Vladimir Demikhov’s Two-Headed Dogs

In 1954 Vladimir Demikhov shocked the world by unveiling a surgically created monstrosity: A two-headed dog. He created the creature in a lab on the outskirts of Moscow by grafting the head, shoulders, and front legs of a puppy onto the neck of a mature German shepherd.

Demikhov paraded the dog before reporters from around the world. Journalists gasped as both heads simultaneously lapped at bowls of milk, and then cringed as the milk from the puppy’s head dribbled out the unconnected stump of its esophageal tube. The Soviet Union proudly boasted that the dog was proof of their nation’s medical preeminence.

Over the course of the next fifteen years, Demikhov created a total of twenty of his two-headed dogs. None of them lived very long, as they inevitably succumbed to problems of tissue rejection. The record was a month.

Demikhov explained that the dogs were part of a continuing series of experiments in surgical techniques, with his ultimate goal being to learn how to perform a human heart and lung transplant. Another surgeon beat him to this goal — Dr. Christian Baarnard in 1967 — but Demikhov is widely credited with paving the way for it.

Veggies and alcohol may ward off prostate woes

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who want to avoid developing the benign but bothersome prostate enlargement that typically accompanies aging should cut their intake of fat and red meat, eat more vegetables, and have a couple of drinks a day, a new study suggests.

As many as half of 50-year-old men have benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), which causes frequent and sometimes painful urination, while up to 80% of 70 year olds have the condition, Dr. Alan R. Kristal of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues note in their report.

The only established risk factor for BPH that people can do something about is obesity, particularly in the abdominal region. To investigate whether dietary changes could be beneficial as well, Kristal and his team followed 4,770 initially BPH-free men for seven years, during which time 876 developed the condition.

Men who had two or more alcoholic beverages daily were 33% less likely to develop BPH than teetotalers, the researchers found, while those who consumed at least four servings of vegetables daily were at 32% lower risk than those who ate fewer than one serving per day.

Red meat increased the likelihood of BPH, but only in men who ate it every day. Men who ate the most fat were 31% more likely to develop BPH, while the highest consumers of protein actually cut their risk by 15%.

The protein finding “doesn’t mean go out and eat lean meat, it means go out and find lean sources of protein, which can be quite diverse,” Kristal told Reuters Health, pointing to beans and vegetable proteins as two possibilities.

Also, he and his colleagues found, taking antioxidant supplements had no effect on BPH risk. “Dietary supplements didn’t matter, no matter how you looked at it. It was the dietary pattern, not the use of supplements.”

Eating to avoid BPH can help prevent obesity and heart disease as well, Kristal noted. “It’s almost saying that here’s a diet that seems to be associated generally with less aging. It’s uncanny to me that you do more and more research and discover that these aging-related diseases seem to be consistently lower with the same type of dietary pattern.”

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, online February 7, 2008.

A Supercar Faster than a Porsche or Lamborghini but Made of Wood

This car features 600 HP, weighs just under 1150 kg, comes with a Cadillac Northstar sourced V-8 4.6 liter engine, has a top speed of 240 MPH, and oh yeah, its made of wood. This wooden supercar, known as the Splinter, can go from 0-60 is just over 3 seconds and is eco-friendly.

It gets about 20 MPG, and comes fitted with some very unique wooden rims. The car has a roll cage to protect the driver, though it can only seat two people.

The car was designed by a team led by 27 year old graduate student Joe Harmon at NC State. The car is just a project, but has been getting a lot of mainstream attention. The team has been blogging about the development of the wooden supercar at Harmon’s Blogspot Blog.

Looking into the future, Harmon has said that it may not be long before a F1 driver gets behind the wheel of a wooden racecar. Here is a description of the project from the group’s website:

We are building a high-performance, mid-engined supercar from wood composites as a graduate project at North Carolina State University. Wood will be used whereever possible, including the chassis, body, and large percentages of the suspension components and wheels. The car has a target weight of 2500lbs and a power goal of over 600 horsepower. We aren’t trying to sell anything; we aren’t trying to save the world, and we aren’t advocating that everyone should drive a wooden car. This project is a scholastic endeavour in which are simply trying to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity. This section details who we are and what we are doing. We hope you enjoy checking out what we are working on.

