be likely candidates for the products created by marine life. It’s these two compounds that UMD researcher Harry Oduro, along with geochemist and professor James Farquhar and marine biologist Kathryn Van Alstyne (of Western Washington University) have discovered a way to track across multiple environments, from sea to air to land, allowing scientists to trace which isotopes are coming from what sources.

“What Harry did in this research was to devise a way to isolate and measure the sulfur isotopic composition of these two sulfur compounds,” said Farquhar. “This was a very difficult measurement to do right, and his measurements revealed an unexpected variability in an isotopic signal that appears to be related to the way the sulfur is metabolized.”

The team’s research can be used to measure how the organisms are producing the compounds, under which circumstances and how they are ultimately affecting their — and our — environment in the process.

“The ability to do this could help us answer important climate questions, and ultimately better predict climate changes,” said Farquhar. “And it may even help us to better trace connections between dimethylsulfide emissions and sulfate aerosols, ultimately testing a coupling in the Gaia hypothesis.”

Whether or not Earth can be called a singular — or possibly even sentient — living organism of which all organisms are contributing members thereof may still be up for debate, but it is fairly well-accepted that life can shape and alter its own environment (and in the case of humans, often for the worse.) Research like this can help science determine just how far-reaching those alterations may be.

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/there...e-on-the-moon/

There’s Something Strange On The Moon

[alkemical]

we interrupt our regular programming for a message from the elder council
"This supposedly fortunate citizen is therefore left with only two concerns: making money and entertaining himself. He earns money, typically as a specialist, working an eight-hour day at a job for the quality or consequences of which somebody else—or, perhaps more typically, nobody else—will be responsible. And not surprisingly, since he can do so little else for himself, he is even unable to entertain himself, for there exists an enormous industry of exorbitantly expensive specialists whose purpose is to entertain him...

The fact is, however, that this is probably the most unhappy average citizen in the history of the world. He has not the power to provide himself with anything but money, and his money is inflating like a balloon and drifting away, subject to historical circumstance and the power of other people. From morning to night he does not touch anything that he has produced himself, in which he can take pride. For all his leisure and recreation, he feels bad, he looks bad, he is overweight, his health is poor. His air, water, and food are all known to contain poisons. There is a fair chance that he will die of suffocation. He suspects that his love life is not as fulfilling as other people’s. He wishes that he had been born sooner, or later. He does not know why his children are the way they are. He does not understand what they say. He does not care much and does not know why he does not care. He does not know what his wife wants or what he wants. Certain advertisements and pictures in magazines make him suspect that he is basically unattractive. He feels that all his possessions are under threat of pillage. He does not know what he would do if he lost his job, if the economy failed, if the utility companies failed, if the police went on strike, if the truckers went on strike, if his wife left him, if his children ran away, if he should be found to be incurably ill. And for these anxieties, of course, he consults certified experts, who in turn consult certified experts about their anxieties.

It is rarely considered that this average citizen is anxious because he ought to be -- because he still has some gumption that he has not yet given up in deference to the experts. He ought to be anxious, because he is helpless. That he is dependent upon so many specialists, the beneficiary of so much expert help, can only mean that he is a captive, a potential victim."

-- Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, (p. 19-21)

[baja]

Originally Posted by alkemical

http://www.universetoday.com/95183/i...for-an-answer/

Is Earth Alive? Scientists Seek Sulfur For An Answer


One facet of the Gaia theory is that sulfur compounds would be created by microscopic marine organisms — such as phytoplankton and algae — and these compounds could be transmitted into the air, and eventually (in some form) to the land, thus helping to support a sulfur cycle.

Sulfur is a key element in both organic and inorganic compounds. The tenth most abundant element in the Universe, sulfur is crucial to climate regulation — as well as life as we know it.

In particular, two sulfur compounds – dimethylsulfoniopropionate and its atmospherically-oxidized version, dimethylsulfide — are considered to be likely candidates for the products created by marine life. It’s these two compounds that UMD researcher Harry Oduro, along with geochemist and professor James Farquhar and marine biologist Kathryn Van Alstyne (of Western Washington University) have discovered a way to track across multiple environments, from sea to air to land, allowing scientists to trace which isotopes are coming from what sources.

