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POPSFuture 'Top 10' Hot Careers in 2012 5) Simulation Engineering By 2012, an increase in processing power and rich data will make simulations more realistic, and user-friendly. Simulation engineers will be working on bringing us closer to “Star Trek’s” Holodecks—the ultimate total immersion simulation. Simulations will be in every industry and every engineering field, 6) Boomer Caregiving 7) Genetic Counseling 8) Brain Analysts 9) Space Tourism 10) Roboticists
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POPSWomen trafficking, horrible also in numbers Some more horrifying statistics: In the region of South Eastern Europe, comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, 90% of foreign women in the sex business are alleged victims of trafficking, 10% to 15% of these women and girls are under the age of 18 years. The majority of victims are recruited in Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania. The women and girls are often initially trafficked on the local market. They are being moved from one place to another and after a while sold abroad. following a movie i saw, thought to look into figures and was amazed. this is one of the lowest levels that human is reaching. and i say human because putting it away, shoving it aside, excusing oneself from that sight will not do. it is something in within human capabalities, and we should acknowledge that, also the strive to undo it.
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POPSNew Longevity Drugs Poised to Tackle Diseases of Aging A growing number of scientists suspect that the breakdown of mitochondria is among the most important causes of cell-level changes that eventually cause the body's tissues to degenerate with age. The damage accumulates gradually until hitting some critical mass of malfunction, at which point diseases arrive rapidly. That may be why so many diseases first occur during middle age, and become steadily more common afterwards.
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POPSScientists adapt economics theory to trace brain's information flow Scientists believed the frontoparietal cortex was influencing the visual cortex, but the brain scanning approach they were using, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), can only complete scans about once every two seconds, which was much too slow to catch that influence in action. When researchers applied Granger causality, though, they were able to show conclusively that as volunteers waited for the stimulus to appear, the frontoparietal cortex was influencing the visual cortex, not the reverse.
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POPSGordon Moore's Next Act The man behind Moore's Law is tackling biodiversity, the future of engineering education, and the secrets of the galaxies
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POPSCup of tea may help boost memory! "Drinking regular cups of tea could help improve your memory, research suggests." Both green tea and black tea inhibit enzymes that help produce protein deposits in the brain which are associated with Alzheimer's disease. Green tea's inhibitive effect lasts longer. Good news for those of us who love to drink tea, particularly green tea. I'm going to brew a pot right now...
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POPS5 Things we do that attract mosquitoes...and how we can fight back
Like one of the researchers in the article, I am irresistible to mosquitoes. If there is a mosquito around it will home in on me rather than on other people. I'm popular at parties, as I draw all the mosquitoes away from the other guests! I have to wear mosquito repellent indoors and out, and even then they hover near me, looking for an unprotected blood vessel. Aye, 'tis a dubious honor to be so sought after! "Researchers have identified more than 300 chemical compounds that a human emits, chiefly from the skin, and they're trying to figure out which ones most influence mosquito behavior. Some claim they've isolated a few ingredients that appear to make us undetectable to mosquitoes. They're working to formulate them into a new way of protecting us from biting insects...The hope is to publish findings next year, then seek a manufacturer to license the discovery, develop and market a product. He envisions an aerosol device that would release cloaking compounds into the air."
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POPSBee Disease Still A Mystery, Despite New Advances Entomologists are studying the reasons behind an enormous bee die off happening across the country. They call it Colony Collapse Disorder, and if they cannot find a solution the 80% of fruits and vegetables that require pollination may not make it to market.
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POPSArtificial Intelligence and Society We act like our tiny little corner of mindspace is the whole universe. We think of the scale of intelligence as if it ran from a village idiot to Einstein, rather than running from an amoeba up to humans. On the scale of interspecies differences of intelligence–if you are comparing yourself to a mouse–then the distance between a village idiot and Einstein fits onto a small dot. You might be able to tell the difference between a village idiot and an Einstein, but a chimpanzee would have a bit of trouble administering the IQ test.
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POPSBravo For Bush And Bravo For The Traders
Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime. The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California. There’s also a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it’s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry.
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POPSStem cells are needed The conflict centers on an effort to create stem cells from embryos that are exact clones of adults. The hope is to one day use the cells to generate transplant tissues or even whole body parts to treat incurable diseases. Last month, the California agency doled out $23 million in research grants but turned down all applications seeking funding for the technique, known as therapeutic cloning." I find it very disturbing; why does the US try to hold off the future that may take humanity one step forward.
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POPSRight, so tell me again how the "free market" is the best way to manage health-care delivery An editorial from 2007 shows how research into three promising anticancer drugs has been abandoned. The reason is that the compounds on which the drugs are based cannot be patented (melatonin, for example), which means that pharma companies are unlikely to turn a profit. Understandable, from the perspective of the pharma companies, but unconscionable, from the perspective of cancer patients.
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POPSThe Life and Death of Your Tweets Raises interesting questions. Would you want to have access to everything you've ever twittered? Will corporations be able to paint a picture of you based on "what you've been doing" for the past X years? Found via this clip
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POPSMonsanto to Charge as Much as 42% More for New Seeds "Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase US crop yields." Still Monsanto is going to claim yet a bigger piece of the non-existent pie. What greedy bastards. GM Fails To Boost Crop Yields
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POPSThe profit from obesity Nevertheless, there are enormous profits to be had from obesity. The foods that maximise profit just happen to be those high in sugar or fat. They are cheap to produce, easy to brand and market, and easy to stock in supermarket aisles. And there are numerous ways to encourage people who are pre-obese to buy these foods. Sedentary behaviour is also profitable, and encouraged by industry. A moped is more glamorous than a bicycle. A new computer game will re-invigorate peoples' interest, but not their bodies.
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POPSMany negative drug studies don't see print Perhaps one of the reasons so many people on antidepressants, commit suicide. What does that say about cloning research. The public are obviously seen as nothing more as a market. What do you do if someone is depressed? Stun them with pharmaceuticals, and hope they don't wake up, or are too disoriented to argue. Of course you can always expect doctors to do what is right according to the information that is provided to them.
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POPSHumble mouse turns 40 and loses its touch "The mouse now faces unprecedented competition. Laptops which make no use of a mouse are an increasingly popular alternative to desktop computers for workers on the move. Apple's popular iPhone and Nintendo's Wii have shown the potential for touchscreens and movement sensors. HP is pushing a mouse-less TouchSmart PC. Microsoft has invested millions of dollars in a coffee table-shaped 'Surface' computer which responds to natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects." And still it has done its job in making computers more accessible... happy birthday :-)
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POPSNew Nanotechnology Products Hitting The Market At The Rate Of 3-4 Per Week While polls show most Americans know little or nothing about nanotechnology, in 2006 nanotechnology was incorporated into more than $50 billion in manufactured goods. By 2014, Lux Research estimates $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods will incorporate nanotechnology--or about 15 percent of total global output. Despite a 2006 worldwide investment of $12.4 billion in nanotech R&D, comparatively little was spent on examining nanotechnology's potential environmental, health and safety risks.
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POPSHumans and honeybees share risk-taking mechanism "In the real world, rewards may frequently be ambiguous, and you never know when conditions are going to change," said Lotem. "So perhaps the tendency to explore both options and to prefer the one perceived as better most of the time is a good strategy."
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POPSIs the 'WRISTWATCH' over??? I really hope not. although i think it might be true. I bought my husband a beautiful watch for our first anniversary years ago-- i think he gave it about a 6 month wear before he realized he preffered his phone to be his watch. i think watches are really 'smart' - i think they look nice on people..i'd hate to see the Blackberry/Cellphone movement knock out this market too...
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