Below are a few more pictures of the mock-ups and the process:

Venus: The planet where it rains acid

Posted by: Richard | Saturday February 23, 2008

Everyone seems to complain whenever it rains here on Earth, but on Venus you might actually have good reason to moan. Instead of water Venus’s clouds are made of corrosive sulfuric acid, and if you got covered in that, chances are you wouldn’t be around very long to tell the tale.

In reality it never rains sulfuric acid (at least not down to ground level) on Venus, because it evaporates before it has time to hit the ground - in fact, surface temperatures on Venus are hot enough to melt lead.

New research from ESA’s Venus Express probe is starting to reveal some of the secrets of Venus’s atmosphere, and some of them are very surprising indeed.

Unlike on Earth, where clouds tend to move only a few hundred miles at most, sulfuric acid clouds on Venus have ben seen moving from the poles to the equator, then back to the poles again, in just a few days.

But wait a minute… where does all this sulfuric acid come from? After all, Venus is sometimes known as ‘Earth’s evil twin’ because of its runaway global warming, caused by excess carbon dioxide levels.

In fact, 97% of Venus’s atmosphere is made of CO2, although there are small amounts of gases such as sulfur dioxide and water vapor.

Recently discovered by the Venus Express probe is that the sulfuric acid is created when the sulfur dioxide and water vapor rise to the top of the atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet rays from the Sun, causing them to react and form sulfuric acid.

Why do they rise up? That’s one of the many things that remains to be found out, hopefully during this last year of the phenomenal Venus Express mission.

Over half of Britons claim no religion

Freedom from religion in Britain is becoming as important as freedom of religion, according to a United Nations investigation into religion in the UK.

In a 23-page report published this evening, a UN rapporteur claims the 2001 Census findings that nearly 72 per cent of the population is Christian can no longer be regarded as accurate. The report claims that two-thirds of British people now do not admit to any religious adherence.

The report also calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England. The role and privileges of the established Church are challenged because they do not reflect “the religious demography of the country and the rising proportion of other Christian denominations.”

The report also warns that measures to combat terrorism in Britain could be undermined because of discrimination against Muslims.

According to the report into the freedom of religion and belief in the UK, there is an “overall respect for human rights and their value.” But the report warns that Muslims in particular face screening, searches, interrogation and arrest.

Citing research that showed that 80 per cent of Muslims in Britain feel they have been discriminated against, the report singles out the Terrorism Act 200 for particular criticism.

Under the act, police in some areas can stop and search people without having to show reasonable suspicion.

The report says this affects ethnic and religious minorities more than other groups, especially since the July 7 bombings in 2005.

Figures for 2004 to 2006 “show that searches of people with Asian appearance under this provision increased by 84 per cent, compared to an increase of only 24 per cent for White people,” the report says.

The report’s author, Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, also criticises terms in the Terrorism Act 2006 for being “overly broad and vaguely worded.” Phrases she focuses on include “indirectly encouraging” acts of terrorism, and “glorification”, interpreted to mean “any form of praise or celebration.” She also describes the policy of 28 days in detention without charge as unsatisfactory.

Ms Jahangir, 55, twice chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and who was herself only released from house arrest in Lahore during November, says in her conclusions “there exists no hierarchy of discrimination grounds.”

She argues that religion should not have a lower ranking when competing rights are being balanced.

However, she does acknowledge concern about “informal matrimonial courts operating within the Muslim community based on sharia law.” Ms Jahangir, a mother of three children, says the argument by some religious leaders that their traditions should override the rights of women is “unacceptable”.

The report was published the day after the Archbishop of Canterbury said some of the ways in which Sharia was practised were “appalling”.

