A red seaweed

A red seaweed found off the Pacific island of Fiji has been found to contain a powerful class of natural substances that can effectively destroy the malaria parasite, scientists said yesterday.

The first laboratory tests have shown that the substances are toxic to the Plasmodium falciparum parasite which causes the most dangerous form of malaria and is developing disturbing resistance towards existing drugs.

Researchers believe that the substances, called bromophycolide compounds, are produced by the seaweed as a chemical defence against attack from marine fungi. 

But they also appear to be effective against the malaria parasite, said Julia Kubanek of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The seaweed is marshalling its defences and displaying them in a way that blocks the entry points for microbes that might invade and cause disease. 

Seaweeds don't have immune responses like humans do. 

But instead, they have some chemical compounds in their tissues to protect them," Dr Kubanek said.

The bromophycolide structural class is unique... there are no antimalarials like it. 

Even though it looks like the mode of action may be similar to that of chloroquine and other quinine antimalarials, our bromophycolides are effective in vitro against a chloroquine-resistant strain," she said.

That means that the resistance mechanism that the parasite has evolved to the quinines does not work against bromophycolides," she said.

One of the most powerful anti-malarial drugs at present is artemesinin, which was derived from a shrub used in Chinese herbal medicine, but in some regions of the world drug-resistance has already developed against it, which is why scientists are interested in finding alternative anti-malarials.

The tests in the test tube need to be repeated in animal models before the drug, which can be synthesised in the laboratory, can be used in clinical trials, Dr Kubanek said.

We need to show that bromophycolides are effective in a mammalian model, since no in vivo work has been done yet. 

We may need to design a more potent and more selected derivative, since even in vitro we see effects on non-parasite cells," she said.

Bromophycolides are not as potent as artemesinin and we don't yet now how fast they work in humans, or even if they work in humans. 

So much work is left to be done. 

But we are hopeful that we will be able to design a strong antimalarial from this lead," Dr Kubanekadded.

Meanwhile, scientists have warned against the spread of a new Madagascan malaria that 

infects previously immune individuals, threatening a new scourge of infection. 

The strain of Plasmodium vivax has broken through a natural genetic barrier that until now has protected millions of Africans.

Scientists say there are already signs of the strain spreading from the island of Madagascar to the east African mainland. In some regions they believe it could take over from Plasmodium falciparum as the continent's dominant malaria strain.

Steve Connor - Independent

Chemicals and sperm

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Increasingly there is concern that there is a strong connection between

The continuing rise in various cancers 

The continuing fall in sperm quality  

Are due to chemicals

Continue reading the main story'

Sperm quality significantly deteriorated and testicular cancers increased over recent years, a Finnish study says.

The study in the International Journal of Andrology looked at men born between 1979 and 1987.

The University of Turku research suggests environmental reasons, particularly exposure to industrial chemicals, may be behind both trends


A UK expert said chemicals may affect the development of male babies.


Finnish men were studied as they have previously been shown to have some of the highest sperm counts in the world.


But scientists were never sure if this was because of their genetics or because they were exposed to fewer harmful chemicals.


The researchers looked at three groups of men who reached the age of 19 between 1998 and 2006.


Men who were born in the late 1980s had lower sperm counts than those who were born in the beginning of the decade.


Total sperm counts were 227m for men born in 1979-81, 202m for those born in 1982-83 and 165m for men born in 1987, respectively.


In addition, the researchers observed that there was a higher incidence of testicular cancer in men born around 1980 compared with men born around 1950.

Continue reading the main storyStart Quo

Writing in the journal, the researchers led by Professor Jorma Toppari, said: "These simultaneous and rapidly occurring adverse trends suggest that the underlying causes are environmental and, as such, preventable.

Our findings further necessitate the efforts to identify reasons for the adverse trends in reproductive health to make preventive measures possible.

Scientists have been concerned for some time about the possibility that younger men may be producing less sperm than their fathers and grandfathers did at the same age.

But the methods used to measure sperm have changed significantly over time and have not always been reliable.

Dr Pacey said this study used "very robust laboratory methods".

The fact that sperm counts have dropped so quickly, and mirrors the increase in the incidence of testicular cancer in Finland, suggests that the effect is probably environmental.

The best working theory we have to explain why sperm counts may be declining is that chemicals from food or the environment are affecting the development of testicles of boys in the womb or in their early years of life.

However, the effect on their sperm production only becomes apparent when they pass through puberty and eventually try to become fathers.

