What can you see on the picture?

Concept of mind

If my argument is successful, there will follow some interesting consequences. First, the hallowed contrast between Mind and Matter will be dissipated, but dissipated not by either of the equally hallowed absorptions of Mind by Matter or Matter by Mind, but in quite a different way.... It will also follow that both Idealism and Materialism are answers to an improper question. The "reduction" of the material world to mental states and processes, as well as the "reduction" of the mental states and processes to physical states and processes, presuppose the legitimacy of the disjunction "either there exist minds or there exist bodies (but not both)". It would be like saying, "either she bought a left-hand and a right-hand glove or she bought a pair of gloves (but not both)".

– Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind

Manipulation of immune system removes amyloid plaques from mice brain

To do this, the researchers over-expressed IL-6 in the brains of newborn mice that had yet to develop any amyloid plaques, as well in mice with pre-existing plaques. Using somatic brain transgenesis technology, scientists analyzed the effect of IL-6 on brain neuro-inflammation and plaque deposition. In both groups of mice, the presence of IL-6 lead to the clearance of amyloid plaques from the brain.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/10/15/scientists.remove.amyloid.plaques.brains.live.animals.with.alzheimers.disease

About foreign investments

Well, first things first. Third world don't exist. Who would be communistic block?

I would claim that developing world doesn't exist either.

20-minutes video

There are roughly:

* 1 billion people in high income countries like Germany, USA or Japan,

* 2.5 billion people in higher-middle income countries like China, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt,

* 2.5 billion people in lower-middle income countries like India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Nigeria,

* and finally 1 billion people in low income countries like Burma, Ethiopia, Congo Democratic or Niger.

Yes, surely foreign aid could and probably is rising inequality. Thus it should be focused on improving healthcare or education level. Just look at Rwanda, where some health indexes surpassed levels of Germany, Canada or USA. In the last 15 years death rate children below 5 years-old lowered twice and maternal death rate decreased three times.

It is somehow counter-intuitive, but giving heating oil for half price could be debilitating for poor. Despite best intentions.

Sure there are countries, which are performing better (for example Singapore) and countries performing worse (for example Equatorial Guinea). Both have great influence of foreign companies. There seems to nothing inherently wrong with multinational corporation. Difference is Singapore have probably highest spending on education on the planet and its government is virtually free of corruption. On the little part of tropical marshland there is over 3000 multinational corporations competing for skilful workers.

Graph of inequality and foreign investment.

You can see that there are countries like Germany, with gigantic foreign investments and .

very low inequality. There countries without foreign investment and low inequality, like Pakistan. There are countries with large foreign investment and large inequality, like Bolivia, but also like South Africa with big differences in wealth and low level of foreign investment.

And there are countries like USA, or Nigeria in the middle.

You could argue that high exports decrease inequality:

Graph of inequality and exports.

Europe has lowest inequality and overall greatest exports. Americas opposite - great inequality and lowest exports levels. Middle East, South Asia and East Asia are in the middle, with Africa scattered al over the place.

You cannot blame multinational companies on inequality.

Only reasonable correlation I could find is between HIV infected population and inequality, but I'm afraid it is without causation.

Avalanche clouds on Mars.

http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_016423_2640

siRNA-based therapy against RSV

RSV was measured serially in nasal washes using several different viral assays. Intranasal ALN-RSV01 was well tolerated, exhibiting a safety profile similar to saline placebo. The proportion of culture-defined RSV infections was 71.4 and 44.2% in placebo and ALN-RSV01 recipients, respectively (P = 0.009), representing a 38% decrease in the number of infected and a 95% increase in the number of uninfected subjects. The acquisition of infection over time was significantly lower in ALN-RSV01 recipients (P = 0.007 and P = 0.03, viral culture and PCR, respectively). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the ALN-RSV01 antiviral effect was independent of other factors, including preexisting RSV antibody and intranasal proinflammatory cytokine concentrations.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of an RNAi-based therapy directed against respiratory syncytial virus

John DeVincenzoa, Robert Lambkin-Williams

Usage of gene therapy for congenital blindness treatment.

One-shot therapy helped child with Laber's congenital amanurosis.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091025091144.htm

Hardware is cheap, programmers are expensive.

Always try to spend your way out of a performance problem first by throwing faster hardware at it. It'll often be a quicker and cheaper way to resolve immediate performance issues than attempting to code your way out of it. Longer term, of course, you'll do both. You'll eventually be forced to revisit those deeper algorithmic concerns and design issues with your code that prevent the application from running faster. And the advantage of doing this on new hardware is that you'll look like an even bigger hero when you deliver the double whammy of optimized code running on speedier hardware.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/12/hardware-is-cheap-programmers-are-expensive.html

Databrowsers

1. Energy Export Databrowser

2. JODI Databrowser

3. US Minerals Databrowser

Worldmapper

http://www.worldmapper.org/

This site allow to find another point of view about the world.

