Lots of celebrities want to meet the president and they often come with their own pet requests: Sign this or that, take a picture with my kid, how can I steal a hand towel from a White House bathroom?
But Snoop Dogg wants something different. The rapper (real name: Calvin Broadus) has been a longtime advocate for the legalization of marijuana (and a frequent user of it) and spoke to Hot 99.5’s Toby Knapp about the subject and how he might convince President Barack Obama to support a change in the country’s drug laws.
By PATRICK GAVIN taken from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71224.html#ixzz1iynBfEm9
Monday, 9 January 2012
Old Penny Sells For $1.38 Million
As Benjamin Franklin once wrote ‘A penny saved is a penny earned’.
In Orlando on Saturday an old penny saved was sold for $1.38 million.
The one-cent copper coin was made at the Mint in Philadelphia in 1793, the first year that the U.S. made its own coins. James Halperin of Texas-based Heritage Auctions said the sale was “the most a United States copper coin has ever sold for at auction.”
Heritage officials said in a news release that the name of the buyer was not revealed but that he was “a major collector.” One of the coin’s earliest owners was a well-known Baltimore banker, Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.
“Mr. Eliasberg was nicknamed, ‘the king of coins’ because before his death in 1976 he assembled a collection that consisted of at least one example of every coin ever made at the United States Mint, a feat never duplicated,” Halperin said.
The final bid for the coin last week was one of the largest sales at the Florida United Numismatists coin show and annual convention. Halperin said a five-dollar gold piece from 1829 also was sold.
Halperin said there remain a few hundred 1793 coins in different condition, but that the one auctioned off is rare because it wasn’t in circulation.
Officials say it shows no wear on its lettering, on its Lady Liberty face or on the chain of linking rings on its back.
The coin is known as a “Chain Cent” because its chain of linking rings was supposed to represent the solidarity of the states. The design was changed to a wreath after some critics claimed it was symbolic of slavery.
taken from http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/01/08/old-penny-sells-for-1-38-million/
In Orlando on Saturday an old penny saved was sold for $1.38 million.
The one-cent copper coin was made at the Mint in Philadelphia in 1793, the first year that the U.S. made its own coins. James Halperin of Texas-based Heritage Auctions said the sale was “the most a United States copper coin has ever sold for at auction.”
Heritage officials said in a news release that the name of the buyer was not revealed but that he was “a major collector.” One of the coin’s earliest owners was a well-known Baltimore banker, Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.
The final bid for the coin last week was one of the largest sales at the Florida United Numismatists coin show and annual convention. Halperin said a five-dollar gold piece from 1829 also was sold.
Halperin said there remain a few hundred 1793 coins in different condition, but that the one auctioned off is rare because it wasn’t in circulation.
Officials say it shows no wear on its lettering, on its Lady Liberty face or on the chain of linking rings on its back.
The coin is known as a “Chain Cent” because its chain of linking rings was supposed to represent the solidarity of the states. The design was changed to a wreath after some critics claimed it was symbolic of slavery.
taken from http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/01/08/old-penny-sells-for-1-38-million/
How NASA kept astronauts from swearing on the Moon
In the 1960s, NASA's astronauts were the cool, calm, and collected faces of the space program who represented American values - most were married and had some sort of religious affiliation. NASA's public affair office took great pains to keep its astronauts' images clean, but they were still men who occasionally cursed when faced with a bad situation. As NASA gathered steam and took a firm place in the public eye, the organization had a job covering up some of the less radio- and family-friendly transmissions.
Every so often, astronauts forgot that their every word was broadcast live throughout the world. Some slip-ups, like Tom Stafford's on Apollo 10, were easier to cover.
Four days, four hours, and forty-four minutes after launch, Commander Stafford and Lunar Module Pilot Gene Cernan were taking the LM Snoopy to a low lunar orbit; Command Module pilot John Young remained in the CM Charlie Brown. As Snoopy passed over the lunar surface, Stafford and Cernan took pictures of surface features to give future crews a better idea of the terrain they'd be facing when coming in for a landing. (Image: Tom Stafford poses with his LM's namesake, Snoopy. 1969.)
At one point, Stafford recognized a landmark crater, Censorinus A. He was momentarily distracted by the dramatic shadows and giant boulders surrounding the crater. "I've got Censorinus A right here," he said out loud to the world, "bigger than shit!"
A shocked reporter listening to the transmission in mission control turned to astronaut Jack Schmitt. "What did Colonel Stafford just say?" Thinking quickly, Schmitt covered for his colleague and replied "He said, ‘Oh, there's Censorinus… bigger than Schmitt!'"