Dr Rowan Williams said the way the system was applied to women in countries such as Saudi Arabia was “grim”. The Archbishop was speaking in Cambridge days after being criticised for raising the possibility that some aspects of Sharia might be introduced into the British legal system. “What I was trying to say the other day is that sharia law is a very, very wide-ranging scheme of legal understanding within historic Islam,” the Archbishop said at a public lecture in Great St Mary’s Church.

“It is rooted in the sense of doing God’s will in the ordinary things of life.” But he added: “In some of the ways it has been codified and practised across the world, it has been appalling.”

Japan Launches Internet Satellite

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency launched an experimental communications satellite Saturday designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.

The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the satellite, “Kizuna,” was launched Saturday evening from the southern island of Tanegashima, according to a live Internet broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA.

The satellite, equipped with two large multi-beam antennas, separated from the rocket and successfully entered its intended orbit 175 miles from Earth, JAXA said in a statement.

The agency said it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different places in Southeast Asia through Kizuna, which JAXA developed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Japan has yet to join the lucrative international satellite market, and Kizuna, which should be in operation for five years, is not intended for commercial use. Its large H-2A rocket is one of the most advanced and reliable in the world — Saturday’s was its eighth straight successful launch.

Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has achieved several major scientific coups in space — including launching a probe that collected samples from an asteroid.

Japan is racing to catch up with regional rival China, which has put astronauts in space twice since 2003 and was the third country to send a human into orbit after Russia and the United States. Japan has since announced plans to send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

In February 2007, the agency launched its fourth intelligence-gathering satellite amid concerns over neighboring North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs

Can You Predict Happiness?

If you think you can predict what you will like, think again. When people try to estimate how much they will enjoy a future experience, they are dependably wrong, according to research by Harvard psychologists — and the reason is something they call “attentional collapse.” When we imagine future experiences, we tend to compare them with alternative experiences — experiences we’ve had in the past, or other experiences we might have before or after. But the fact is that none of those alternatives come into play once we’re actually in the moment. That’s what Daniel Gilbert, author and Harvard psychology professor, means by “attentional collapse”: it’s the idea that when we are actually having an engaging, encompassing experience, it acts like a black hole of imagination, sucking in all of our attention and making our preconceptions irrelevant.

The thought of a weekend office picnic, for example, sounds tedious compared with a trip to the spa, but fun compared with working overtime on a Sunday. But these comparisons have little bearing on our actual experience of the picnic because once we arrive and start chatting with colleagues or playing softball, the experience draws our attention away from the alternatives. “The kinds of comparisons we’re making when we’re imagining the future aren’t the kinds we make when we get there,” Gilbert says.

In his latest research, conducted in collaboration with social psychologist Carey Morewedge of Carnegie Mellon University and presented last weekend at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston, Gilbert bolsters the theory that our inability to predict enjoyment of our future experiences keeps us from accurately predicting what will make us happiest in the future overall.

Take the simple act of eating a potato chip. In a series of experiments, Gilbert invited Harvard undergraduates to a lab stocked with potato chips, along with either sardines or chocolate. To compare expected versus actual enjoyment of the experience, one group of students was asked to predict how much they would enjoy the chips compared to the relatively better food (chocolate) or the worse food (sardines); this forecasting group was asked to imagine eating the chips before, after or instead of the alternatives. Students in another “experience” group were instructed to eat the chips and the other foods. Turns out that the other foods had no impact on the actual enjoyment of eating chips. “People who are simply imagining how much they’re going to like chips imagine they’re going to like them much more if they’re eaten after sardines, than if they’re eaten after chocolate,” Gilbert says. “That’s wrong.”

Whether the students ate chips before or after sardines or chocolate, it made no difference. Rather, eating a potato chip was an experience unto itself. “It’s the taste of that crackily, greasy, salty, crunchy, fried potato flavor — it’s the consuming experience you’re having and your attention collapses on this moment,” says Gilbert.

