Cooling the Warming Debate: Major New Analysis Confirms That Global Warming Is Real

Comparison of data showing decadal land-surface average world temperature changes from 15 different sources, some going back as far as 1800. (Credit: Image courtesy of Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature)

Science Daily  — Global warming is real, according to a major study released Oct. 20. Despite issues raised by climate change skeptics, the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study finds reliable evidence of a rise in the average world land temperature of approximately 1°C since the mid-1950s.

On the basis of its analysis, according to Berkeley Earth's founder and scientific director, Professor Richard A. Muller, the group concluded that earlier studies based on more limited data by teams in the United States and Britain had accurately estimated the extent of land surface warming.

Analyzing temperature data from 15 sources, in some cases going as far back as 1800, the Berkeley Earth study directly addressed scientific concerns raised by skeptics, including the urban heat island effect, poor station quality, and the risk of data selection bias.

"Our biggest surprise was that the new results agreed so closely with the warming values published previously by other teams in the U.S. and the U.K.," Muller said. "This confirms that these studies were done carefully and that potential biases identified by climate change skeptics did not seriously affect their conclusions."

Previous studies, carried out by NOAA, NASA, and the Hadley Center, also found that land warming was approximately 1°C since the mid-1950s, and that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results. But their findings were criticized by skeptics who worried that they relied on ad-hoc techniques that meant that the findings could not be duplicated. Robert Rohde, lead scientist for Berkeley Earth, noted that "the Berkeley Earth analysis is the first study to address the issue of data selection bias, by using nearly all of the available data, which includes about 5 times as many station locations as were reviewed by prior groups."

Elizabeth Muller, co-founder and Executive Director of Berkeley Earth, said she hopes the Berkeley Earth findings will help "cool the debate over global warming by addressing many of the valid concerns of the skeptics in a clear and rigorous way." This will be especially important in the run-up to the COP 17 meeting in Durban, South Africa, later this year, where participants will discuss targets for reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions for the next commitment period as well as issues such as financing, technology transfer and cooperative action.

The Berkeley Earth team includes physicists, climatologists, and statisticians from California, Oregon, and Georgia. Rohde led the development of a new statistical approach and what Richard Muller called "the Herculean labor" of merging the data sets. One member of the group, Saul Perlmutter, was recently announced as a winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics (for his work in cosmology).

The Berkeley Earth study did not assess temperature changes in the oceans, which according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have not warmed as much as land. When averaged in, they reduce the global surface temperature rise over the past 50 years -- the period during which the human effect on temperatures is discernable -- to about two thirds of one degree Centigrade.

Specifically, the Berkeley Earth study concludes that:

• The urban heat island effect is locally large and real, but does not contribute significantly to the average land temperature rise. That's because the urban regions of Earth amount to less than 1% of the land area.
• About 1/3 of temperature sites around the world reported global cooling over the past 70 years (including much of the United States and northern Europe). But 2/3 of the sites show warming. Individual temperature histories reported from a single location are frequently noisy and/or unreliable, and it is always necessary to compare and combine many records to understand the true pattern of global warming.
• The large number of sites reporting cooling might help explain some of the skepticism of global warming," Rohde commented. "Global warming is too slow for humans to feel directly, and if your local weather man tells you that temperatures are the same or cooler than they were a hundred years ago it is easy to believe him." In fact, it is very hard to measure weather consistently over decades and centuries, and the presence of sites reporting cooling is a symptom of the noise and local variations that can creep in. A good determination of the rise in global land temperatures can't be done with just a few stations: it takes hundreds -- or better, thousands -- of stations to detect and measure the average warming. Only when many nearby thermometers reproduce the same patterns can we know that the measurements were reliably made.
• Stations ranked as "poor" in a survey by Anthony Watts and his team of the most important temperature recording stations in the U.S., (known as the USHCN -- the US Historical Climatology Network), showed the same pattern of global warming as stations ranked "OK." Absolute temperatures of poor stations may be higher and less accurate, but the overall global warming trend is the same, and the Berkeley Earth analysis concludes that there is not any undue bias from including poor stations in the survey.