Stafford's was an isolated incident, but some astronauts were harder to censor. One in particular had the unfortunate habit of filling space when his mind wandered with profanities. This posed a problem for NASA - with the world watching astronauts walking around the lunar surface, how could the organization be sure the his transmissions from the Moon would be family-friendly? (Image: Al Bean, Apollo 12 LMP, on the Moon. 1969.)
In preparing for his mission, NASA had the astronaut hypnotized. Rather than curse, a psychiatrist put the idea in his head that he would rather hum when his mind wandered. The hypnotized astronaut is rarely named, but only one man can be heard humming as he skipps across the lunar surface. Transmissions from Commander Pete Conrad are punctuated with "dum de dum dum dum" and "dum do do do, do do" making him the likliest candidate. (Image: Pete Conrad visits samples he returned from the Moon.)
Suggested Reading:
Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo. 2004.
Tom Stafford and Michael Cassutt. We Have Capture. 2004.
By http://io9.com/5873762/how-nasa-kept-astronauts-from-swearing-on-the-moon
Every so often, astronauts forgot that their every word was broadcast live throughout the world. Some slip-ups, like Tom Stafford's on Apollo 10, were easier to cover.
Four days, four hours, and forty-four minutes after launch, Commander Stafford and Lunar Module Pilot Gene Cernan were taking the LM Snoopy to a low lunar orbit; Command Module pilot John Young remained in the CM Charlie Brown. As Snoopy passed over the lunar surface, Stafford and Cernan took pictures of surface features to give future crews a better idea of the terrain they'd be facing when coming in for a landing. (Image: Tom Stafford poses with his LM's namesake, Snoopy. 1969.)At one point, Stafford recognized a landmark crater, Censorinus A. He was momentarily distracted by the dramatic shadows and giant boulders surrounding the crater. "I've got Censorinus A right here," he said out loud to the world, "bigger than shit!"
A shocked reporter listening to the transmission in mission control turned to astronaut Jack Schmitt. "What did Colonel Stafford just say?" Thinking quickly, Schmitt covered for his colleague and replied "He said, ‘Oh, there's Censorinus… bigger than Schmitt!'"Stafford's was an isolated incident, but some astronauts were harder to censor. One in particular had the unfortunate habit of filling space when his mind wandered with profanities. This posed a problem for NASA - with the world watching astronauts walking around the lunar surface, how could the organization be sure the his transmissions from the Moon would be family-friendly? (Image: Al Bean, Apollo 12 LMP, on the Moon. 1969.)
In preparing for his mission, NASA had the astronaut hypnotized. Rather than curse, a psychiatrist put the idea in his head that he would rather hum when his mind wandered. The hypnotized astronaut is rarely named, but only one man can be heard humming as he skipps across the lunar surface. Transmissions from Commander Pete Conrad are punctuated with "dum de dum dum dum" and "dum do do do, do do" making him the likliest candidate. (Image: Pete Conrad visits samples he returned from the Moon.)Suggested Reading:
Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo. 2004.
Tom Stafford and Michael Cassutt. We Have Capture. 2004.
By http://io9.com/5873762/how-nasa-kept-astronauts-from-swearing-on-the-moon
Stem cells reverse aging in mice
Scientists may one day slow down aging with a simple injection of youthful stem cells. They’ve just proven this can be done in mice, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.
The mice, which had been engineered to mimic a human disease called progeria, would normally have grown old when they were quite young. But that changed when researchers injected muscle stem cells from healthy young mice into the bellies of the quickly aging mice. Within days, the doddering and frail mice began to act like they were living the storyline of “The Strange Case of Benjamin Button” as they started looking and acting younger.
“It was mind boggling,” said study co-author Johnny Huard, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “When I saw them I thought, ‘Oh my God, I must have made a mistake and put the normal mice in the wrong cage.’ But they were indeed the mice we’d injected with the stem cells.”
Normal mice live about two years, Hoard explained. But mice with progeria age very quickly and die by the time they are 21 days old. Somehow the muscle stem-cells from the younger mice managed to reverse that premature aging process – at least temporarily.
The stem-cell injected mice didn’t live as long as normal mice, but they did survive about three times as long as would have without the treatment. Huard suspects if he re-injected the mice they would live even longer.
Huard and his colleagues aren’t exactly sure what’s happening, but they’ve got some theories. Scientists have discovered that we grow frail when our stem cells age and lose the ability to self-repair. These “tired stem cells” divide slowly, Huard explained.
He and his colleagues suspect the same thing happens, just more quickly, in mice and people with progeria.
“People with progeria look like they are in their 80s when they are 20 years old,” Huard said. “Their skin looks very wrinkled and old when they are very young.”
