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A Different Kind of Mermaid

 A couple days ago I posted about Mermaid Elle who frequents the Virginia Beaches.  Well, here is a very different kind of Mermaid:

The World's First Self-Propelled Endoscopy Device 'Swims' the Entire Digestive Tract in Mere Hours

Probing colons has never been this much fun. Japanese researchers have developed the world’s first self-propelled endoscopy device, a remote controlled tadpole-like camera that can “swim” through the digestive tack gathering imagery along the way.

This kind of endoscopy isn’t wholly new, of course, but previous iterations of ingestible cameras relied on natural muscle contractions to move them through the body. The “Mermaid,” as it is known, simplifies the process by moving quickly through the digestive tract to its destination, whatever that point may be. To speed the process, it can be inserted into the digestive system at either end, entering the body orally or--well, you know.

The device is just 0.4 inches in diameter and just shy of two inches long, and uses magnetic machinery to control its movement and location. Doctors pilot the endoscope with a joystick, watching its progress on a monitor. All said, it takes only a few hours to traverse the whole system from esophagus to colon. It could help ease the strain on patients and detect hard-to-see cancers earlier than was previously possible.

Colon cancer runs in my family.  Both Mom and Dad found they had colon cancer within a few months of each other a few years. back, and were operated on.  So far, both seem to have been spared a reoccurrance, and I'm on the "frequent flier" plan regarding colonoscopies.

I'd be willing to give this a try.  I wonder how bad the preparation is; and does it tickle?

Scientists Predict Big "Dead Zones" for Chesapeake Summer

Scientists Predict Moderate to Poor Oxygen Levels in Chesapeake Bay for Early Summer

The Chesapeake Bay is expected to have moderate to poor dissolved oxygen conditions during the early part of the summer, according to a team of scientists with Chesapeake Eco-Check.

The early summer dissolved oxygen forecast (called an “anoxia forecast”) is based on nitrogen loads to the Bay during winter and spring, as well as high river flow in May due to heavy rainfall. According to scientists, the Bay’s 2011 low-oxygen area – commonly called the “dead zone” – could be the fourth-largest since 1985.

The annual summer ecological forecast uses data such as nitrogen loads, wind direction and sea level to predict dissolved oxygen levels in the Bay’s mainstem. The forecast is split into early summer (June to mid-July) and late summer (mid-July to September) because scientists have observed a significant change in oxygen levels following early summer wind events.

The forecast is supported through research at the Chesapeake Bay Program, Johns Hopkins University, Old Dominion University, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Lab.

We've had a lot of rain in the watershed this spring, and that traditionally means a bad summer for anoxia for a couple reasons.  First, the additional freshwater brings in lots of excess nutrients which fuel algae blooms, which die, sink to the bottom, and feed bacteria which use the oxygen in the bottom water.  Second, lots of freshwater sits on top of saltier seawater, and prevents the wind from mixing the bottom water to the surface (and vice versa) and traps the bottom water in the dead zone.  You can actually see the pycnocline (the area where the water becomes saltier as you go down, and where oxygen usually stops) on a good depth finder.  You won't find fish below that line.

The area we live in is one of the "hot spots" for the anoxic water.  It usually builds up until it reaches about 30 ft, or even less, from the surface, and kills all the non-mobile animals on the bottom to that depth.  The wrong wind (a good steady southwest wind, for a couple of days or more) will bring that dead water to the shore at our beach.  Often it pushes fish and crabs in front of it, and they pile up in the shallow waters near the beach.  People come to catch the crabs, and some of the fish.  Old timers call it a "crab jubilee", and people often call it a red tide, which it is not.  We may also have red tides about the same time though, so the confusion is understandable.  In a really extreme event, the dead water it brings up is often very clear and blue, as anything living in it has died and rotted.  It also stinks of hydrogen sulfide.

I'll likely post about one on the beach before the summer is through, although I'd prefer not to.