“What Harry did in this research was to devise a way to isolate and measure the sulfur isotopic composition of these two sulfur compounds,” said Farquhar. “This was a very difficult measurement to do right, and his measurements revealed an unexpected variability in an isotopic signal that appears to be related to the way the sulfur is metabolized.”

The team’s research can be used to measure how the organisms are producing the compounds, under which circumstances and how they are ultimately affecting their — and our — environment in the process.

“The ability to do this could help us answer important climate questions, and ultimately better predict climate changes,” said Farquhar. “And it may even help us to better trace connections between dimethylsulfide emissions and sulfate aerosols, ultimately testing a coupling in the Gaia hypothesis.”

Whether or not Earth can be called a singular — or possibly even sentient — living organism of which all organisms are contributing members thereof may still be up for debate, but it is fairly well-accepted that life can shape and alter its own environment (and in the case of humans, often for the worse.) Research like this can help science determine just how far-reaching those alterations may be.

Sulfur is everywhere DMSO is abundant it trees. DMSO is one of nature's great healers too. There is a great book dedicated to the healing powers of DMSO.

[alkemical]

Interesting...i shall explore further.

[alkemical]

http://www.afp.com/en/news/topstorie...cientists-warn

Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats' memories.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup -- a common ingredient in processed foods -- as drinking water for six weeks.

One group of rats was supplemented with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), while the other group was not.

Before the sugar drinks began, the rats were enrolled in a five-day training session in a complicated maze. The rats were placed back in the maze six weeks later on the sweet solution to see how they fared.

"The DHA-deprived animals were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats' ability to think clearly and recall the route they'd learned six weeks earlier."

A closer look at the rat brains revealed that those who were not fed DHA supplements had also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates brain function.

[alkemical]

http://www.dangerousminds.net/commen...._wingnut_rift

New Obama conspiracy theory causes wingnut vs. wingnut rift!

’ve already blogged here about the zany new Obama conspiracy theory documentary Dreams From My Real Father which puts forth the ludicrous “theory” that President Barack Obama’s father was not a Kenyan goat herder but rather a radical journalist nearly four decades older than his mother who was also an amateur pornographer…

Now the film is causing a rift in the wingnut ranks as “birther queen” dingbat Orly Taitz (and current GOP candidate for one the US Senate seats for California!) accuses WorldNet Daily and author Jerome Corsi (who himself has a lot—everything—riding on the “birther” fantasy) of “working for” someone else. But who?

[alkemical]

http://www.dangerousminds.net/commen...is_still_right

Nobel economist Michael Spence, working at the behest of the Council on Foreign Relations, has co-authored a startling new paper with NYU’s Sandile Hlatshwayo. The two did an enormous amount of number crunching and analyzing of how the US economy has been structured for the past 20 years, and in particular, they examined employment trends. It was not a pretty picture that emerged from all of those details.

Well, I guess that would all depend upon which side of the fork you’re on, wouldn’t it?

As the output and productivity of the American worker increased—a LOT, I should add—during the past two decades, jobs still continued to be outsourced to other countries with cheaper labor pools, and fewer opportunities for economic advancement presented themselves for many Americans. All the while, the $$$ for all of that increased productivity didn’t go to the worker bees themselves, it went to the top, to the capitalists and investors class. To parasites like Mitt Romney and his buddies at Bain Capital.

The CFR report’s conclusions are particularly grim for people who have found themselves slipping out of the middle class towards precarious lives and who feel hopeless to do anything about it, but it’s Marxism 101 for the economic literate.

It’s a race to the bottom and “tag” you’re it!

From Reuters:

The take-away is this: Globalization is making U.S. companies more productive, but the benefits are mostly being enjoyed by the C-suite. The middle class is struggling to find work, and many of the jobs available are poorly paid.