Four scientific papers setting out these conclusions have been submitted for peer review and will form part of the literature for the next IPCC report on Climate Change. They can be accessed on: www.BerkeleyEarth.org. A video animation graphically shows global warming around the world since 1800.

Berkeley Earth is making its preliminary results public, together with its programs and dataset, in order to invite additional scrutiny. Elizabeth Muller said that "one of our goals is to make the science behind global warming readily accessible to the public." Most of the data were previously available on public websites, but in so many different locations and different formats that most people could access only a small subset of the data. The merged database, which combines 1.6 billion records, is now accessible from the Berkeley Earth website: www.BerkeleyEarth.org .

What Berkeley Earth has not done is make an independent assessment of how much of the observed warming is due to human actions, Richard Muller acknowledged. As a next step, Berkeley Earth plans to address the total warming of the oceans, with a view to obtaining a more accurate figure for the total amount of global warming observable.

Brain Scans Support Findings That IQ Can Rise or Fall Significantly During Adolescence

IQ, the standard measure of intelligence, can increase or fall significantly during our teenage years, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust, and these changes are associated with changes to the structure of our brains. The findings may have implications for testing and streaming of children during their school years. (Credit: © lightpoet / Fotolia)

Science Daily  — IQ, the standard measure of intelligence, can increase or fall significantly during our teenage years, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust, and these changes are associated with changes to the structure of our brains. The findings may have implications for testing and streaming of children during their school years.

The researchers, led by Professor Cathy Price, tested 33 healthy adolescents in 2004 when they were between the ages of 12 and 16 years. They then repeated the tests four years later when the same subjects were between 15 and 20 years old. On both occasions, the researchers took structural brain scans of the subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Across our lifetime, our intellectual ability is considered to be stable, with intelligence quotient (IQ) scores taken at one point in time used to predict educational achievement and employment prospects later in life. However, in a study published October 20 in the journal Nature, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) and the Centre for Educational Neuroscience show for the first time that, in fact, our IQ is not constant.

Professor Price and colleagues found significant changes in the IQ scores measured in 2008 compared to the 2004 scores. Some subjects had improved their performance relative to people of a similar age by as much as 20 points on the standardised IQ scale; in other cases, however, performance had fallen by a similar amount.

To test whether these changes were meaningful, the researchers analysed the MRI scans to see whether there was a correlation with changes in the structure of the subjects' brains.

"We found a considerable amount of change in how our subjects performed on the IQ tests in 2008 compared to four years earlier," explains Sue Ramsden, first author of the study. "Some subjects performed markedly better but some performed considerably worse. We found a clear correlation between this change in performance and changes in the structure of their brains and so can say with some certainty that these changes in IQ are real."

The researchers measured each subject's verbal IQ, which includes measurements of language, arithmetic, general knowledge and memory, and their non-verbal IQ, such as identifying the missing elements of a picture or solving visual puzzles. They found a clear correlation with particular regions of the brain.

An increase in verbal IQ score correlated with an increase in the density of grey matter -- the nerve cells where the processing takes place -- in an area of the left motor cortex of the brain that is activated when articulating speech. Similarly, an increase in non-verbal IQ score correlated with an increase in the density of grey matter in the anterior cerebellum, which is associated with movements of the hand. However, an increase in verbal IQ did not necessarily go hand-in-hand with an increase in non-verbal IQ.

According to Professor Price, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, it is not clear why IQ should have changed so much and why some people's performance improved while others' declined. It is possible that the differences are due to some of the subjects being early or late developers, but it is equally possible that education had a role in changing IQ, and this has implications for how schoolchildren are assessed.

"We have a tendency to assess children and determine their course of education relatively early in life, but here we have shown that their intelligence is likely to be still developing," says Professor Price. "We have to be careful not to write off poorer performers at an early stage when in fact their IQ may improve significantly given a few more years.

"It's analogous to fitness.A teenager who is athletically fit at 14 could be less fit at 18 if they stopped exercising. Conversely, an unfit teenager can become much fitter with exercise."