When Schools Cheat

Atlanta Public School Official Ordered Subordinates to Destroy Evidence of Cheating on Standardized Tests

Superintendent Beverly Hall ordered the destruction of investigative documents that detailed “systematic” cheating on standardized tests in the Atlanta Public Schools, according to a former high-ranking district official.

Hall also instructed subordinates to omit “adverse findings” from a new version of the report and then publicly cited the revised document in an aggressive rebuttal of the cheating allegations, the former official says.

When she protested, the former official says, her supervisor said the district had the right to “sanitize” the investigation and that “the matter was closed” because Hall “had directed that all other documents be destroyed.”

Destroying or altering government records is a felony in Georgia, carrying a prison sentence of as much as 10 years.

When teachers and administrators careers are won and lost according to how well students perform on standardized tests, the temptation to cheat is strong.  A few people will always yield to that temptation, especially if they believe the chances of getting caught are small.

It sets a wonderful example for the kids...

Who Thinks it’s a Good Idea to Drive 130 mph at Night While Drunk?

Ryan Dunn's wrecked car

Iraq Vet Killed by Drunk ‘Jackass’ Buddy

Zachary Hartwell was a 30-year-old Navy veteran who had been married less than a year. In the wee hours of Monday morning, after drinking at a bar in West Chester, Pa., Hartwell made the mistake of climbing into “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn’s Porsche.

Dunn’s blood-alcohol level was .196 — more than twice the legal limit — and his 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 was traveling more than 130 mph before the crash, police said. There was a skid mark more than 100 feet long on Route 322 near the Pottstown Pike exit, which some interpreted as evidence that Dunn slammed on the brakes after overshooting the exit. His car hit a guard rail and flew into the woods, crashing into a tree and bursting into flames. Both Dunn and Hartwell were killed.

Hartwell had worked as a stunt driver on the “Jackass” movies and also appeared in “Minghags,” a 2009 comedy directed by Dunn’s “Jackass” co-star Brandon “Bam” Margera.

Margera visited the crash site Tuesday and said: “[Dunn] was the happiest person ever. He was the smartest guy. He had so much talent. He had so many things going for him. It’s just not right.”

Dunn had been busted for DUI in 2005 after an earlier wreck near the site of Monday’s crash. He and Hartwell had been drinking Sunday night at Barnaby’s, a bar in West Chester where Dunn was said to be a regular. The night turned into a “massive party,” one friend said, when Dunn started buying rounds for the house and reportedly had at least three beers and three shots himself...

Would it be tasteless to nominate him for a Darwin Award?  We like to laugh at the country rubes who kill themselves in wild and and unusual ways. 

Title of the post came from the post at The Other McCain.


This just in.  Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest at Dunn's funeral.  A remarkable convergence of the phenomenon of Famous for Being Famous.

Pipe Down, Girls!

Victoria Azarenka - Loud Grunter!

Wimbledon 2011: grunting tennis players are spoiling the game

Exclusive: Female tennis players who grunt too loudly are putting off their opponents and spoiling the game for the millions of spectators, the head of Wimbledon says.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Ian Ritchie admitted tournament officials were becoming increasingly uneasy about the practice.

As the Championships celebrate its 125th anniversary this year Mr Ritchie, the chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (AELTC), said fans were also becoming frustrated with loud players who they believe are spoiling the game. He blamed younger players, whom he said suffered from an “education problem” about the issue.

Maria Sharapova - Greatest Grunter!

On the first day of the SW19 championships, Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, a player often criticised for her wails, edged towards record noise levels as she made her debut on Court No 2.  Noise machines recorded her reach a level of 95 decibels as she shrieked her way through the first round match against Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova.

However, the record for the finest female grunt on record goes to Maria Sharapova, who hit a bone-rattling 105 decibels:

The loudest known grunt came from Maria Sharapova, who sent the sound monitor into new realms with a recording of 105 decibels in 2009.

Mr Ritchie added: “I think there is an education problem with younger players. And certainly my postbag, if you say 'what do you get most letters about’, I would say that grunting is high up.

Maria: Not Grunting here.

