So
In Norway, they have founds that by cutting down on antibiotics, they can reduce serious infections and even deaths by infections. Counterintuitive, but effective:
Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner. Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia last year, soaring virtually unchecked. The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs. Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.
This is, of course, not to say that antibiotics themselves are evil. It does, however, point to using anything in moderation and with a clear assessment of the consequences of over use.
Let's say you wanted to find who has been using a particular office computer. Here's how it would work: “We could swab a keyboard key, for example, pull the bacterial DNA off that swab, and then identify all or nearly all of the bacteria that make up that community,” says Fierer. So that's what he did. He and his colleagues swabbed the individual keys from three personal computer keyboards, “and then matched those keys to the bacteria on the fingertips of the owners of the keyboard. And we showed that we could basically identify whose keyboard it was pretty well.” Fierer then tried a similar experiment with people's computer mice, and he could match a mouse to its owner. The findings appear in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In one final experiment, Fierer and his colleagues found that they could still perform an analysis of bacterial DNA two weeks after it had been left on a surface. Fierer says he's already had some informal discussions with law-enforcement agencies about his bacterial ID techniques, and there's been interest in this approach. But Fierer's the first to say it's not ready for the courtroom. At least not yet. “There's a lot of work we need to do to figure out how accurate it is and what are the limitations and so forth, but, yeah, it's encouraging. It does seem like we can actually take advantage of that uniqueness of our bacterial communities,” he says.
So
Failing airline JAL, in addition to its obvious financial woes is experiencing another that it probably never anticipated: stewardesses uniforms are highly prized by fetishist and are being stolen and resold for enormous sums.
The outfits, early versions of which were designed by Hanae Mori, are incredibly popular among fans with a uniform fetish and can command exorbitant prices on on-line auction sites.
A jacket alone can fetch several hundred pounds, while one site is presently advertising a full set for more than £2,000. JAL's domestic rival, All Nippon Airways, has a similar problem and an ANA stewardesses' uniform is also on sale on-line for £3,745. Items that have been worn command higher prices.
“We have very strict rules on our uniforms and when people leave the company they are required to return them,” a spokeswoman for JAL told The Daily Telegraph.
“It's a question of security, as anyone wearing a JAL uniform at an airport could quite easily access restricted areas, but we also do not want people misrepresenting the company or damaging our image in any way,” she added.
The new billboards, developed by Japanese electronic company NEC, scan the faces of passing shoppers, quickly determine their age and gender, and then display demographic-appropriate ads
Critics fear the technology as an invasion of privacy, but NEC say people will remain anonymous, their faces instantly deleted. The technology will get an American trial later this year.
So
Today is the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Bet you won't hear the Tea Tantrum people raving about how many trillions and trillions of dollars have been spent there. Well, at least in Iraq and Afghanistan they have free, universal health care paid for by US tax payer dollars. The irony is, there it is called 'Democracy' here the right condemns it as 'Socialism' (without understanding what either of those words mean).
So
A fantastic TED presentation by Jamie Oliver discussing the effects of poor diet/food choices on children in most of the western world. His solution: teach every child about food. Some enlightening facts and figures about the issues as well as an overall engaging discussion.
So
For all the right wing idiots who keep banging on about how the snow storms of late are 'proof' that Global Warming doesn't exist, here is a bit of science.
All this frenzied pointing to snowfall as proof that global warming is a hoax has only, if anything, demonstrated the slight, one-dimensional thinking being done by the parties who are desperate to discredit climate change and/or exploit for political gain its apparent nonexistence in the face of cold weather events.
So
If you can't afford the Apple Tablet (iTablet?, iPad?) when it is anticipated to be announced on Wednesday, check out the certainly-less-functional-but-still-a-bit-of-fun Boogie Board Paperless LCD Writing Tablet