One of the biggest surprises for Huard and his colleagues was the impact on the brain from muscle stem cells injected into the belly. Even though the cells didn’t get to the brain, they still improved its health.
“The number of blood vessels in the brains of progeria mice are significantly reduced,” Huard said. “But when you inject stem cells from a normal mouse into the belly of the progeria mouse, the number of blood vessels increases.”
That means that the normal stem cells must be releasing some kind of protein that spurs the growth of healthy cells, Huard said.
Huard can the big implications of his research.
“There’s a lot of money being spent in the world trying to delay aging,” he said. “It would be fantastic if we can apply this to human beings. It’s a very simple approach.”
Huard can’t say how far in the future this might be, but his group has been using muscle stem cells to repair damaged hearts, bones, and cartilage.
One day it might be standard for people to stash away stem cells when they are young so they can use this fountain of youth elixir when they start aging, he said.
By Linda Carroll taken from http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/03/9917514-real-benjamin-button-stem-cells-reverse-aging-in-mice
The mice, which had been engineered to mimic a human disease called progeria, would normally have grown old when they were quite young. But that changed when researchers injected muscle stem cells from healthy young mice into the bellies of the quickly aging mice. Within days, the doddering and frail mice began to act like they were living the storyline of “The Strange Case of Benjamin Button” as they started looking and acting younger.
“It was mind boggling,” said study co-author Johnny Huard, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “When I saw them I thought, ‘Oh my God, I must have made a mistake and put the normal mice in the wrong cage.’ But they were indeed the mice we’d injected with the stem cells.”
Normal mice live about two years, Hoard explained. But mice with progeria age very quickly and die by the time they are 21 days old. Somehow the muscle stem-cells from the younger mice managed to reverse that premature aging process – at least temporarily.
Huard and his colleagues aren’t exactly sure what’s happening, but they’ve got some theories. Scientists have discovered that we grow frail when our stem cells age and lose the ability to self-repair. These “tired stem cells” divide slowly, Huard explained.
He and his colleagues suspect the same thing happens, just more quickly, in mice and people with progeria.
“People with progeria look like they are in their 80s when they are 20 years old,” Huard said. “Their skin looks very wrinkled and old when they are very young.”
One of the biggest surprises for Huard and his colleagues was the impact on the brain from muscle stem cells injected into the belly. Even though the cells didn’t get to the brain, they still improved its health.
“The number of blood vessels in the brains of progeria mice are significantly reduced,” Huard said. “But when you inject stem cells from a normal mouse into the belly of the progeria mouse, the number of blood vessels increases.”
That means that the normal stem cells must be releasing some kind of protein that spurs the growth of healthy cells, Huard said.
Huard can the big implications of his research.
“There’s a lot of money being spent in the world trying to delay aging,” he said. “It would be fantastic if we can apply this to human beings. It’s a very simple approach.”
Huard can’t say how far in the future this might be, but his group has been using muscle stem cells to repair damaged hearts, bones, and cartilage.
One day it might be standard for people to stash away stem cells when they are young so they can use this fountain of youth elixir when they start aging, he said.
By Linda Carroll taken from http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/03/9917514-real-benjamin-button-stem-cells-reverse-aging-in-mice
NASA looks at using microbes to power up space robots
Today's robotic space missions take careful steps to avoid carrying tiny bacterial life from Earth that could contaminate the surface of Mars or other planets. That may all change if a NASA-funded effort can harness microbes as an almost endless power source for the next generation of robotic explorers.
Such microbial fuel cells could power space robots almost indefinitely, as long as their bacteria have the tiny amounts of food needed to stay alive and create electricity through their chemical reactions. That would offer an alternative to space missions that rely upon either nuclear or solar power for their batteries — NASA's Spirit Mars rover was officially declared dead last May after the Red Planet's harsh winter deprived it of sunlight for its solar panels. "Whether you're looking at satellites or planetary explorers, to have a power system that's not reliant on the sun of the solar system, day or night cycles, and hazardous materials such as nuclear or other harsh chemicals, means you really open a lot of doors for expanding the duration of scientific missions," said Gregory Scott, a space robotics engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
An electron microscope image of the microbe, Geobacter sulfurreducens, the core of the microbial fuel cell-based system.
That process could ideally keep almost any small space mission going for as long as necessary.
"Given the fact that they are living organisms, they have a really long shelf life," Scott told InnovationNewsDaily. "The bacterial colony will live as long as you give it food — in our case, sugar — or one of the other biomass fuels we're looking into. The colony will be able to survive pretty much indefinitely."
