Of course the impact of the internet has grown exponentially in the past few years, and it’s this immense growth that allows us today to fight global warming with a simple email signature - ’cause that’s what reply for all is. Of course, this goes out primarily to those who care about the environment but can’t afford to donate, from one reason or another. These guys rely on giving without cash to be their driving force, and I think this is absolutely great, and sustainable too, because you aren’t giving something up, just helping out by doing something that you always do (send emails); and you WILL make a difference.

In the past year, the results were pretty interesting, to say the least: they have ‘protected 8,204 animals, provided 3 years of basic lab supplies, given 734 people access to clean water, and removed 1,535 pounds of CO2 from our skies at the close of 2008′, and all this thanks to email users, such as me and you.

Also, search engines such as Ecosearch make a big difference, supporting the planting of thousands and thousands of trees and big plans to reforest and protect the water resources in Amazon, which make up a quarter of the worldwide fresh water supplies.

So, a bit of technicalities: the signature works with Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook 2007 or Hotmail and they work with big guys (ThinkMTV, The Body Shop, Liberty Mutual, and Jet Blue to say just a few), it’s obvious they mean business.

SIGN UP HERE!

P.S. This is not a paid post or something. It’s about doing something for the world we live in.

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After arriving at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for space shuttle Endeavour's July 11 launch on the 29th assembly flight to the International Space Station, the STS-127 crew members pose for a final photo before leaving the Shuttle Landing Facility. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflet.

Stormy weather conditions may delay the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, currently scheduled for liftoff on Saturday, July 11. This comes on the heels of two delays last month caused by a hydrogen gas leak. A similar problem delayed the launch of space shuttle Discovery in March.

The 16-day mission will feature a number of  spacewalks intended to complete construction of the International Space Station’s “porch.” The new addition is officially known as Japanese Experiment Module - Exposed Facility. It will be a platform attached to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. The “porch” will allow for experiments to be exposed to the unique environment of outer space.

Endeavour’s crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Julie Payette.

Payette will join Robert Thirsk, also of the CSA. This marks the first time that two Canadian astronauts have been in space at the same time.

The shuttle-ISS combo will house a total of 13 crew members for the duration of the mission, a record number.

NASA aims to launch seven further shuttle missions before the aging fleet is finally retired in 2010.

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Charles Bolden, President Obama's nominee for NASA chief.

NASA’s immediate future will likely have an emphasis on Earth science, using the International Space Station for research and development, and making space exploration more of an entrepreneurial venture. Those were the main themes touched on during the Senate confirmation hearing of Charles Bolden, President Obama’s nominee for NASA chief.

When discussing space entrepreneurship, Bolden used the example of a friend who is using venture capital for research into a rocket engine that could take people to Mars in roughly 39 days. He also noted that government cannot fund everything that needs to be done in connection with space exploration and development.

Bolden was nominated for the position in May of 2009. A retired U.S. Marine Corps major general and former NASA astronaut who has flown on four shuttle missions, he also said that NASA needs to inspire a new generation to help replace an aging workforce.

“Floating in the windows of the Shuttle, speeding across its great desert at 4 - 5 miles per second, I saw the beauty of the Middle East, appearing peaceful and serene in spite of the Earthly reality of violence in the region,” said Bolden during his senate confirmation hearing.  “From my window perch, I viewed with sadness the majestic Amazon Rain Forest, considered by many to be the model of serenity and peace, yet devastated by deforestation, leaving the area and its people facing some of the greatest environmental challenges of our day. l now dream of a day when any American can launch into the vastness of outer space and see the magnificence and grandeur of our home planet, Earth, as I have been blessed to do. I’m convinced this will inspire them to be more concerned for our environment and to strive to put an end to man’s inhumanity to man.”

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Wonderful companions. Check. Reliable and intelligent. Check. A cure for loneliness. Check. Wonderful reading tutors? Acoording to recent research all these are perfectly true about dogs. Not only do these pets enrich or lives and teach us what responsibility is but they also prove to help young students improve their reading skills, or at least this is what recent research shows.

St Michael’s Primary School in Bournemouth, Dorset developed in April a program in which seven or eight-year olds read for 45 minutes each day to a dog.

The teachers consider the scheme to  be a very valuable one as progress was clearly noticeable, the impact it had on children being described as “significant”. This is hardly surprising as now children are really looking forward to read to their furry friends at school but also at home. Moreover, there’s no pesky adult to listen  just in order to criticise them or schoolmates to laugh at their mistakes or become impacient. Dogs are simply non-judgmental.

Children are now regarding reading as something positive and not a burden, this being the beginning of their life as readers. The program is especially efficient in the cases of children with low self-esteem as usually it is not intelligence that they lack, but confidence.

Trained dogs like Yorkshire Terriers, Labradors and Shetland sheepdogs are used in the scheme so that the relations between children and animals could be easily established. After the reading sessions children reward their “audience” by playing with the dogs and petting them. After all, it’s not all about reading, but about the ability to communicate too.