Here’s how Mr. Spence and Ms. Hlatshwayo put it: “The most educated, who work in the highly compensated jobs of the tradeable and nontradeable sectors, have high and rising incomes and interesting and challenging employment opportunities, domestically and abroad. Many of the middle-income group, however, are seeing employment options narrow and incomes stagnate.”

Mr. Spence notes the benefit to consumers of globalization: “Many goods and services are less expensive than they would be if the economy were walled off from the global economy, and the benefits of lower prices are widespread.” He also points to the positive impact of globalization, particularly in China and India: “Poverty reduction has been tremendous, and more is yet to come.”






[img][/img]


There's a lot to this article, but really interesting if you're into econ & what CFR etc are saying.

***This isn't a proponant (IMO) of marx - but more that Marx's view of the economic system wasn't far off.

Check it out if you're curious. Was interesting to think that for the last 20 years we've been working our way towards "communism".... Where as your choices are A & B - and the state "sanctions" those entities.

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/un-ch...r-for-tourism/

UN Chooses Robert Mugabe As A ‘Leader for Tourism’

David Usborne writes in the Independent:

Never mind that Robert Mugabe is under a travel ban for his cruel stewardship of Zimbabwe since independence. The United Nations, in its wisdom, has designated him a “leader for tourism” and chosen the Victoria Falls, shared with Zambia, as the venue for a holiday industry conference next year.

At the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), based in Madrid, the thinking seems to be: “If the old man can’t visit us then we should visit him.”

The honour was made official when UNWTO head, Taleb Rifai, arrived at the Falls for a ceremony to name Zimbabwe and Zambia co-hosts of the 2013 conference … Kumbi Muchemwa, a spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said: “I can’t see any justification for the man being an ‘ambassador’. An ambassador for what? The man has blood on his hands. Do they want tourists to see those bloody hands?”…

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/ndaa-...lippery-slope/

NDAA Ruling: One Foot Off the Slippery Slope


Travis Kelly writes on AntiWar.com:

If the founding fathers were spinning in their graves like centrifuges over recent assaults on the Constitution, their RPMs slowed down a bit last Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that Section 1021 in the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), allowing military detention of American citizens without due process, is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit was brought by veteran journalist Chris Hedges, with attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran doing the heavy lifting without compensation. None thought they had a chance to win, given the juggernaut of military and police-state abuses that have rolled over us in the decade since 9/11. But as Hedges said after the verdict, “A stunning and monumental victory … every once in a while the gods smile on the damned.”

The defendants, President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, had argued that this new NDAA merely codified what the panicked 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) had spawned over the last decade: indefinite military detention, unwarranted searches and seizures, assassination, torture — only now it all could be employed on American soil, against American citizens, however or whenever the president and Pentagon saw fit…

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/today...rations-later/

Today’s Environment Can Influence Behavior Generations Later

Via ScienceDaily:

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Washington State University have seen an increased reaction to stress in animals whose ancestors were exposed to an environmental compound generations earlier.

The findings, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, put a new twist on the notions of nature and nurture, with broad implications for how certain behavioral tendencies might be inherited. The researchers—David Crews at Texas, Michael Skinner at Washington State and colleagues—exposed gestating female rats to vinclozolin, a popular fruit and vegetable fungicide known to disrupt hormones and have effects across generations of animals. The researchers then put the rats’ third generation of offspring through a variety of behavioral tests and found they were more anxious, more sensitive to stress, and had greater activity in stress-related regions of the brain than descendants of unexposed rats.

“We are now in the third human generation since the start of the chemical revolution, since humans have been exposed to these kinds of toxins,” says Crews. “This is the animal model of that.”…

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/eatin...icide-factory/

Eating This Could Turn Your Gut into a Living Pesticide FactoryPosted by majestic on May 30, 2012

Dr. Mercola sounds the alarm on the latest unintended consequence of permitting genetically-modified organisms into the food supply:

A new generation of insect larvae is eating the roots of genetically engineered corn intended to be resistant to such pests. The failure of Monsanto’s genetically modified Bt corn could be the most serious threat ever to a genetically modified crop in the U.S.

