For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. The plots range in size, and some are as large as 2 acres. Parker’s research is based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of the nation’s capital.

This was compared to 225 years of data. The study was the last 20 years and the results show the changes recently based on this time frame.

Parker states that he and his researchers came up with a list of possible reasons that the forests could be growing faster, and were able to rule over half of them out in their project management software

The ones that they have taken hold of as their main talking points would include increased temperature, a longer growing season and increased levels of atmospheric CO2.

Of course with the global warming topic being looked at with a microscope lately, and into the future it is no surprise that the correlation was reached.

During the past 22 years CO2 levels at SERC have risen 12%, the mean temperature has increased by nearly three-tenths of a degree and the growing season has lengthened by 7.8 days. The trees now have more CO2 and an extra week to put on weight. Parker and McMahon suggest that a combination of these three factors has caused the forest’s accelerated biomass gain.

This is interesting, but as Parker himself says he would like to see other census takers around the world to correlate their data in the same way to find a stronger claim. Of course he is certain that the phenomenon in his study represents the Eastern deciduous forest accurately.

An worthwhile study to say the least, but as always it is rather limited, and I might say a bit contrived with the theories. I am not questioning the results of the study, or that it may be accurate in what they claim could be the causes, but it certainly raises questions about the motives with so little time passed for the study. 20 years just doesn’t seem like enough data, even compared to 225 years that it was compared to for us to draw swignificatn conclusions in my mind.

This situation is sort of comical to me overall really. Governments and technology advice usually don’t pan out too well. I’ll rant a little more about that later, but first…

BBC News is reporting that in addition to Germany, France is now calling for web users to find an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to protect security.

Germany warned users on Friday after malicious code – implicated in attacks on Google – was published online.

But Microsoft told BBC News that IE8 was the “most secure browser on the market” and people should upgrade.

Cliff Evans, head of security and privacy, told BBC News that so far the firm had only seen malicious code that targeted the older version of its browser, IE6.

“The risk is minimal,” he said.

For a web user to be affected, he said, they would have to be using IE6 and visit a compromised website.

“There are very few of them out there,” he told BBC News.

However, security researchers have said that if this did occur, a PC could become infected with a “trojan horse”, allowing a hacker to take control of the computer and potentially steal sensitive information.

Isn’t it hilarious that people need their government to tell them what browser to use? I mean would you trust anyone in the U.S. government to tell you what sort of web browser to use, and take their word that the one you are using is going to give you a virus? You all know as well as I do that most of these guys probably don’t even know what a “web browser” is. You know like those people you task “Why don’t you use Firefox?” and they give you that blank stare? They have no idea what a we browser is, and they probably don’t even know what you mean when you say Internet Explorer.

Yep…good old government and their wanting to do good by trying to pretend they know something about something they don’t. They aren’t even warning against the actual problem version of IE because they obviously have no idea that there ARE DIFFERENT VERSIONS. IE6 is the issue here, and we are already on IE8! If they knew the difference between roller blinds and roller blades I would be shocked.

So…how about a $1000 iPhone App? Is there anything off the top of your head that you can think of you would pay $1000 for that is just software? Any software I mean. I’m not even talking about just an application that costs more than the actual iPhone you want to use it on? I’d have a hard time thinking of one that I couldn’t download a a free alternative for.

Certainly, I have been FORCED to buy corporate software for a franchise I used to own that was rather expensive in its day. Probably spent a good $5-800 just on the corporate garbage software that worked about as well as the opening day of a new Windows OS, but other than that I have never come close to it.

You may not have been big into the iPhone when this happened, I know I wasn’t (I just got one a few months ago), but back in 2008 there was a bogus app released for $999.99 to the iTunes store. It was called I AM Rich and showed nothing other than a picture of a red gem. OWNAGE to anyone that bought it. Apple quickly pulled the app. People thought we’d see more bogus apps like it, but it hasn’t been too bad. Of course the soft porn apps sure are clogging the place up now. Hormonal teenage boys are great targets to scams with half naked women if you weren’t aware of this .

So…what is this whole BarMax thing? Is it another bogus app with a huge price tag? No, no it is not. Nope…it isn’t a virtual bar with drink mix recipes. IT is in fact the other thing you probably think of when someone says “The Bar”. An application that is designed to help lawstudents study for their Bar Exams. Probably pretty useful for someone crazy enough to be trying to study for this while in their baby jogger city duds and taking care of a baby.