The program was organised by the Caring Canines charity and other schools have also shown their interest towards it.

However, not everyone agrees with the method. For example, Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education claims that the fact that dogs cannot correct the children’s mistakes means that real progress is not actually made. The reading dilemma remains.

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However, as researchers from the the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH) have discovered, the solution may be provided by nature, or more exactly by  other inhabitants of our planet: the dolphins and the bats. It seems that humans can be just as effective at using echolocation in order to avoid abjects and all it takes is a bit of training.

Several studies were conducted for this purpose. Firstly, the scientists had to discover the most effective sound that could be used, after analysing their physical properties. The conclusion was finally drawn:

The almost ideal sound is the ‘palate click, a click made by placing the tip of the tongue on the palate, just behind the teeth, and moving it quickly backwards, although it is often done downwards, which is wrong”

explained Juan Antonio Martínez, lead author of the study.

These particular sounds are similar to the ones used by dolphins, but at another scale as the sea mammals have special organs for this. The difference is clear: 200 “clicks” per second - the dolphins- to 3-4 “clicks” - the humans. Echolocation is three-dimensional as it allows one to appreciate the distance of an object based on the time that elapsses since the emission of the sound and the moment the echo is received as the sound wave is reflected by the surrounding objects.

Moreover, a special method was developed so that people could use echolocation in their daily life. Firstly, one must learn to distinguish between their sounds and any other. Secondly, it is necessary to distinguish between objects according to their geometrical properties, like a sonar does. Although some time is necessary to develop this skill, the results are quite fast. Practising for about two hours every day for a few weeks should be enough for someone to learn to distinguish between a tree and a pavement.

Also the “sh” sount used to make someone keep quiet might prove useful. Moving a pencil, for example, in front of the mouth will definitely be noticed.

Finally, the “palate clicks” must be mastered as they must be properly emitted. in order to succeed, researchers used a laser pointer showing at which part of an object the sound should be aimed.

It seems that not only the blind could benefit fomt this technique, but also the deaf as vibrations are  perceived in the tongue and the bones and not only in the ear. Moreover, firemen, rescue tems or just people lost in the fog could use the technique too.

Echolocation could even prove to be more effective than eyesight in some cases. At first, researchers were only able to tell if someone was or not in front of them, but now they can detect internal structures like bones and even objects from a bag.

As complicated as it may seem, some people have learnt the technique “by trial and error”. A well-known case is the one of Daniel Kisch, the only blind person who was awarded a certificate which made him a guide for other blind people.

source: Plataforma SINC

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Bayer’s Heroin

Yeah baby, between 1890 and 1910, heroin was sold as a ‘less addictive form of morphine’. At some point, it was even recommended to treat the usual cough, but only in children.
Diacetylmorphine was first synthesized by Alder Wright, who concluded it was even more addictive than opium, and abandoned research in this direction. However, the Bayer company concluded that it was very effective in treating moderate pains and dealing with diseases such as asthma or tuberculosis, so they branded it as Heroin. What’s interesting is that it was branded pretty much at the same time with acetylsalicylic acid, that became later known as aspirin. It’s hard to say which one of these had more success…

Boehringer & Soehne

Paperweight

Boehringer & Soehne were located in Mannheim, Germany. Never heard of them?? Well, if they were doing today what they did about a century ago now, you’d definitely know about them, because they proudly advertised their products, claiming the make the best produts from cocaine and chinine. It wasn’t only the quality that made them so good, as their ads said: “Prices no higher than for any other brand”. You just don’t see that anymore, sadly.

Opium for newborns, and not only

Stickney and Poor’s are known today mostly for spices, but back in the day, they also sold this syrup that helped babies sleep well; and if the opium inside wasn’t enough, then the 46% alcohol would definitely do the trick.

Coca wine

Believe it or not, wines with cocaine were by all standards not uncommon. Metcalf Coca Wine was one of the famous brands and everybody who drank it said it will make you happy, and was also good as a medicinal treatment. Maltine Coca Wine was also used a lot in the U.S., especially in New York, where it was made. It was recommended for health reasons - a glass after each meal, and for the children, just a half glass of course.

But without a doubt the most appreciated such wine was the Mariani Wine. It was so good, that pope Leo XIII never left the house without a bottle of it. He even awarded the producer with Vatican’s Gold Medal.

Amphetamine inhalers

Benzedrine (racemic amphetamine) inhalers were available in the U.S. until the mid 50s, and they were so appreciated that even airlines gave them to passengers to treat discomfort when the plane was taking off and landing. It was also proclaimed that more than 10 million Benzedrine inhalers had been distributed in the first 7 years it was released, which means they sold even better than mister McDonald’s hamburgers.

Opium for Asthma

It’s not sure how good this treatment was, but at least, the National Vaporizer Vapor-OL (opium) Treatment no. 6 for asthma (as it was called) provided a unique way of smoking opium. You had a pretty volatile liquid that went in a sort of frying pan, heated by a small kerosen lamp placed under the pan.