Of course, the women are grunting to focus their strength, and stiffen their upper body to help deliver the strike to the ball.  I learned a similar technique in Tae Kwan Do, where we learned to make a similar vocalization when striking.  It really works.  It certainly isn't unnatural, like say steroids, and I've never heard the men tennis players being taken to task for it.

Summertime

I Might Need to Get One of These

A Start-Up’s Camera Lets You Take Shots First and Focus Later

With an innovative camera due out later this year from a company called Lytro, photographers will have one less excuse for having missed that perfect shot.

Lytro's camera produces files, like this one, where a user can click on an area to bring it into focus.

The company’s technology allows a picture’s focus to be adjusted after it is taken. While viewing a picture taken with a Lytro camera on a computer screen, you can, for example, click to bring people in the foreground into sharp relief, or switch the focus to the mountains behind them.

...The Lytro camera captures far more light data, from many angles, than is possible with a conventional camera. It accomplishes that with a special sensor called a microlens array, which puts the equivalent of many lenses into a small space. “That is the heart of the breakthrough,” said Pat Hanrahan, a Stanford professor, who was Mr. Ng’s thesis adviser but is not involved in Lytro.

 

Autofocus is nice, but it takes time, and limits your choices.  But certainly such advanced technoology will cost an arm and a leg, right?

Lytro is not saying what the price of its first camera will be, but insists it will be for the consumer market, which suggests a price of a few hundred dollars. The company is also not being more precise about when the camera will ship. It will initially be sold through online retailers like Amazon.com and Lytro’s Web site.

Faster!

Seen at Althouse.

US Dietary Guidelines - "No Scientific Basis"

A few weeks ago, the US Department of Agriculture a new visual aid to the suggested diet for US citizens (no, it doesn't have the force of law, yet...), based on a recent report by USDA.

A member of the task force charged with making that study was in Israel giving a lecture on the US process for making dietary guidelines and had this to say:

"There is no scientific basis for the U.S. Dietary Guidelines."

Joanne Slavin, PhD, RD, professor of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, was the head of the Carbohydrate Committee and on the Protein sub-committee for the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Scientific Advisory Committee. She was invited to be one of the guest speakers at The 9th Conference on Preventative Nutrition in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 18, 2011. Perhaps Ms. Slavin felt more at liberty to express her true feelings about the final version of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines being overseas and didn’t realize that I’d have eyes and ears listening in to what she had to say. But according to my source who was in attendance to hear her speech, you could tell she had an obvious discontent with the nutritional recommendations that are now being thrust upon Americans.

OK, that might be a little harsh.  Surely, at least the things on the new plate are at least food, and mostly wholesome.  But do we really need the government to tell us how to eat?  They having been doing so since about 1980; so how is that working out?  Dr. Slavin provided the data to evaluate the results of the governments efforts to get us skinny.  See the graph on the right. 

Apparently, the governments efforts to tell us how to eat have coincided with a distinctive increase in obesity.

Of course, it's difficult to know what would have happened had the government not pushed a high carbohydrate, low fat, and low protein diet on the populace, but the results to date are suggestive that it may, in fact, have been counter productive.  It's almost like the government was more interested in satisfying it's clients in the agriculture industry than in our health...

O'Malley Names Panel to "Study" Septic Pollution

Continuing his push to limit development on septic systems, Gov. Martin O'Malley named a 28-member task force to study the environmental and health impacts of on-site sewage disposal. 

A press release from the governor's office calls the task force broad-based, with representatives of business, agriculture, science, environmental advocacy and government. A quick scan of its members, though, suggests the panel is stacked at least modestly in favor of the governor's position that septic-based development needs to be limited.

O'Malley contends curbs on septic-based growth are needed to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay and to curb suburban sprawl.

"This effort is not about stopping growth" O'Malley said in a statement. "It is about stemming the tide of major housing developments built on septic systems to generate clean water and protect our environment and public health."

We've seen the preliminary parts of this political fight before, here, here, here and here.