The reason the price is justified is because the company that is synonymous with this type of test prep, BarBri, typically offers it for $3,000 to $4,000. BarMax CA believes it can get away with the lower price because it’s just an app, there is no in-class element. Also, there has been some questions about BarBri’s pricing structure and anti-competitive behavior, which has been the subject of multiple class action lawsuits (hardly surprising when you’re selling these packages to future lawyers).

BarBri also offers an iPhone application, and it’s free, but you need to enroll in their program to access it otherwise it’s useless.

So what do you get for your $1,000 BarMax CA app? A lot, actually. The app is over 1 gigabyte in size, which is the largest application I’ve ever seen. It includes thousands of pages of materials as well as hundreds of hours of audio lectures. It’s all the information you could ever want for the two-month course. And again, it can be done all on your iPhone. That said, if you do want some more tangible paperwork for certain sections, BarMax will send you that electronically as well.

NASA and space agencies around the world are pointing their satellites toward Haiti to aid relief efforts and map damage caused by the devastating earthquake earlier this week.

The 7.0 magnitude quake struck the Caribbean island Tuesday, causing extensive destruction and fatalities estimated in the tens of thousands.

NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), a joint project with Japan, and its Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite are taking images of Haiti’s hardest-hit areas in multiple wavelengths of light.

Ground teams are comparing these pictures to pre-quake photos to assess the damage, and to help rescue and relief workers know where to focus their efforts, agency officials said.

The oddity of the world is pretty intense. Some characteristics of the planet include: rock rains, potentially raging volcanoes, and huge temperature differences between its night and day sides. This hellish rock might also be the remnant core of a former gas giant whose atmosphere long ago evaporated away.

Weighing in at just five times the mass of Earth and not quite two times the Earth’s radius, this extrasolar planet was the first of the more than 400 that have been found to date that was confirmed to be a rocky world, instead of a gas giant.

CoRoT-7b orbits just 1.6 million miles out from its parent star, or 23 times closer than Mercury is to the sun in our solar system. Being this close to its star forces temperatures on the star-facing side of the planet up to a approximately 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That side certainly gets all the vitamins for women and the weight loss.

The planet is tidally-locked, so the same side is always facing its star (just as the moon only presents one face to the Earth). The far side of the planet is therefore always in shadow, and temperatures there dip down as low as minus 350 F (minus 210 C).

The possibility that CoRoT-7b’s current appearance may just be the shriveled remains of a former gas giant glory also casts another oddity atop the pile.

“CoRoT-7b may be the first in a new class of planet – evaporated remnant cores,” said Brian Jackson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

In the UK, there has been more than one billion pounds spent over the last 20 years in this quest for a blood alternative. Among those around the globe seeking a viable blood alternative are scientists at the University of Essex who have just submitted a worldwide patent for their engineered hemoglobin.

Over 75 million units of donated blood are given to people worldwide for use in hospitals. However, there are growing concerns about its use in routine operations.

A true blood (Twilight references abound in this article) substitute would be very useful as it could have a long shelf life, be stored away from hospitals, need not be matched for blood group and be guaranteed free of contamination by any present or future viruses. Well…I doubt you can guarantee it, but it certainly would make me feel a heck of a lot safer were I to need a blood transfusion. It certainly would have helped our buddy Boone on the Lost island when Jack had to give him a transfusion after a search for a matching blood type .

The starting materials for blood substitutes have included chemicals used to help make atom bombs, cow blood and blood grown in bacteria. However, to date the world’s scientists have failed to produce a safe alternative to blood. The real world is more Daybreakers than True Blood. Not as easy as making something like a msm supplement.

The reason for this failure, according to Professor Chris Cooper, a biochemist and blood substitute expert at the University of Essex, lies in hemoglobin, the red molecule inside blood cells that carries oxygen around the body. Outside the protective environment of the red cell, hemoglobin can be toxic.

Hemoglobin normally changes color from red to claret as it transfers oxygen around the body. However, when it is damaged the iron in hemoglobin is oxidized (like a car rusting) to produce dysfunctional brown and green products.

“Basically, hemoglobin produces free radicals that can damage the heart and kidneys,” explained Professor Cooper. “The trick with artificial blood is to modify the molecule to be less toxic, but still perform the vital role of carrying oxygen around the body. No one has managed this yet.”

A new study examines how ice sheets, such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, could become unstable as the world warms. Making the place only comforting for hemorrhoids relief har har.