This inter-generational effect makes it difficult to study but it is clear that more research is needed to identify dangerous chemicals so that we can try remove them from the environment and protect future generations.
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And what a fight that would be against the combined industries using such chemicals
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Chemicals used in the growing of most if not all the foods grown today think, every field, every crop, every country.
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In GM foods
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And then in most if not all food processing
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Not to mention food packaging
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Add in all the chemicals typically present in the environment today
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And this list if you think about it means that there are chemicals around us everywhere in everything we ingest.
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Chemicals we are all ingesting daily
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Add in a good dose of stress and it is small wonder that young men and women are having increasing trouble conceiving 
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Yet another issue for modern man to ponder
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And are those companies suddenly about to change their behaviour?
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Are they?

Woonerven

A woonerf (Dutch plural: woonerven) in the Netherlands and Flanders is a street where pedestrians and cyclists have legal priority over motorists. 
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The techniques of shared spaces, traffic calming and low speed limits are intended to improve pedestrian, bicycle, and automobile safety.
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In 1999 the Netherlands had over 6000 woonerfs. 
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Under Article 44 of the Dutch traffic code, motorised traffic in a woonerf or "recreation area" is restricted to walking pace
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Woonerven by country are not yet so prevalent although more and more communities are experimenting with different approaches


In Germany, similar zones are termed Verkehrsberuhigter Bereich or in English "traffic calming area".
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Under German traffic law motorists in aVerkehrsberuhigter Bereich are restricted to a maximum speed of 7 km/h
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Pedestrians, including children, may use the entire street and children are permitted to play in the street
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In many ways the concept of wooerven is actually the antithesis of "engineering"


Engineering which seeks the optimum control of vehicular and pedestrian traffic 


Almost always through the "triple E" paradigm of traffic control: engineering, enforcement, and education.

Instead, it forgoes control, dispensing with all traffic lights, stop signs, crosswalks, and lane markings


And inserting trees and other objects right in the middle of roads and intersections.

Children can play in the street again!

What the early woonerf principles realized," says [urban designer] Hamilton-Baillie, "was that there was a two-way interaction between people and traffic.

It was a vicious or, rather, a virtuous circle:

The busier the streets are, the safer they become.

So once you drive people off the street, they become less safe.


This concept has not yet been understood where control freaks rule


Their answer being more controls driving further separation on communities
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Amazing in a world of instant communications how slow ideas are to travel!

Quietly changing

Almost without notice

More and more devices are touch screen

From ticket machines to windows to tablet computers touch screens are becoming more and more prevalent

Meaning that we are learning and getting used to touch screens

The next generation of young people will expect screens to be touch sensitive

For tablets and the like touch screens offer so much more

A touch screen device changes the way applications are designed because programmers can allow multi-touch controls and let users zoom in and out using their fingers. 

Add in an accelerometer, which tells the tablet which way up it is, and apps can take account of that too, offering different displays based on whether the device is held in portrait or landscape configuration.

What at first can seem like a gimmick is in fact a profound change.
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Young children whose early experiences of technology have been with smartphones and tablets now expect every screen to respond to their touch. 
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It won’t be long before they all do.

Controls

Control creates the conditions that necessitate control.
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Have you not noticed that one control invariably leads to another?
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Over the last fifty years we have seen more controls placed on us than at any time over the last few thousands of years
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Controls are on everything
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Increasing all the time
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They are also a trap
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Once embarked upon there is no going back
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Control creates the need for more
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A one way street leading to hell
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We are nearly there
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Soon automated controls will follow your every move and transaction
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Not to mention those humans who have the job of monitoring those controls
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When minded too governments can already follow most of your moves even if TV does exaggerate the efficiency of this ability, the reality is not far behind.
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What freedom is left?
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Simply what is in your thoughts
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Soon these will be monitored as well
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Brain waves scanned and monitored for emotion and certain patterns
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Then along comes breakdown
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Rebellion
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Why?
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Simply because you can push and prod people for a long time but eventually the worm turns
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As they say nothing lasts forever
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Take the Arab world where the local despots controlled everything.
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At a certain point when the people lost their fear.
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When they had nothing to lose
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Controls were broken
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Frustration erupted
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Controls were confronted
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For a period of time controls remain broken
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Over time a new order will emerge and shortly after controls will be reimposed
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It takes time for humanity to understand that control is not the way forward
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Slowly but slowly this thought is penetrating
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Those who govern need controls, so they say
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They would wouldn't they?
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Conflict is inevitable
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It has started and will continue


Until we realise that controlling each other and everything else is not the way forward
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Not your standard wisdom today
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It was though once upon a time in human history
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But that was long before we can remember.