About farming from Norman Borlaug

At this time of critical need, the epicenter of our collective work should focus on driving continued investments from both the public and private sectors in efficient agriculture production technologies. Investments like those announced by the G-8 leaders will most likely help to place current tools—like fertilizer and hybrid seeds that have been used for decades in the developed world—into the hands of small-holder farmers in remote places like Africa with the potential for noted and measured impact.

That investment will not continue to motivate new and novel discoveries, like drought-tolerant, insect-resistant or higher-yielding seed varieties that advance even faster. To accomplish this, governments must make their decisions about access to new technologies, such as the development of genetically modified organisms—on the basis of science, and not to further political agendas. Open markets will stimulate continued investment, innovation and new developments from public research institutions, private companies and novel public/private partnerships.

Source:

1. Farmers Can Feed the World

Norman E. Borlaug

2. Biotechnology and the Green Revolution

Norman E. Borlaug

Jacob Bronowski

Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.

Excerpt from Wikipedia.

Wangari Maathai

I feel obliged to read something about this very famous environmentalist from Kenya.

Her story consist of biological studies, humanitarian effort, political activity including protests.

Wikipedia

Shounen anime

You seams to enjoy shounen anime. You may want to try:

* Dragon Ball Z (Kai) , which doesn't have any sense, but it is even more enjoyable, because of that, totally unpretentious, although level of animation isn't as high as You may expect. Story is nonexistent, characters are crude.

* Full Metal Panic - romantic comedy mixed with military thriller, but both genres are well delivered and have some nerve. Characters are simple, but very likeable and created with note of parody. Both romantic and thriller parts find much expansion in *Second Ride*. Animation is pretty crude at the beginning, but is developing with series (it's very visible, that they increased number of animators).

* Gin Tama - comedy series, which I isn't in my taste, but it is very popular. Animation is good, undoubtedly.

* Mobile Suit Gundam metaseries - Definition of Mecha. This is big question do You want to watch slow, old animation techniques or not. Because amongst many amazing series there, You may find the best space saga, period. Gundam Zeta. Epic story about characters, which You will like/dislike very much. Problem is there You must to understand something about Universal Century time-line. There are 3 paths to achieve this:

1. Watch Mobile Suit Gundam series, which is inconsistent and has lowest class of animation.

2. Watch trilogy of compilation films, where both aspects are better. Don't be mistaken, story and characters are great there.

3. Watch Mobile Suit Gundam 0083, where animation is very good, although story is "broken", because of change of director.

Then, if You don't want older animation You have to choose between more adult *Gundam 00* and more infantile *Gundam SEED* Both have excellent animation, good story and memorable characters.

* The Vision of Escaflowne - fanstasy and mecha. With better than average production value:voice actors and animation. Much more gentle, but interesting narration.

Beside shoenen, I must add:

* Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - "hot-blooded action" mecha. There is no more to say.

* Cowboy Bebop - music, action. Classical anime series.

BTW, You've probably know this. Ask someone, are You ready to watch particular series/film, because there is no chance You'll understand something from FLCL without preparation.

Peace

Probably greatest ecological disaster in history.

Great Oxygenation Event - The rising oxygen levels may have wiped out a huge portion of the Earth's anerobic inhabitants at the time.

Levothyroxine and colorectal cancer.

Thyroxine is one of major hormones controlling metabolism levels. According to population-based matched case–control study (2566 pairs) in northern Israel ^the use of levothyroxine was associated with a statistically significantly reduced relative risk of CRC (odds ratio = 0.59, 95% confidence interval = 0.43 to 0.82, P = .001). This association remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, sex, use of aspirin and statins, sports activity, family historyof CRC, ethnic group, and level of vegetable consumption (odds ratio = 0.60, 95% confidence interval = 0.44 to 0.81, P = .001).

A Case–Control Study of Levothyroxine and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Gad Rennert, Hedy S. Rennert, Mila Pinchev, Stephen B. Gruber

About nuclear explosion and Macondo

Nuclear explosion works differently. Conventional explosion is producing large quantities of gases. Their power is derived from gases resulting from decomposition of explosive material.

You can build nuclear device, which produces so much heat that conventional explosion would be cold place in comparison. Surroundings rocks becomes glass instantly. It was done successfully.

There are some reasons that should exclude usage of explosives in this place:

* I couldn't find a way to guaranty that well, used to deliver the bomb will be sefely sealed on this depth.

* There are many confirmed displacements on the bathymetric map of Mexican Gulf.

I can find more, so chill out. Nobody will nuke Macondo.

I'm no expert, but look for Yourself. Gulf of Mexico continental slope

This seafloor image displays clear structural

evidence of three types of relative displacements between the minibasins: extension, shortening or strike-slip.

Salt Tectonics, Sediments and Prospectivity

A Research Conference sponsored by the

Petroleum Group of The Geological Society of

London and SEPM Society for Sedimentary Geology

EDIT: Why to drill well there?

33% of US crude oil production and 13% of natural gas production comes from Gulf of Mexico.

Source

It was predicted that production could be even significantly bigger.