Developers, farmers and some local officials, though, complained that the legislation supported by the governor would stunt growth in rural and some suburban areas of the state. The bill O'Malley backed would have barred septic systems for any "major" subdvisions with more than five homes, and would have required more costly and less polluting septic systems be used on individual homes or smaller developments.

Rural and much of suburban Maryland depends heavily on septic systems.  It's hard to imagine that a ban or even partial ban on new septic systems will not impact jobs and development in those regions of Maryland.  And the contribution of the septic systems to the nutrient pollution in the Bay is small, approximately 7-8% of the total nitrogen.  Is it worth hampering a significant portion of the economy of these areas to prevent an increase to 10%, especially when contributions from other sources, municipal sewage, atmospheric emissions, and agriculture are expected to decline?

Feeling a Quart Low...

I gave blood this morning, and spent the afternoon out in the sun...

New Study Confirms: Whining is the Worst Sound in the World

If you've ever thought that listening to your child whine was worse than having a buzz saw cut wood inside your house, it turns out you were right.

“You’re basically doing less work and doing it worse when you’re listening to the whines,” said study co-author Rosemarie Sokol Chang, a professor of psychology at SUNY New Paltz. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, everybody’s equally distracted.”

The researchers asked people to do subtraction problems while listening to an infant crying, regular speech, silence, whining, a high-pitched table saw and “motherese” -- exaggerated baby talk that adults often find irritating.

To ensure that people weren’t distracted by the words themselves, they used foreign language for the speech samples in the study, which was published in the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology.

In raw numbers, people made more mistakes per math problems completed when listening to the whines than any of the other speech patterns or noises (though the only statistically significant differences were between whining, the table saw and motherese).

 Aaaarrrggghhh...

Locking Out Energy Development - Banning Uranium Mining in the Southwest

Because it would be good for us to be beholden to foreign countries for our energy needs:

20-year ban planned on new Grand Canyon uranium mining

The Obama administration announced Monday that it intends to place a 20-year ban on mining 1 million acres of land bordering the Grand Canyon, an area where uranium mining claims have spiked 2,000% in the last seven years.

The ban would strengthen a moratorium on new mining claims and activity, which the administration placed on Grand Canyon border lands two years ago in response to the jump in uranium stakes. Interior Department officials said the agency initially would extend the current moratorium another six months, until December, in order to complete the steps necessary to establish the 20-year ban. Mines currently in operation would not be affected.

Environmentalists, some lawmakers and water utilities serving metropolitan areas in the southwest, including Los Angeles, said the decision would protect the critical Colorado River watershed from possible contamination from uranium mining and would prevent the Grand Canyon panorama from being gradually industrialized.

"This a big important step because we know there are rich claims out here that that mining industry would have gone after quickly," said Roger Clark, air and energy program director for the Grand Canyon Trust, a Flagstaff, Ariz., environmental group. "Mining would have affected the watershed, disturbed critical wildlife habitat, industrialized the perimeter of the Grand Canyon. It's kind of like locating a meatpacking house next to the Vatican: it's an incompatible use of the land."

Grand Canyon National Park is already 1.2 million acres forbidden to energy development.  The the administration just locked away nearly that much by executive fiat.   Twenty years is a long time, well beyond the life of the administration.  What will happen when the US decides it needs that uranium to produce it's own energy instead of buying oil or uranium from unreliable sources abroad?  Hopefully, a president with another magic wand will wave it and put that energy back into play,

Testing the Limits of Academic Freedom

Fairleigh Dickinson professor accused of running prostitution website

A Fairleigh Dickinson University physics professor is in custody for allegedly running a prostitution website involving about 200 women and more than 1,200 johns, police said Monday. David Flory of New York City, who teaches on the FDU-Metropolitan campus in Teaneck, was arrested Sunday while sitting in a Starbucks in Albuquerque, N.M., said Lt. William Roseman of the Albuquerque police. Flory, who ran the site mostly from New York, owned a vacation home in Santa Fe, N.M., Roseman said. Flory was charged with 40 counts of promoting prostitution and other charges. He was being held in Albuquerque on $100,000 bail late Monday...