Shame we have to keep learning the same lessons over and over

Cheap food bye bye

An era of cheap food has come to an end. 
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A combination of factors—rising demand in India and China
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A dietary shift away from cereals towards meat and vegetables
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The increasing use of maize as a fuel, and developments outside agriculture
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Such as the fall in the dollar—have brought to a close a period starting in the early 1970s in which the real price of staple crops (rice, wheat and maize) fell year after year
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This has come as a shock. 
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By the 1990s most agricultural problems seemed to have been solved. 
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Yields were rising, pests appeared under control and fertilisers were replenishing tired soil. 
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The exciting areas of research in life sciences were no longer plants but things like HIV/AIDS
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The end of the era of cheap food has coincided with growing concern about the prospects of feeding the world. 
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Around the turn of 2011-12 the global population is forecast to rise to 7 billion, stirring Malthusian fears. 
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The price rises have once again plunged into poverty millions of people who spend more than half their income on food. 
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The numbers of those below the poverty level of $1.25 a day, which had been falling consistently in the 1990s, rose sharply in 2007-08. 
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That seems to suggest that the world cannot even feed its current population, let alone the 9 billion expected by 2050. 
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Adding further to the concerns is climate change, of which agriculture is both cause and victim. 
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So how will the world cope in the next four decades?
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Because food is so important, agriculture—more than any other form of economic activity—is expected to achieve a series of competing and overlapping goals that change over time and from place to place. 
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The world looks to farmers to do more than just produce food. 
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Agriculture is also central to reducing hunger (which is not quite the same thing) and provides many people’s main route out of poverty. 
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Food is probably the biggest single influence on people’s health, though in radically different ways in poor countries and in rich ones, where the big problem now is obesity. 
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Food is also one of the few pleasures available to the poorest. 
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In the favelas (slums) of São Paulo, the largest city in South America, takeaway pizza parlours are proliferating because many families, who often do not have proper kitchens, now order a pizza at home to celebrate special occasions.

Given these conflicting aims, it is not surprising that the food crisis has produced contradictory accounts of the main problem and radically different proposals for solving it. 

.

One group is concerned mainly about feeding the world’s growing population. 

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It argues that high and volatile prices will make the job harder and that more needs to be done to boost supplies through the spread of modern farming, plant research and food processing in poor countries. 

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For those in this group—food companies, plant breeders and international development agencies—the Green Revolution was a stunning success and needs to be followed by a second one now.

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The alternative view is sceptical of, or even downright hostile to, the modern food business. 

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This group, influential among non-governmental organisations and some consumers, concentrates more on the food problems of richer countries, such as concerns about animal welfare and obesity. 

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It argues that modern agriculture produces food that is tasteless, nutritionally inadequate and environmentally disastrous. 

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It thinks the Green Revolution has been a failure, or at least that it has done more environmental damage and brought fewer benefits than anyone expected. 

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An influential book espousing this view, Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, starts by asking: “What should we have for dinner?” 

.

By contrast, those worried about food supplies wonder: “Will there be anything for dinner?

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It argues that many of their claims are justified: feeding the world in 2050 will be hard, and business as usual will not do it. 

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The report looks at ways to boost yields of the main crops, considers the constraints of land and water and the use of fertiliser and pesticide, assesses biofuel policies, explains why technology matters so much and examines the impact of recent price rises. 

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It points out that although the concerns of the critics of modern agriculture may be understandable, the reaction against intensive farming is a luxury of the rich. 

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Traditional and organic farming could feed Europeans and Americans well.

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It cannot feed the world.

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The debate will continue on amongst academics

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One thing for sure though 9 billion of us introduces new and unavoidable challenges

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Challenges most third world countries are unable to meet

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And the rest of us?

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Where is our consciousness of these issues?

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Starving people will do what they have to in order to survive

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And that will involve us all, not just the academics

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Arab unrest is not just about their style or type of government

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Add in the increasing number of 'natural disasters' affecting food production and it is certainly true that we live in 'interesting times'.

And now for andropause

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Is it the andropause?

The existence of "male menopause" or andropause has been a controversial subject for some time.

In June last year – shortly after a rival study argued the opposite – a team of British scientists claimed to have definitively identified the condition. 

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Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results made headlines around the world

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Symptoms of andropause are thought to include 

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Fatigue 

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A lack of energy 

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Declining sex drive 

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Inability to concentrate 

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Forgetfulness

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Irritability 

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Depression

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Weight gain 

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And sleep problems

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Problem is many males and females feel these symptoms today

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Even young and otherwise healthy people of both sexes

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Still if you are around your fifties and feel these symptoms to an uncomfortable degree

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See your GP

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Guess what he is likely to advise!