Dragees Antiseptiques Au Menthol

So yeah, everything seems to be good, at least if you go by the name, but these ‘dragees’ were basically Cocaine throat lozenges. Yeah, cocaine was not only fun, as with the wine but also useful. This Belgian product was “indispensable for singers, teachers, and orators”. Word.

Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup

Of course, as a working mother, things are never easy. So when you get home, you want to get some peace and quiet, and that’s exactly what this soothing syrup was doing. Because no matter how noisy and restless a child is, 65 miligrams of morphine per fluid ounce does the trick.

Cocaine toothache drops

Without a doubt, cocaine is our winner (perhaps there’s a lesson here, somewhere, I’m not sure). These cocaine toothache drops were absolute miracle drugs, and they cured aches almost instantly and they also came with a bonus: after taking them, children were always happier.

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Each of us can easily feel the effects of golbal warming especially now when we practically melt in our homes. However, it seems that there are some more… peculiar effects. Scientists have discovered that a wild species of sheep from the island of St. Kilda has begun to reduce their size as a result of the changing climate.

The Soay sheep is an unique breed that has developed on this island since Neolithic. They are far from being white and fluffy as their domesticated relatives. The small, brown animals are , in fact, quite primitive.

The sheep lived undisturbed on their island chewing grass and jumping from a rock to another until scientists noticed that they had begun to shrink since the 80s. This is quite unusual as the evolutionary law says that whoever is bigger survives and breeds. So what happened?

The answer is that in this case global warming gave a hand to the smaller individuals and so, they survived the winters, which are now shorter and warmer. In the past, the lambs had to gain as much weight as possible in order to reach the following spring. Now, smaller animals can do the same thing and they also have the opportunity to breed. But don’t think of cat-sized sheep roaming the island! In fact, their weight has dropped by 81 grams each year, which is hardly noticeable.

The discovery is nonetheless important as it shows that animals can adapt to climatic changes quite fast and that evolution has a say in this case. The same phenomenon was noticed in other species too but in those cases it was harder to reach a conclusion as other factors were involved. In the case of the sheep, there are no predators or competitors for the same food on the island.

Not even dogs are allowed on the island, so scientists had to get their own hands dirty in order to weigh the  animals, which happen to be expert jumpers.

Anyway, this is not the first time things became weird on an island. In some cases the animals became some real giants such as the tortioses in Galapagos or the extinct rats in Indonesia, which reached the size of a dog. In other situations being small meant surviving: the dwarf elephants in Malta or the pigmy hippos in Madagascar learnt this lesson before finally becoming extinct.

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Of course, despite the fact that more than half of all women (study takes ages 18-60) in the US used one, the ‘highlight’ of the study is the discovery that 45 percent of men employed the help of the little buzzers at least once during intercourse or foreplay. Also, 17 percent used one… by themselves.

As for the women, the numbers are higher than that, with way more than half using vibrators, and 1 in 4 reported using one in the past month. There is a bit of controversy as to the effects of the practice. However, 3 quarters of all women who use constantly reported no side effects and men who use them in intercourse believe they ‘perform’ better (congrats to Houston on that).

For women, especially lonely women it’s actually good, and a healthy thing to do. But vibrators in foreplay seems a bit… redundant. Now, I don’t mean to judge and meddle with such things, but whatever happened to good old fashion foreplay? What ever happened to putting on some music, drinking some wine and just letting instincts take their course? For cryin’ out loud lads, you don’t need freaking batteries for that. Then again, maybe I’m having tunnel vision.

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Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, with it’s dazzling 70% unemployment rate and more than 3 quarters of the people living in extreme poverty.  To top it off, water, what you need the most for survival, is polluted. The World Bank pretty much summed it up in a few words: Haiti has the worst water situation in all the world.

Due to the lack of a sewage sanitation system, virtually every water source has been contaminated with human waste. More than half of all the deaths in Haiti are caused by polluted water, and deadly diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and chronic diarrhea run rampant throughout the country. What makes this even more distressful is that water could be cleaned with very little efforts.

A sustainable solution was proposed by International action; they installed large chlorinators that provide a ’steady, preset level of chlorination persists in the water for many days’. It’s easy to mentain, it requires no energy, and the locals are encouraged to learn how to operate them and make repairs, whenever needed.

For example, a permanent large chlorinator costs under 1000$, and it can provide more than 50.000 people with good clean water (!); so a single dollar would give 50 people the chance to drink healthy water, instead of contaminated, infested one, basically saving their lives. That’s less than 10¢ per person. You say if that’s worth it.

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As it turns out, it was rock from outer space that broke apart and took a dive in our planet’s atmosphere, a ’shooting star’, and a pretty big one too. Events such as these one are not really uncommon, but in the vast majority of the cases, they take place above the ocean, so it’s pretty hard to see one of them.

Observers compared it to a famous local event, the Peekskill Fireball in 1992, and one eve wrote about it.

Here’s the recent fireball:

Here’s the one in ‘92

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