Lot's of academics who work for grants joke about being prostitutes, but this is the first one I've seen playing to role of pimp.

...Flory’s website, Southwest Companions, had operated for months before several prostitutes in Albuquerque mentioned the site to police and they began investigating late last year, Roseman said.

Users were split into three categories, and first-time visitors had to first gain the trust of Flory before gaining any access. Ordinarily this was done, Roseman said, by “sleeping with a prostitute.” The prostitute would then report to Flory what sexual acts the two had engaged in, as well as how much money was exchanged. After that process, users were designated as “Verified,” gaining access to a wider circle of women to choose from, Roseman said. If users became more frequent customers, their status was increased to “Trusted,” which gave them access to more women and more portions of the website, including message boards explaining how to avoid the police, Roseman said.

“They had descriptions of my officers, phone numbers they used, videos of an attorney telling them that if you get busted by the police, here’s what you should do,” Roseman said. “This was a website designed, managed and run fully for prostitution.”

The site also included message boards where users could rate the prostitutes with stars, including specific sexual acts, Roseman said.

Flory is alleged to be behind it all. “Anybody who was approved for the website was approved by him,” Roseman said.

 Sadly, if he weren't in the hard sciences, he could probably get away with calling it research.

Roseman said Flory told police he did not make money off of the website and instead saw it as a hobby, “a safe place for guys to find female prostitutes.”

That's what we like, dedication to your work, low pay or not.

Mermaid Spotted on Virgina Beach

'Mermaid Ellie' promotes environmental stewardship

Hampton Roads has seen plenty, but a mermaid in its waters? Really?

Yes. Her name is Gabrielle Guaciaro, also known as "Mermaid Ellie."

Her auburn hair, striking eyes, high cheekbones and fair skin is reminiscent of The Little Mermaid, but in truth what mermaid isn't?

Guaciaro's get-up includes a 30-pound tail that's worth more than $1,000.

"I've just always wanted to be a mermaid," she said.

Guaciaro will be fulfilling that dream, swimming along the Oceanfront next month during Beach FamFest. This 10-week summer festival will be presenting "mermaid sightings" of Mermaid Ellie every Friday before sunset, including photos with the iridescent star.

Ummmm, OK, but where's the 'environmental stewardship'?

It is no surprise that Guaciaro has made her way from upstate New York to Norfolk, which uses the mermaid as its city symbol. There, she has been working with Norfolk Beautiful as a volunteer to promote environmental stewardship.

John Deuel, recycling coordinator for Norfolk Beautiful, says Guaciaro's realistic costume and gentle demeanor presents a positive approach to children and adults on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

"People need something tangible," Deuel said, "and she indirectly connects to the resource to where these animals live."

 OK, it was a stretch, but it involved a cute girl with big, uhhh, fins.  Yeah, that's it, fins...

Fighting Fire with Fire: Using a Virus to Kill Cancer

Prostate cancer vaccine targets tumors with an '80 per cent success rate'

A vaccine that destroys advanced prostate cancers while leaving healthy tissue untouched has been developed by scientists.


In laboratory tests, the gene therapy jab successfully wiped out 80 per cent of cancers without causing serious side effects.


The British researchers behind its creation said it was a 'completely new approach' and predicted that it could start trials on people within a few years.

That's great news, but could it be expanded to fight other cancers?  Is it a preventative, or a treatment for existing cancers?

Although the jab has been tested on prostate tumours, they believe it could work on a range of other deadly cancers including breast, lung and pancreatic cancer.

Unlike a conventional vaccine which is given to prevent infection with a virus or bacteria, the new treatment is used after someone has contracted cancer.

As Insty says, faster, please...

British Soldier Dies to Send Buds on Vegas Vacation

Soldier killed in Afghanistan had $150,000 in insurance to send his best buds to Las Vegas

David Hart, 23, a Royal Marine took out a $380,000 insurance policy before deploying to Afghanistan. Then he wrote a letter saying, should he not live to make it back home, $150,000 of the policy’s proceeds would go to send 32 of his his friends and their girlfriends on a vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada. He died more than a year ago, and now those friends are preparing for a holiday in his memory.