Scott and his colleagues hope to make a prototype robot powered by microbes and weighing just over 2 pounds (1 kg) within the next 10 years. Their first year of funding comes from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program.
But shrinking down microbial fuel cells — some prototypes weigh 35 pounds (16 kg) on the small side — to something that fits on a 2-pound robot will take years of work. The researchers must also figure out how to boost the small energy outputs of such microbial fuel cells even as they shrink the overall size and weight.
Another challenge comes from making even lower-power electronics for the next generation of tiny space robots or rovers. Such electronics must use very little or even no power in some periods to survive on the electricity supplied by microbial fuel cells.
The researchers also want to figure out a simple, reliable way for their tiny robot or rover to move about. One of their leading ideas involves a spring-loaded hopping system.
Once a working prototype robot has been built, researchers would begin to consider the challenges of sending microbes on missions headed for deep space, asteroids or distant planets — including the question of protecting extraterrestrial surfaces from contamination. Their current microbes consist of Geobacter sulfurreducens, a bacterium that does not require oxygen.
"There are planetary protection concerns, as well as concerns about protecting the microbes themselves from radiation," Scott said. "Sometime down the road we also have to consider whether the microbes we're looking at are most effective for radiation environments or extreme temperatures."
By Jeremy Hsu taken from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45902844/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/#.TwrJa5jOGiY
Japan to open robot farm in tsunami disaster zone
The project, masterminded by the Ministry of Agriculture, will involve unmanned tractors working the fields of the farm on a disaster zone site spanning 600 acres.
Robots will then box produce grown on the farm, including rice, wheat, soybeans, fruit and vegetables as part of the “Dream Project” scheme, according to the Nikkei.
The growth of crops will also be boosted by recycled carbon dioxide generated by the operation of the machinery in a bid to reduce reliance on chemical fertilisers.
An expanse of farmland in Miyagi prefecture, northeast Japan, which was flooded in last year’s tsunami, has been earmarked by the government for the project.
On-site research is expected to begin later this year, with a forecast government investment of £33 million (four billion yen) over the next six years, according to ministry officials.
Miyagi was one of Japan’s three worst hit prefectures in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 19,000 dead or missing and triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in decades.
Farming was hit particularly hard by the disaster, with tsunami water leaving soil laden with salt and oil deposits, as well as radiation contamination as a result of the leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
More than 59,000 acres of once fertile farmland were damaged as a result of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout, with the agricultural industry still struggling to recover.
The government is hoping to bolster the new robot farm project by inviting leading Japanese technology companies, including Panasonic, Fujitsu and Hitachi, to become involved.
"We hope the project will help not only support farmers in the disaster-hit regions but also revive the entire nation's agriculture," said a spokesman for the agriculture ministry.
Farming was hit particularly hard by the disaster, with tsunami water leaving soil laden with salt and oil deposits, as well as radiation contamination as a result of the leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
More than 59,000 acres of once fertile farmland were damaged as a result of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout, with the agricultural industry still struggling to recover.
The government is hoping to bolster the new robot farm project by inviting leading Japanese technology companies, including Panasonic, Fujitsu and Hitachi, to become involved.
"We hope the project will help not only support farmers in the disaster-hit regions but also revive the entire nation's agriculture," said a spokesman for the agriculture ministry.
By Danielle Demetriou taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8996505/Japan-to-open-robot-farm-in-tsunami-disaster-zone.html
Saudi father puts son up for sale on Facebook
A Saudi man reportedly put his son up for sale on Facebook. The asking price? $20 million.
Qatar’s Al-Sharq (Arabic) newspaper reported Wednesday that Saud bin Nahr al Shahry, 35, fell on hard times after his business was closed down by Saudi authorities.
He opted to sell the boy, whose age was not given but who looked quite young in this photo, to save his wife and daughter from inevitable poverty, he said.
Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product was $622 billion in 2010, according to the CIA World Factbook. It possesses roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
But as one Egyptian blogger who posted the story on Twitter said: "not all Saudis bleed oil."
by Erin Cunningham taken from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-casbah/saudi-father-puts-son-sale-facebook
Qatar’s Al-Sharq (Arabic) newspaper reported Wednesday that Saud bin Nahr al Shahry, 35, fell on hard times after his business was closed down by Saudi authorities.
He opted to sell the boy, whose age was not given but who looked quite young in this photo, to save his wife and daughter from inevitable poverty, he said.
Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product was $622 billion in 2010, according to the CIA World Factbook. It possesses roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
But as one Egyptian blogger who posted the story on Twitter said: "not all Saudis bleed oil."
by Erin Cunningham taken from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-casbah/saudi-father-puts-son-sale-facebook
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