Mango Seeds May Protect Against
Deadly Food Bacteria
also from
ScienceDaily —
Life
in the fruit bowl is no longer the pits, thanks to a University
of Alberta researcher, Christina Engels who has found a way to
turn the throwaway kernels in mangos into a natural food
preservative that could help prevent Listeriosis outbreaks like
the one that killed 21 Canadians last year.
The findings can also
apply to other fruit seeds like grapes, said Engels, who
conducted the research to earn her master's degree from the
Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science at the
University of Alberta. The research is published in the latest
Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Pure tannins, a plant
component extracted from otherwise useless mango kernels, have
proven inhibitory effects against various strains of bacteria
including Listeria, a potentially deadly pathogen that infected
some packaged meats and caused an outbreak of disease in Canada
in 2008.
Engels' research
focuses on a way to recycle wood-like mango kernels, which are
usually thrown away or burned. "By processing the kernels for
their tannins, businesses have a way to completely utilize all
fruit parts and therefore increase their profit," she said.
Currently, mangos are one of the main fruits marketed globally,
ranked fifth in world production among the major fruit crops.
A Harsh Hello
for Visitors From Space
a review by A.
O. Scott
from the
NY Times
--
For
decades — at least since
Orson Welles scared the daylights out of radio listeners
with
“War of the Worlds” back in 1938 — the public has embraced
the terrifying prospect of alien invasion. But what if,
notwithstanding the occasional humanist fable like “E.T.,” all
those movies and television programs have been inculcating a
potentially toxic form of interplanetary prejudice?
District 9,
a smart, swift new film from the South African director Neill
Blomkamp raises such a possibility in part by inverting an
axiomatic question of the U.F.O. genre. In place of the usual
mystery — what are they going to do to us? — this movie poses a
different kind of hypothetical puzzle. What would we do to them?
The answer, derived from intimate knowledge of how we have
treated one another for centuries, is not pretty.
A busy opening flurry
of mock-news images and talking-head documentary chin scratching
fills in a grim, disturbingly plausible scenario. Back in the
1980s a giant spacecraft stalled in the skies over Johannesburg.
On board were a large number of starving and disoriented
creatures, who were rescued and placed in a temporary refugee
camp in the part of the city that gives the film its title. Over
the next 20 years the settlement became a teeming shantytown
like so many others in the developing world, with the relatively
minor distinction of being home to tall, skinny bipeds with
insectlike faces and bodies that seem to combine biological and
mechanical features. Though there is evidence that those
extraterrestrials — known in derogatory slang as prawns because
of their vaguely crustacean appearance — represent an advanced
civilization, their lives on Earth are marked by squalor and
dysfunction. And they are viewed by South Africans of all races
with suspicion, occasional pity and xenophobic hostility.
The South African
setting hones the allegory of “District 9” to a sharp topical
point. That country’s history of apartheid and its continuing
social problems are never mentioned, but they hardly need to be.
And the film’s implications extend far beyond the boundaries of
a particular nation, which is taken as more or less
representative of the planet as a whole.
No group, from the
mostly white soldiers and bureaucrats who corral and abuse the
prawns to the Nigerian gangsters who prey upon the aliens and
exploit their addiction to cat food, is innocent. And casual
bigotry turns out to be the least of the problems facing the
exiles. As it progresses, “District 9” uncovers a horrific
program of medical experimentation yoked to a near-genocidal
agenda of corporate greed. A company called M.N.U. (it stands,
none too subtly, for Multi-National United) has taken over
administration of the prawn population, which means resettling
the aliens in a remote enclosure reminiscent of the Bantustans
of the apartheid era.
Not that the
metaphorical resonances of “District 9” aren’t rich and thought
provoking. but the filmmakers don’t draw them out with a heavy,
didactic hand. Instead, in the best B-movie tradition, they
embed their ideas in an ingenious, propulsive and suspenseful
genre entertainment, one that respects your intelligence even as
it makes your eyes pop (and, once in a while, your stomach
turn).
At its core the film
tells the story — hardly an unfamiliar one in the literature of
modern South Africa — of how a member of the socially dominant
group becomes aware of the injustice that keeps him in his place
and the others, his designated inferiors, in theirs. The cost he
pays for this knowledge is severe, as it must be, given the
dreadful contours of the system. But if the film’s view of the
world is bleak, it is not quite nihilistic. It suggests that
sometimes the only way to become fully human is to be completely
alienated.
The
Green Roof Trend
from
E- The Environmental
Magazine
--
There
are many good reasons to build a rooftop garden, or a so-called
“green roof”—whereby layers of soil and plants on top of homes
and buildings provide a host of environmental “services” for the
living space below, as well as for the surrounding ecosystem.
Unlike traditional roofs, green roofs thrive on (and filter)
precipitation, decreasing the amount of pollution-laden storm
water run-off draining into our waterways. And thanks to the
process of photosynthesis, the plantings create oxygen, cleanse
the air and absorb carbon dioxide before it gets into the
atmosphere and adds to our global warming woes.