“He said, ‘Go and have a good time and spend all this money’. All the lads said, ‘What a guy’.”

Hart died in Helmand Province. He also left $76,000 to a charity for injured Marines and a “large sum” to his family, who will take part in a bike ride fundraiser for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund in September.

John 15:13 says: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  This guy seems to seen John, and raised him a Vegas vacation.

Good News! Hef, Crystal on the Rebound!

No, not together... 

Just days after Hef, was nearly left at the alter by his fiance, Crystal Harris, Hef is reported to have moved Anna Sophia Berglund, Miss January 2011, into his bedroom at the Playboy Mansion.  TMZ reports being shocked that Hef moved so quickly, but frankly, it's not that surprising to me.  Hef ain't got that much time left, and there are still an awful lot of ex-Playmates of the Month.

A Little Like Lake Woebegone in Reverse

Women judge 80% of Men as Below Average

women rate an incredible 80% of guys as worse-looking than medium. Very harsh. On the other hand, when it comes to actual messaging, women shift their expectations only just slightly ahead of the curve, which is a healthier pattern than guys’ pursuing the all-but-unattainable. But with the basic ratings so out-of-whack, the two curves together suggest some strange possibilities for the female thought process, the most salient of which is that the average-looking woman has convinced herself that the vast majority of males aren’t good enough for her, but she then goes right out and messages them anyway.

 So, reading the article, men have a rather symmetrical vision of female attractiveness, with approximately equal amount on either end of the curve (it's rather flat for a bell curve, but...), but prefer to court the ones they judge on the more attractive end (Hey, I agree with you girls, if that helps).  On the other hand, women think men are mostly unattractive, but are willing to settle for less attractive men if "other factors" make it seem like a good bargain.  Something like say, earning potential or political power, perhaps?  The seems consistent with Rep. Weiner getting so many messages from nubile women...

Maryland Oyster Farming Off to a Slow Start

Layers of Regulation Blamed

Encouraged by a new state policy to boost private oyster farming, Jay Robinson and Ryan Bergey applied last fall to lease upward of 1,000 acres in Fishing Bay in southern Dorchester County. They planned to "plant" 100 million hatchery-spawned oysters on the bottom there this year and raise them for sale to restaurants and seafood wholesalers.

Nine months later, Robinson and Bergey are still waiting for the green light to launch their aquaculture business, named the Waterman's Trust.

Whatever could be delaying the process?

Of 26 applications reviewed by the Department of Natural Resources since the fall for new leases to grow oysters on the bottom of either the Chesapeake Bay or the state's coastal bays, only one has been issued. Of eight other leases applied for raising bivalves in floating trays or sacks off the bottom, six have been okayed. And there are seven off-bottom lease applications still awaiting approval that were submitted before last fall, according to Karl Roscher, aquaculture coordinator in the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

While I think that putting oysters in floats is more progressive, and more likely to succeed, I fail to see any good reasons why it should be that onerous to get a leased bottom.

To help budding aquaculturists, the state has offered more than $2 million in subsidized loans and provided training and technical help.

But frustrated oyster farmers say their startups have been slowed by having their plans reviewed by three state agencies, and then by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Until recently, only the state had regulated raising oysters on the bottom, a practice pursued by some Marylanders for decades. The Corps had required federal permits for raising oysters in the water, either in floating trays or in sacks suspended from the surface. But lately the federal agency, which is charged with regulating activity in wetlands and waterways, has begun requiring bottom oyster growers to get a federal permit as well.

 So now, in addition to the three state agencies approval, approval from the Army Corps is required too?  And as we've seen in Virginia, they have their own agenda, and it may not include people raising oysters in places not of their choosing, and available for subsequent harvest.  While I agree with that posture when it comes to Federal Oyster Restoration money, it seems anti-productive when applied to private firms who want to raise oysters for harvest.