And the economic impact could be huge. Billions of dollars are at stake, as Bt corn accounts for 65 percent of all corn grown in the US.

The strain of corn, engineered to kill the larvae of beetles, such as the corn rootworm, contains a gene copied from an insect-killing bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt.

But even though a scientific advisory panel warned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the threat of insects developing resistance was high, Monsanto argued that the steps necessary to prevent such an occurrence — which would have entailed less of the corn being planted — were an unnecessary precaution, and the EPA naively agreed.

According to a recent NPR report:

“The scientists who called for caution now are saying ‘I told you so,’ because there are signs that a new strain of resistant rootworms is emerging…[A] committee of experts at the EPA is now recommending that biotech companies put into action, for the first time, a ‘remedial action plan’ aimed at stopping the spread of such resistant insects …

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/the-a...incarceration/

The American Geography Of IncarcerationPosted by JacobSloan on May 30, 2012

We may peruse neighborhoods on Google Maps, read about suburban sprawl and new city developments, but millions of Americans exist in a different, ignored geography. Via the The Funambulist:

Prison Map is a project developed by Josh Begley, a graduate student at NYU. Let’s recall that 2.5 millions people are living in prison in this country. Such a project illustrates therefore a sort of hidden urbanism in which 0.8% of the American population live for a given time.

They illustrate a geography of exclusion [and] often ironically appear similar to European palaces with well-ordered classical plans.

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/can-p...an-intentions/

Can Plants Sense Human Intentions?Posted by JacobSloan on May 29, 2012

Can plants, bacteria, and even yogurt identify with your pain? How wide is the gulf between man and plant, if there is a gulf at all? If you’re going to have an argument with your significant other, consider avoiding doing so in front of your potted fern:

“As the races of man speak in different languages so do the varieties of plants manifest their voices in different ways. They seem to be able to hear and understand us. For the time being, however, we must listen to them through our machines. One day, those machines may be unnecessary.”



(video @ Source)

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/man-g...t-hes-a-woman/

Man Goes To Hospital For Kidney Stone, Finds Out He’s A WomanPosted by JacobSloan on May 31, 2012


Photo: thirdrail (CC)
What surprises life will spring upon you? ABC News reports:

A Colorado man who was admitted to the hospital for a kidney stone received surprising news when the nurse came back with test results revealing he was actually a woman. Denver photographer Steve Crecelius said he’s felt a little different all his life.

He was intersex, meaning he had both male genitalia and internal female sex organs. “The nurse is reading the ultrasound and says, ‘Huh, this says you’re a female,’ Crecelius said. “It was very liberating.” Steve, who now goes by “Stevie,” said his wife and their children accepted his new identity right away.

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/slandering-the-heretics/

Slandering the Heretics

[alkemical]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/a-user...h-barack-obama

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/the-c...-of-marijuana/

The Choom Gang: Teenage Obama’s Mastery Of MarijuanaPosted by JacobSloan on May 31, 2012

Long before he was unveiling presidential decrees, young Barack Obama displayed the spark of leadership with his pot smoking initiatives. The forthcoming book Barack Obama: The Story from the Washington Post’s David Maraniss alleges that teenage Barry palled around in a smoke-filled van named the Choomwagon and invented new getting-high techniques such as “interceptions”, “roof hits”, and “total absorption”. Via Buzzfeed:

A self-selected group of boys at Punahou School who loved basketball and good times called themselves the Choom Gang. Choom is a verb, meaning “to smoke marijuana.” As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called “TA,” short for “total absorption.” “Wasting good bud smoke was not tolerated,” explained one member of the Choom Gang, Tom Topolinski.

Barry also had a knack for interceptions. When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn,…

[cutthemdown]

I like Obama more now Alk!