Other studies from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging and other research groups have provided strong evidence that the structure of the brain remains 'plastic' even throughout adult life. For example, Professor Price showed recently that guerrillas in Columbia who had learned to read as adults had a higher density of grey matter in several areas of the left hemisphere of the brain than those who had not learned to read. Professor Eleanor Maguire, also from the Wellcome Trust Centre, showed that part of a brain structure called the hippocampus, which plays an important part in memory and navigation, has greater volume in licensed London taxi drivers.

"The question is, if our brain structure can change throughout our adult lives, can our IQ also change?" adds Professor Price. "My guess is yes. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that our brains can adapt and their structure changes, even in adulthood."

"This interesting study highlights how 'plastic' the human brain is," said Dr John Williams, Head of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust. "It will be interesting to see whether structural changes as we grow and develop extend beyond IQ to other cognitive functions. This study challenges us to think about these observations and how they may be applied to gain insight into what might happen when individuals succumb to mental health disorders."

Biggest Ever Study Shows No Link Between Mobile Phone Use and Tumors

Science Daily  — There is no link between long-term use of mobile phones and tumours of the brain or central nervous system, finds new research published online in the British Medical Journal.

The number of people using mobile phones is constantly rising with more than five billion subscriptions worldwide in 2010. This has led to concerns about potential adverse health effects, particularly tumours of the central nervous system.

In what is described as the largest study on the subject to date, Danish researchers found no evidence that the risk of brain tumours was raised among 358,403 mobile phone subscribers over an 18-year period.

Previous studies on a possible link between phone use and tumours have been inconclusive particularly on long-term use of mobile phones. Some of this earlier work took the form of case control studies involving small numbers of long-term users and were shown to be prone to error and bias. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields, as emitted by mobile phones, as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

The only cohort study investigating mobile phone use and cancer to date is a Danish nationwide study comparing cancer risk of all 420,095 Danish mobile phone subscribers from 1982 until 1995, with the corresponding risk in the rest of the adult population with follow-up to 1996 and then 2002. This study found no evidence of any increased risk of brain or nervous system tumours or any cancer among mobile phone subscribers.

So researchers, led by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen, continued this study up to 2007.

They studied data on the whole Danish population aged 30 and over and born in Denmark after 1925, subdivided into subscribers and non-subscribers of mobile phones before 1995. Information was gathered from the Danish phone network operators and from the Danish Cancer Register.

Overall, 10,729 central nervous system tumours occurred in the study period 1990-2007.

When the figures were restricted to people with the longest mobile phone use -- 13 years or more -- cancer rates were almost the same in both long-term users and non-subscribers of mobile phones.

The researchers say they observed no overall increased risk for tumours of the central nervous system or for all cancers combined in mobile phone users.

They conclude: "The extended follow-up allowed us to investigate effects in people who had used mobile phones for 10 years or more, and this long-term use was not associated with higher risks of cancer.

"However, as a small to moderate increase in risk for subgroups of heavy users or after even longer induction periods than 10-15 years cannot be ruled out, further studies with large study populations, where the potential for misclassification of exposure and selection bias is minimised, are warranted."

In an accompanying editorial, Professors Anders Ahlbom and Maria Feychting at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden say this new evidence is reassuring, but continued monitoring of health registers and prospective cohorts is still warranted.

நெஞ்சத்தில் போராடும் எண்ணங்கள்

திரைப் படம்: உணர்ச்சிகள் (1976)