So what does eating potato chips have to do with our larger, more important life decisions? Consider the choice to marry one sweetheart over another. If you pick the genial, down-to-earth banker, will you forever regret letting go of that free-spirited artist who loves traveling as much as you? Probably not. The very fact that you’ll be living with — and experiencing — one spouse and not the other means that the passed-over option will quickly fade in your mind. “The people you don’t marry don’t move in with you,” says Gilbert.

Envisioning what life would have been like with an alternate spouse becomes difficult and increasingly irrelevant as you settle into the life you’ve selected. “Once you make a choice in life, the unchosen alternatives evaporate,” he says. According to Gilbert’s earlier research, which he featured in his 2006 book, Stumbling on Happiness, when faced with an irrevocable decision, people are happier with the outcome than when they have the opportunity to change their minds. “It’s a very powerful phenomenon,” he says. “This is really the difference between dating and marriage.”

But what if the person you didn’t marry moved in next door? Suddenly your attention isn’t completely collapsed on your own marriage, and every day you can witness the alternative life you overlooked.

Gilbert simulated that scenario with potato chips. As in the other experiments, one group of students was asked to eat the chips and other foods, and another was asked to imagine doing so. Only this time, two more groups were asked to eat — or imagine eating — to the beat of a metronome. Those who ate at a normal pace — one chip for every 15 seconds — came to the same misguided conclusions as other students: predictions did not correspond to their actual levels of enjoyment. Yet those who ate chips more slowly, one every 45 seconds, had very different results. Their forecasts were almost completely accurate.

Eating the chips slowly is an “experience that isn’t engaging, so your mind is free to wander to all of the other things you could have been doing,” Gilbert says. The same phenomenon occurs while driving, when you move into the right lane, only to have the traffic stall as the left lane speeds by. Suddenly, “it really hurts to be in the right lane,” he says. “You’re not driving, you’re not engaged, you’re not navigating. You’re just sitting and your mind can wander and you can think about all the things you might have done instead of getting in the right lane.”

Yet the moments when we are actually able to dedicate that level of comparison to an experience while we’re having it are few and far between, Gilbert says. In the vast majority of scenarios, “the roads we don’t take in life disappear a lot more quickly than we think they will.”

So what does this mean for how we should contemplate our next big decision? For Gilbert, it’s simple. “When looking into the future, never trust your gut. That doesn’t mean it’s always wrong, you should just never trust it. It never hurts to stop and ask.”

Vetëvarja e 17-vjeçarit, nxënësit protestë kundër drejtorit

Devoll- Vetëvarja e 17-vjeçarit, Mikel Ajce, gjimnazistit të përjashtuar dy ditë më parë nga shkolla, ka shkaktuar një protestë të nxënësve të shkollës së mesme në qytetin e Bilishtit. Kanë qenë shokët dhe shoqet e tij të shkollës, të cilët kanë vendosur të mos hyjnë gjatë të premtes në klasat e tyre për të protestuar kundër drejtorit të kësaj shkolle.***

Mikel Ajce, nxënës në gjimnazin “Fuat Babani”, të qytetit të Bilishtit është përjashtuar nga shkolla, ndërsa nuk ka mundur të durojë dot këtë situatë, duke zgjedhur një mënyrë ekstreme. Një konflikt në klasë me një vajzë, gjatë një zënke adoleshentësh, duket se ka çuar në përjashtimin e gjimnazistit tashmë të vdekur. Pasi janë njoftuar prindërit dhe i është dhënë e drejta e ankimimit, të riut i është komunikuar përjashtimi nga shkolla, lajm që nuk është pritur aspak mirë nga 17-vjeçari. Më pas i dëshpëruar, Mikeli ka vendosur të shkruajë një letër, të cilën ua ka drejtuar prindërve të tij. “Nuk kisha rrugë tjetër ndaj vendosa të zgjedh rrugën e vdekjes. Nuk mund ta duroja përjashtimin e padrejtë. Në varrimin tim nuk dua të jetë drejtori i shkollës, por dhe as mësuesit.” Kaq ka thënë në mënyrë të përmbledhur 17-vjeçari Ajce, i cili më pas me një litar ka vendosur t’i japë fund jetës.