Green roofs also provide insulation: All those layers of organic
material help keep a structure warm in the winter and cool in
the summer, and help cut energy use and costs. Migrating birds
and other wildlife have been known to take a shine to green
roofs, especially in urban areas where natural habitat options
are limited. Likewise, homeowners and building residents tend to
view their green roofs as oases of peace and tranquility within
otherwise noisy and concrete-laden urban environments.
According to Green
Roofs for Healthy Cities, a nonprofit industry association,
green roofs are gaining popularity. North Americans added some
3.1 million square feet of them to their buildings in 2008
alone—up 35 percent from 2007. Part of this rise can be
attributed to increasing awareness of the benefits of green
roofs among urban planners, building owners and managers, and
homeowners, all who have pressured policymakers to ease the
burden of zoning and permitting for such beneficial projects.
Chicago now sports over ½
million square feet of green roofs—the most in North America.
Other leading lights in the green roofs movement include
Washington, DC, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
Montreal, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Dozens of smaller
cities have also embraced green roofs. Grand Rapids. Michigan
sports some 75,000 square feet of them, and Princeton, New
Jersey and Newtown Square, Pennsylvania each play host to 50,000
square feet citywide. Inquiring at city hall is the best way to
see if your city or town offers incentives for creating a green
roof or greening an existing one.
Relief for the costs of
installing a green roof might be on the way from the federal
government. As part of the Clean Energy Stimulus and Investment
Assurance Act she authored earlier this year, U.S. Senator Maria
Cantwell (D-WA) is calling for residential and commercial
property owners who install green roofs or retrofit existing
roofs to recoup 30 percent of their costs in the form of a
federal tax credit.
Do-it-your-selfers will find a treasure trove of information on
how to create and install a green roof at the website
Greenroofs.com. The site’s keyword-searchable directory offers
links to manufacturers of kits to make installing your own green
roof that much simpler, as well as to professional installers
across North America and groups working on urban greening
issues.
Les Paul Passes
from the
Morung Express --
Les
Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded
by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday of
complications from pneumonia. He was 94. According to Gibson
Guitar, Paul died at White Plains Hospital. His family and
friends were by his side.
As an inventor, Paul also helped bring about the rise of rock
'n' roll with multitrack recording, which enables artists to
record different instruments at different times, sing harmony
with themselves, and then carefully balance the tracks in the
finished recording. The use of electric guitar gained popularity
in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then exploded with the advent of
rock in the mid-'50s.
"Suddenly, it was recognized that power was a very important
part of music," Paul once said. "To have the dynamics, to have
the way of expressing yourself beyond the normal limits of an
unamplified instrument, was incredible. Today a guy wouldn't
think of singing a song on a stage without a microphone and a
sound system." A tinkerer and musician since childhood, he
experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming
up in 1941 with what he called "The Log," a four-by-four piece
of wood strung with steel strings. "I went into a nightclub and
played it. Of course, everybody had me labeled as a nut." He
later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a tradition
guitar shape. In 1952, Gibson Guitars began production on the
Les Paul guitar. Pete Townsend of the Who, Steve Howe of Yes,
jazz great Al DiMeola and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page all made the
Gibson Les Paul their trademark six-string.In the late 1960s,
Paul retired from music to concentrate on his inventions. His
interest in country music was rekindled in the mid-'70s and he
teamed up with Chet Atkins for two albums.
With Mary Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold
records. Many of their songs used overdubbing techniques that
Paul had helped develop. "I could take my Mary and make her
three, six, nine, 12, as many voices as I wished," he recalled.
The overdubbing technique was highly influential on later
recording artists such as the Carpenters.
FDA
Approves Children Antidepressant,
Even After Revelations of Bribery
from RINF
News --
The
FDA recently approved Forest Laboratories’
anti-depressant Lexapro (escitalopram) for use in
children and adolescents, even as the federal government and 11
states have filed a lawsuit against the company for illegally
pushing the drug on kids. The federal government has accused
Forest of bribing pediatricians to prescribe Lexapro and a
related drug, Celexa (citalopram), to treat depression in
children, even though such use had not been approved by the FDA
at the time.
The government also claims
that Forest concealed the results of studies showing the drugs
to be no more effective than a placebo.
“By
knowingly and actively promoting these antidepressants for
off-label pediatric use without disclosing the results of the
negative pediatric study and by paying kickbacks, Forest caused
false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs in
violation of the False Claims Act,” said the federal complaint,
issued on Feb. 25. Lexapro was introduced in 2001 as a successor
to Forest’s blockbuster Celexa, which lost patent protection and
became available for generic replication in 2003.
Both drugs are
antidepressants that have been shown to significantly increase
the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children,
adolescents and young adults after even short-term use.
Lexapro is the 15th biggest selling drug in
the United States
Next
time you’re making a cup of tea, new research shows it might be wise
to opt for a white tea if you want to reduce your risk of cancer,
rheumatoid arthritis or even just age-associated wrinkles.