In the news
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 01:17 pmAresenic and Old Rice.
Okay, the rice isn't particularly old, but the article still begs for that title, don't you think?
Airport shocker!
And if you're a visitor to the United States, don't forget your RFID card!
"U.S. scientists said this year's Atlantic hurricane season will be stormier than previously forecast, producing as many as 21 tropical storm and 11 hurricanes, as atmospheric and oceanic conditions align to favor storm development." Um, Floridians? Have you considered moving a bit farther north? The Arctic is livelier than you think! And you're significantly less likely to get blown out to sea by Hurricane Whozit.
A drug used to treat Parkinson's disease seems to significantly reduce pain in severely ill fibromyalgia patients. Also, amphetamines, relieve Parkinson's-like symptoms in mice. Please pass the Ecstasy?
Speaking of drugs, the writer of the Firefly Quiz may have been on some interesting ones--the quiz told me I'm Inara.
::blink::
Right then, time to go back to attempting to be useful.
Rice grown in the United States contains an average of 1.4 to 5 times more arsenic than rice from Europe, India and Bangladesh, according to a survey of grains from around the world.
This means that people eating a 'subsistence' diet of 500 grams of dry American rice a day are probably consuming more than the maximum intake of arsenic provisionally recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), says Andrew Meharg, a biogeochemist from the University of Aberdeen, UK, and a member of the survey team.
Okay, the rice isn't particularly old, but the article still begs for that title, don't you think?
Airport shocker!
Patents filed by an Israeli inventor Amit Weisman and US company Yardeni Associates of Connecticut make scary reading for nervous travellers.
Airport security guards already use hand-held electromagnetic wands to detect metal hidden under clothing. The same wand can also sniff for traces of the gases some explosives emit into the air.
If the passenger is a suicide bomber who realises the wand has found something, the guard might not have enough time to pull out handcuffs or a gun. So the new wand will have a hidden secret – a transformer which steps the detector’s battery power up to 100 kilovolts and feeds it to disguised metal electrodes at the end of the wand.
And if you're a visitor to the United States, don't forget your RFID card!
"U.S. scientists said this year's Atlantic hurricane season will be stormier than previously forecast, producing as many as 21 tropical storm and 11 hurricanes, as atmospheric and oceanic conditions align to favor storm development." Um, Floridians? Have you considered moving a bit farther north? The Arctic is livelier than you think! And you're significantly less likely to get blown out to sea by Hurricane Whozit.
A drug used to treat Parkinson's disease seems to significantly reduce pain in severely ill fibromyalgia patients. Also, amphetamines, relieve Parkinson's-like symptoms in mice. Please pass the Ecstasy?
Speaking of drugs, the writer of the Firefly Quiz may have been on some interesting ones--the quiz told me I'm Inara.
::blink::
Right then, time to go back to attempting to be useful.
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