The team from Oxford University and Cambridge University developed a model to explore how changes in the ‘grounding line’ — where an ice sheet floats free from its base of rock or sediment — could lead to the disintegration of ice sheets and result in a significant rise in global sea level.

‘The volume of ice locked up in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is equivalent to a sea level rise of around 3.3 metres,’ said Dr Richard Katz of Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences, an author of the report. ‘Our model shows how instability in the grounding line, caused by gradual climatic changes, has the potential to reach a ‘tipping point’ where disintegration of the ice sheet could occur.’ more

A biochemist and a cook teamed up to try and find some formulas for why there are recipes for disaster, and how some recipes become an exquisite cuisine.

For example, plunging asparagus into boiling water causes the cells to pop and result in a brighter green. Longer cooking, however, causes the plant’s cell walls to shrink and releases an acid. This turns the asparagus an unappetizing shade of grey.

This is why nationally recognized scientist and chef, Shirley Corriher (she was a biochemist before she was a cook) says science is the key to understanding what goes right and wrong in the kitchen.

“Cooking is chemistry,” said Corriher. “It’s essentially chemical reactions.” Same as things like all natural fat burners are.

This kind of chemistry happens when you put chopped red cabbage into a hot pan. Heat breaks down the red anthocyanine pigment, changing it from an acid to alkaline and causing the color change. Add some vinegar to increase the acidity, and the cabbage is red again. Baking soda will change it back to blue.

Cooking vegetables like asparagus causes a different kind of reaction when tiny air cells on the surface hit boiling water.

“If we plunge them into boiling water, we pop these cells, and they suddenly become much brighter green,” Corriher said.

Longer cooking is not so good. It causes the plant’s cell walls to shrink and release acid.

“So as it starts gushing out of the cells, and with acid in the water, it turns cooked green vegetables into [a] yucky army drab,” Corriher said.

The premise of the idea below is that suppose you accidentally pulled your headphone jack out of your .mp3 player. What do you project as what is coming next? How is that determined, and how do different people second guess composers differently? Do you have a different view if you have been to hotels in destin fl, or if you are a composer yourself?

A new paper published in NeuroImage predicts that these expectations should be different for people with different musical experience and sheds light on the brain mechanisms involved.

Research by Marcus Pearce Geraint Wiggins, Joydeep Bhattacharya and their colleagues at Goldsmiths, University of London has shown that expectations are likely to be based on learning through experience with music. Music has a grammar, which, like language, consists of rules that specify which notes can follow which other notes in a piece of music. According to Pearce: “the question is whether the rules are hard-wired into the auditory system or learned through experience of listening to music and recording, unconsciously, which notes tend to follow others.” more

A study has been published that suggests gun shot victims are much more likely to die if paramedics do a spine stabilization before they rush them to the hospital. Obvious reasoning is that it requires more time to do the spine stabilization than it does to just load the victim into the ambulance.

The problem appears to be delay, researchers report in the January Journal of Trauma. To stabilize the spine, paramedics wrap a cervical collar around a patient’s neck and strap the individual to a long board to keep the vertebrae from shifting during transport. Although these measures immobilize the spine, the patient loses precious minutes.

“Some injuries are very time sensitive,” says study coauthor Elliott Haut, a trauma surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which averages one gunshot patient per day. “Sometimes, if you get here in 10 minutes we can save your life, but in 20 minutes we can’t,” he says. Spine immobilization delays a trip to the hospital by two or three minutes on average, but can take more than five minutes, previous research has shown. Same with social security disability if you have to go through that hassle.

Don’t expect this to change anytime soon I would guess. It’s scary to think that a study like this could mean so much to someone’s life, or death. At the same time really not seem to be something of high recognition, or future study.

Although spine stabilization has proved its worth for car-crash patients, no studies had established whether it helps patients with neck or torso wounds from gunshots or knifings, where wounds might include spine damage. So Haut and his colleagues scanned a nationwide database of roughly 45,000 patients treated for such wounds. About 15 percent of patients who received spine immobilization died in the hospital, compared with 7 percent of those not immobilized. When the researchers accounted for differences in wound severity, gender, race and age, the difference remained twofold.

Undergoing spine immobilization didn’t affect death rates from knife wounds. The gunshot wound patients most affected by the immobilization procedure were those with low blood pressure.

Patients with partial spine damage from trauma harbor the greatest risk of vertebrae movement during transport and are most likely to benefit from spine stabilization.