[gyldenlove]

Originally Posted by alkemical

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/the-a...incarceration/

The American Geography Of IncarcerationPosted by JacobSloan on May 30, 2012

We may peruse neighborhoods on Google Maps, read about suburban sprawl and new city developments, but millions of Americans exist in a different, ignored geography. Via the The Funambulist:

Prison Map is a project developed by Josh Begley, a graduate student at NYU. Let’s recall that 2.5 millions people are living in prison in this country. Such a project illustrates therefore a sort of hidden urbanism in which 0.8% of the American population live for a given time.

They illustrate a geography of exclusion [and] often ironically appear similar to European palaces with well-ordered classical plans.

Well, the two are build to achieve similar things. Palaces and fortresses are often build in a modular way to separate not only those who work there from there who live there (just like a prison) but also those who live there. In most grand palaces in Europe there would be several generations of a family plus concubines, and of those they would all need to be in different places with minimal contact.

Another important similarity is that palaces and fortresses were build so they would be defensible from outside attacks, this is done by maximizing the amount of walls that overview any spot outside the facility - for prisons this same arrangement is used to avoid blind spots where people can hide from surveilance.

The ordered and symmetric grounds are just a result of architects being narrowminded, better structures could easily be made by doing away with symmetry.

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by gyldenlove

Well, the two are build to achieve similar things. Palaces and fortresses are often build in a modular way to separate not only those who work there from there who live there (just like a prison) but also those who live there. In most grand palaces in Europe there would be several generations of a family plus concubines, and of those they would all need to be in different places with minimal contact.

Another important similarity is that palaces and fortresses were build so they would be defensible from outside attacks, this is done by maximizing the amount of walls that overview any spot outside the facility - for prisons this same arrangement is used to avoid blind spots where people can hide from surveilance.

The ordered and symmetric grounds are just a result of architects being narrowminded, better structures could easily be made by doing away with symmetry.

Talking to security personell who's job it is to make sure...they are 'secure' - they basically took TMI's plan of keeping people out, and inversed it to keep people in.

[alkemical]

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=20065

The RepRap Machine: "Wealth Without Money"


RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit that anyone can assemble given time and materials. It also means that - if you’ve got a RepRap - you can print lots of useful stuff, and you can print another RepRap for a friend...

RepRap is about making self-replicating machines, and making them freely available for the benefit of everyone. We are using 3D printing to do this, but if you have other technologies that can copy themselves and that can be made freely available to all, then this is the place for you too.

Reprap.org is a community project, which means you are welcome to edit most pages on this site, or better yet, create new pages of your own. Our community portal and New Development pages have more information on how to get involved. Use the links below and on the left to explore the site contents. You’ll find some content translated into other languages.

RepRap was the first of the low-cost 3D printers, and the RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution.


Article from: reprap.org

[alkemical]

For Ody:

"What experience and history teach is this: that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it." - Hegel

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers." - Pynchon

[alkemical]

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philp...ic-ag-research

How Your College Is Selling Out to Big Ag

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/05/north...ea-level-rise/

North Carolina Tries to Outlaw Sea-Level RisePosted by bluemana on May 31, 2012

Writes Jess Zimmerman on Grist:

North Carolina is no stranger to the “if you dislike it then you should have made a law against it” model of legislation, but this is extreme: The state General Assembly’s Replacement House Bill 819 would rule that scientists are not allowed to accurately predict sea-level rise. By all legal calculations, the sea level will now rise eight inches by the end of the century. Sure, so far models have predicted an increase of more than three feet, but if they keep that **** up, they’re going to JAIL.

OK, there’s not really a prison sentence attached to this proposed rule, but that doesn’t stop it from being crazeballs. See, actual sea-level rise is nonlinear, because there’s feedback — the warmer it gets, the more the water volume expands, and the more stuff melts, and the more it expands, etc. That’s how most scientific models arrive at their…

[alkemical]

for baja

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/06/enrag...o-crazy-video/

The final “nail-in-the-coffin” proof, perhaps, that junk food turns people into crazed psychopaths, courtesy of Anderson Cooper. The best part of the video is towards the end when a woman smashes her fist through the partition to get at the cashier:

[video embedded @ source]