***

Mëngjesin e djeshëm, gjimnazistët e Bilishtit kanë dalë në protestë duke refuzuar të hyjnë dhe në klasat e tyre, ndërsa kërkesa kryesore ka qenë largimi i drejtorit të shkollës, për shkak të përjashtimit arbitrar nga shkolla të shokut të tyre. Vendim që ka nxitur në fundin tragjik të të riut i vetëvarur vetëm disa orë pas këtij vendimi. Ndërkaq nxënësit kanë treguar se shoku i tyre është larguar padrejtësisht nga shkolla pas një incidenti të ndodhur në klasë me një vajzë, e cila ishte goditur me stilolaps nga djali. Drejtori i shkollës ndaj të cilit janë ngritur pjesa më e madhe e nxënësve që mësojnë në të ka treguar për gazetën se përjashtimi i 17-vjeçarit nuk është arbitrar. Alfred Mulla është shprehur nëpërmjet telefonit se ndiente keqardhje si prind dhe mësues për vdekjen tragjike të Mikeel Ajces, por sipas tij përjashtimi është bërë kolegjial, pas një vendimi konform të gjitha rregullave. Madje ai sqaron se fëmijës dhe prindërve të tij iu është dhënë shansi të ankimohen për të rifituar të drejtën e të kthyerit në shkollë.

Muslims criticise Walkers after it is revealed that some crisp varieties contain alcohol

Doritos Heat variety are one of those that contain small amounts of trace alcohol

Furious Muslims have heavily criticised Walkers crisps after it emerged that certain varieties of the manufacturer’s products contain trace elements of alcohol.Some crisp types use minute amounts of alcohol as a chemical agent to extract certain flavours.

The report in Asian newspaper Eastern Eye, highlights concerns raised by shopkeeper Besharat Rehman, who owns a halal supermarket in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Mr Rehman told the paper: “A customer informed us that Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli and Doritos Chilli Heat Wave are not on Walkers’ alcohol-free list. Our suppliers were unaware of this.

“Even if it is a trace amount of alcohol, Walkers should make it clear on the packaging so that the customer can make an informed choice.

“I feel frustrated and angry. I have let my customers down simply because such a big company like Walkers is not sensitive to Muslim needs.

“Many of them were my daughter’s favourite crisps. As soon as I found out about the alcohol in them, I called home to ask my wife to throw out all the packets.”

Shuja Shafi, who chairs the food standards committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he intended to investigate. “Certainly we would find it very offensive to have eaten food with alcohol.”

Masood Khawaja, of the Halal Food Authority, said that this was not the first time the issue had been raised with Walkers.

“They should have looked into the matter and solved it instead of hiding behind labelling regulations. It does not matter what percentage of alcohol is involved.

“Besides Muslims, there are a lot of teetotal people who would not like to consume alcohol in any form. As far as possible we try and lobby for halal symbols on popular products like Kellogg’s cereals.

“But we have always told Muslims to check the contents list even if a product is marked suitable for vegetarians. But to not mention it on the packaging is unfair.”

However, a spokesperson for Walkers said that trace amounts of alcohol in crisps or bread are believed to be permissible for Muslims.

“We do not add alcohol to our products. However, ethyl alcohol may be present in trace amounts in a very small number of our flavours.

“It is used as a carrying agent for flavourings, and is found in many common food and drink products.

“Foods like bread can also contain the same or higher trace amounts due to fermentation. “We are aware of the concerns from some Muslim consumers about the appropriateness of specific ingredients. We take the concerns of our consumers extremely seriously.

“In previous assessments by Muslim scholars, foods and drinks that contain trace amounts of ethyl alcohol have been confirmed as permissible for Muslim consumption because of both the fact that the ingredient does not bear its original qualities and does not change the taste, colour or smell of the product, and its very low level.”