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Certain lifestyle changes

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Including healthier eating

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Regular exercise 

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And finding ways to reduce stress.

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So far so normal and shouldn't you be doing these anyway? 

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Then as well as these adjustments, Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) may be prescribed

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Administered in the form of tablets, injections, gel or patches while blood levels are closely monitored.

Andropause is something we are only beginning to become conscious of

Why not?

Many men certainly exhibit these signs!

Reduce your risk

To minimize risks on the web you can follow these tips:
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Avoid clicking on any URL links
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Especially URL-shortened links
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Links that you receive in emails
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Facebook messages 
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Or tweets you are not expecting to receive
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Be cautious of online surveys
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And downloading photos, apps, or files you receive
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Even if they come from your friends
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If you are unsure, check with your friend first
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Don't ever use the same password for multiple services
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Limit the amount of information you share on social networking sites
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Keep your software and web browser updated with the latest releases and patches
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Only ever download software from official websites
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And if you do all this you can still be caught out but you are reducing your exposure
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Another important point is to remember that everything you write or say can and is monitored by some government agency or another
.
Enjoy your time on line!

Magnetic pole movement

• • NORMAL
  • LARGE
  • EXTRA LARGE

It sounds unlikely but it's true: the magnetic north pole is moving faster than at any time in recorded human history
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Threatening everything from the safety of modern transport systems to the traditional navigation routes of migrating animals
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Scientists say that magnetic north, which for two centuries has been in the icy wilderness of Canada, is currently relocating towards Russia at a rate of about 40 miles a year. 
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The speed of its movement has increased by a third in the past decade
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Prompting speculation that the field could be about to "flip", causing compasses to invert and point south rather than north
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Something that happens between three and seven times every million years.
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Already the phenomenon is causing problems in the field of aviation. 
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Tampa International airport in Florida has just spent a month renaming its three runways
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Which in common with those at most US airports are identified using numbers that correspond to the direction, in degrees, that they face on a compass. 
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Everything had to be changed; it was a huge project, Brenda Geoghagan, a spokeswoman for the airport, said.
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The current rate of magnetic north's movement away from Canada's Ellesmere Island is throwing out compasses by roughly one degree every five years
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Prompting the US Federal Aviation Administration to re-evaluate runway names across the country every five years. 
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Similar changes were recently made to runways at Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.
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Geologists believe that magnetic north pole (which is different from the true North Pole, the axis on which the Earth spins) moves around due to changes in the planet's molten core, which contains liquid iron. 
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They first located it in 1831, and have been trying to follow its progress ever since.
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Records indicate that the pole's location barely moved in the early decades, but in about 1904, it began tracking north-east at a rate of about nine miles a year. 
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That speed increased significantly from about 1989, possibly because of a "plume" of magnetism deep below ground. 
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The pole is now believed to be heading towards Siberia at about 37 miles each year. 
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Earth's magnetic field is changing in time. 
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And as far as we know, it has always been changing in time.
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GPS systems, which rely on satellites, have replaced compasses as the means by which the majority of professional navigators orientate themselves. 
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But compasses are still valuable, and are widely used by hikers and other amateur map-readers. 
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In some environments, such as underwater or beneath ground, which cannot be reached by satellite signals, they remain the only option. 
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The oil industry, which uses magnets to determine which angle it should drill into the earth, needs to keep track of the exact location of magnetic north.
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Birds that fly south for the winter, along with migratory sea creatures, could face confusion. 
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Long-living animals, such as whales and turtles, may in future be required to recalibrate their navigational instincts
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Despite the cost and inconvenience of altering runway names, not to mention the indignity of losing magnetic north to Russia!
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Inhabitants of North America stand to benefit from the changes in at least one respect: it will give them more opportunities to observe the aurora borealis.
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No one can predict the impact of "polar reversal", during which magnetic north and south reverse
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Since one hasn't happened for 780,000 years, the longest stable period in the past 5 million years. 
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Some geologists think we could be about to find out, though: they believe that the current changes to magnetic north could be the early stages of a "flip".
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But Mr Love says we shouldn't be too concerned. 
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Reversals typically take about 10,000 years to happen
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And 10,000 years ago civilisation did not exist.
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These processes are slow, and therefore we don't have anything to worry about
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Independent 
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The article is fine until it gets to the last sentence
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Mr Love has no idea what will happen nor does anyone else
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Be he expert
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Or scientist
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All is speculation
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It is my personal feeling that pre-cursors to a full magnetic pole shift will include an escalation of severe weather storms of all types
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An increase in the number and size of earthquakes
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And an increase in volcanic eruptions. 
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And tell me what have we got today?
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All of the above
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Nuf said