BPA Free: Experiments Show Bisphenol S Also Disrupts Hormone Activity
January 27th, 2013Via: ScienceDaily:
The industry responded by creating “BPA-free” products, which were made from plastic containing a compound called bisphenol S. In addition to having similar names, BPA and BPS share a similar structure and versatility: BPS is now known to be used in everything from currency to thermal receipt paper, and widespread human exposure to BPS was confirmed in a 2012 analysis of urine samples taken in the U.S., Japan, China and five other Asian countries.
According to a study by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers, though, BPS also resembles BPA in a more problematic way. Like BPA, the study found, BPS disrupts cellular responses to the hormone estrogen, changing patterns of cell growth and death and hormone release. Also like BPA, it does so at extremely low levels of exposure.
“Our studies show that BPS is active at femtomolar to picomolar concentrations just like endogenous hormones — that’s in the range of parts per trillion to quadrillion,” said UTMB professor Cheryl Watson, senior author of a paper on the study now online in the advance publications section of Environmental Health Perspectives. “Those are levels likely to be produced by BPS leaching from containers into their contents.”
Research Credit: ottilie
Tina Turner ‘To Become Swiss, Give up U.S. Passport’
January 27th, 2013Via: AFP:
US pop legend Tina Turner, who has been living in Switzerland since 1995, will soon receive Swiss citizenship and will give up her US passport, Swiss media reported Friday.
“I’m very happy in Switzerland and I feel at home here. … I cannot imagine a better place to live,” Turner told German language daily Blick.
A Production of the United States Information Agency
January 27th, 2013Via: YouTube:
This trippy tribute to our country’s 200th birthday was funded by a Bicentennial Project Grant and animated by Vincent Collins who made other psychedelic cartoons. This film was produced by the United States Information Agency — the government’s propaganda agency.
China: Millions of People Getting Useless Degrees Wants Office Jobs that Don’t Exist
January 27th, 2013Wait until significant numbers of these men are unable to find wives and the option of working in the factories goes away…
Via: New York Times:
Jobs go begging in factories while many educated young workers are unemployed or underemployed. A national survey of urban residents, released this winter by a Chinese university, showed that among people in their early 20s, those with a college degree were four times as likely to be unemployed as those with only an elementary school education.
It is a problem that Chinese officials are acutely aware of.
“There is a structural mismatch — on the one hand, the factories cannot find skilled labor, and, on the other hand, the universities produce students who do not want the jobs available,” said Ye Zhihong, a deputy secretary general of China’s Education Ministry.
China’s swift expansion in education over the last decade, including a quadrupling of the number of college graduates each year, has created millions of engineers and scientists. The best can have their pick of jobs at Chinese companies that are aiming to become even more competitive globally.
But China is also churning out millions of graduates with few marketable skills, coupled with a conviction that they are entitled to office jobs with respectable salaries.
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: ‘The Continent’s Biggest Animal Sanctuary’
January 26th, 2013Via: Independent:
Sergei Gaschak’s photography offers an unparalleled glimpse at animal life inside “the zone”, the area of Ukraine and Belarus that has been officially closed off to human habitation since the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe of 1986.
Using camera traps to take photographs mechanically, as well as taking photographs personally, Gaschak has captured what few have been able to see with their own eyes – the remarkable diversity of wildlife within the zone.
…
At the time of the disaster, there were few wild animals living in the region around the nuclear plant. But as the humans moved out in the wake of the catastrophe, large mammals appeared and thrived. While the animals showed incredibly high levels of radiation, they still looked normal. There were no giant wolves or three-headed deer.
According to a book on animal and plant life in the zone, A Natural History of Chernobyl, the only abnormalities found in animals has been albino spots and deformities in barn swallows.
It was a different story with fauna, including the radioactive mushrooms that grow in the area and still cause occasional panic when they find their way into the market stalls of Ukraine and Russia.
But the beasts that roam the deserted zone are normal, save the radiation levels. Indeed, the book suggests that, paradoxically, the dirtiest radioactive site in Europe has become the continent’s biggest animal sanctuary.
U.S. May Give $32 Million to Train African Troops in Mali
January 26th, 2013Via: AP:
The Obama administration is seeking an additional $32 million to train African troops to fight Islamic extremists in Mali.
Egypt Deploys Troops to Suez
January 26th, 2013Via: CNN:
Egypt deployed troops to the coastal city of Suez on Saturday after a security chief declared the area “out of control” following deadly clashes on the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
The announcement on state-run EGYNews followed reports that at least seven people were killed Friday, six in Suez when gunfire erupted during clashes between anti-government protesters and those loyal to President Mohamed Morsy.
Nationwide, according to health ministry officials, more than 450 protesters and 95 members of security forces were injured in demonstrations that marked Friday’s anniversary.
Maisto Fresh Metal Tailwinds 1:97 Scale Die Cast RQ-1 Predator with Display Stand
January 26th, 2013Check out the comments.
Via: Amazon (This is not an Amazon affiliate link):
Includes: US Air Force Medium Altitude, Long Endurance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-1 Predator with Display Stand (Dimension: 6″ x 3-1/2″ x 1″)
Detailed authentic replicas with display stand
Die cast metal and plastic
1:97 Scale (Dimension: 6″ x 3-1/2″ x 1″)
For age 3 and up
Iran Unveils Machine for Amputating Thieves’ Fingers
January 26th, 2013Via: France24:
One of Iran’s official press agencies published photos showing the public amputation of a thief’s fingers on Wednesday. These show a man getting his finger chopped off with a machine resembling a rotary saw.
WARNING: These images may shock viewers.
Google Earth Exposes North Korea’s Secret Prison Camps
January 26th, 2013Via: Telegraph:
Human rights activists are turning to Google Earth to identify the vast network of prison camps that dot the North Korean countryside and hold as many as 200,000 people deemed hostile to the regime.
