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POPSNaturmobil: Cart runs on "horse power" "My friends and relatives thought of me as a somewhat eccentric half-mad inventor attempting the impossible," said Mirhejazi who has brought his invention to Dubai. Nevertheless, one friend was prepared to rustle up enough cash to put the project under starter’s orders. "It took me 26 months to build the vehicle in my workshop in Tehran. I got it patented by a special department in Iran after professors at universities there attested that it was a scientific invention."
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POPSWas the FDA Report on 'Bisphenol A' Ghostwritten? Buried deep in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article is a very interesting factoid: "Bisphenol A was developed in 1891 as a synthetic estrogen. It came into widespread use in the 1950s when scientists realized it could be used to make polycarbonate plastic and some epoxy resins to line food and beverage cans." About 5-10 million people were exposed to the synthetic estrogen DES between 1938-1971, and the health of so-called "DES Daughters" is still being followed due to their increased risk for vaginal and cervical cancer, reproductive tract structural differences, pregnancy complications, and infertility.
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POPSCause of obesity? Cannot be ruled out. The global chemical industry produces about 6 billion pounds of BPA annually, generating at least $6 billion in annual sales. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods, from cell phones and computers to epoxy coatings and dental bindings, is probably incalculable. Thoughscientists have known since the 1930s that BPA mimics estrogen in the body , for unrelated reasons, the chemical serves as an essential building block of hard, clear polycarbonate plastics and tough epoxy resins, ubiquitous materials in the modern world. "It's probably the largest volume endocrine-disrupting chemical in commerce," says Vom Saal. "This stuff is in everything." Because plastics made with BPA break down easily when heated, microwaved, washed with strong detergents or wrapped around acidic foods like tomatoes, trace amounts of the potent hormone leach into food from epoxy lacquer can linings, polycarbonate bottles and other plastic food packaging.
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POPSCrystal clear? think again "of fast-moving and slow-moving regions in a solidifying glass were seen in experiments, and computer simulations predicted that this pattern, called dynamical heterogeneity, should exist." interesting stuff.. what amazes me, is as one zooms in (and out:) new levels of complexity that were not seen before, are discovered.
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POPSEnvironmental Amnesia While questioning what we buy, we've forgotten where we live continuing:...'I have steadfastly refused to frequent that part of town. But when my son needed a haircut for my father’s funeral, I found myself driving my old walking route to school, in search of a salon open on a Monday. It was supposed to be in here somewhere. While navigating the service roads, I tried hard to forget. But while my son was being pumped up in his pneumatic chair, I saw reflected in the mirror a retaining wall at the edge of the parking lot. I know that pattern of stones. I looked at them every day during math. I was standing in my fifth grade classroom. And the military recruiting center next door would have been the lunchroom. And that drive-through over there was the field where, every recess, my sister and Danelle and I ran, circling and whinnying like wild, wild horses." Good column --only clipped small part.
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POPSDark Label the watch is so similar to Tokujin Yoshioka’s work- TO, Seiko’s line of Issey Miyake watches which was lunched in 2005. http://speed.sii.co.jp/pub/corp/pr/newsDetail.jsp?news=1106
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POPSPolycarbonate-free baby bottles: protect your child Every parent of a bottle-feeding baby should know about the potential dangers of bisphenol-A, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate baby bottles (such Avent, which I've been using, until today ). This post runs down which brands are safe.