பாடியவர்கள்: S P B , ஜானகி

நடிப்பு: கமல், ஸ்ரீவித்யா

இயக்கம்: R C சக்தி

இசை: ஷ்யாம்
லலல்லா

ஹே ஹே

லலல்லா

லலல்ல லல்லா

ஆஹா

லலல்ல லல்லா

ஹேஹே

லலல்ல லல்லா

ஆஹா

லலல்ல லல்லா

ஹேஹே

லல்லல் லல்ல லல்லலல்

லல்லல் லல்ல லல்லலல்

நெஞ்சத்தில் போராடும் எண்ணங்கள்

நீங்காமல் நீ தந்த மோகம் அல்லவோ

கொஞ்சும் மொழி பேசும் பெண்மை ஒளிவீச

வாழ்வினில் தேனாக நீ வர வேண்டும்

வாட்டிடும் ஆசைதீர நீ தொட வேண்டும்

தாபத்தை நானே சொல்லவோ



கனிவோடு காதல் கைதொட்ட வேளை

கல்யாண மேடை அலங்கரிக்காதோ

இதயத்தின் பாரம் இறங்கிடும் நேரம்

இருமனம் கூடும் உணர்ச்சியில் ஆடும்

வரும் வெள்ளம் இளம் உள்ளமும்

ஒரே வேகமாய் ஓடாதோ

அதன் சங்கமம் பெறும் மங்கலம்

உயிர் கீதமாய் பாடாதோ



நெஞ்சத்தில் போராடும் எண்ணங்கள்

நீங்காமல் நீ தந்த மோகம் அல்லவோ

கொஞ்சும் மொழி பேசி பெண்மை ஒளிவீசி

வாழ்வினில் தேனாக நீ வர வேண்டும்

வாட்டிடும் ஆசைதீர நீ தொட வேண்டும்

தாபத்தை நானே சொல்லவோ



துணை தேடும் பாவை உனை நாடும் போது

தூண்டிலில் மீனாய் துடிப்பதும் ஏனோ

பருவத்தின் ஏக்கம் துளிர் விடும் போது

உறவினைத் தேடும் உணர்ச்சிகள் மோதும்

மலர் மேடையில் மது ஓடையில்

புனல் ஆடுவோம் வாராயோ

உனைக் கண்டதும் மனம் சொன்னது

சுகம் தேடுவோம் வாராயோ



நெஞ்சத்தில்

போராடும் எண்ணங்கள்

நீங்காமல் நீ தந்த மோகம் அல்லவோ

கொஞ்சும் மொழி பேசி

பெண்மை ஒளிவீச

வாழ்வினில் தேனாக நீ வர வேண்டும்

வாட்டிடும் ஆசைதீர நீ தொட வேண்டும்

தாபத்தை

நானே சொல்லவோ

Read more: http://asokarajanandaraj.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_07.html#ixzz1bfY26w4x

Boat for Sale

Want to buy a boat? Think about this "island yacht", and make sure I should be invited to its inaugural sailing...



Yes you read it right, a whole amazing island built right on a beautiful yacht. Created by UK-based yacht design company Yacht Island Designs, bringing a whole island onto a yacht.

The design as you can see is inspired by tropical islands, with huts, a pool and to top of that, a whole volcano that is sure not to erupt. Since this is a yacht, it comes packed with special VIP rooms, arcades, gym, lounges, spas and even a helipad. The volcano adds a lot of beauty to the whole look of the yacht, it also happens to have water flowing out of it onto the pool creating this amazing river complementing the whole tropical look.

The back of the yacht has a retractable beach deck where structures float on the sea making the sea accessible to swim in and of course grant access to various water activities such as wake boarding and jet-skis. The whole concept is pure genius and the result looks even better.

Shirdi Sai Baba Aarti Song

Never trust a 2 year old!

Enjoying More

“The Supreme Lord's pastimes are more attractive to liberated souls than to mundane people. He is of necessity not impersonal because it is only possible to carry on transcendental rasa with a person.” (ShrilaPrabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.1.3 Purport) Shri Krishna has a complexion like the dark blue raincloud just waiting to shower the parched fields that only get to feast on their beloved rainwater but once a year. The water falling from the sky during the two months of the rainy season in India is thus relished by the crops more than any other type of food is enjoyed by any other entity. The comparison to the raincloud is a great way to describe the benevolence offered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is always smiling, holding a flute in His hands, adorned with a peacock feather in His hair and the Kaustubha gem on His chest, and wearing a lovely flower garland around His neck. Accompanying this divine vision, which is a sight for sore eyes, is a tendency for sportive exploits, activities which enthrall the onlookers. Shri Krishna’s pastimes are so enjoyable that simply hearing about them will give the sober mind the same pleasure as what would be received from being in the Lord’s direct company. But first things first. In order to truly relish the sweetness of Krishna’s pastimes, the liberated state must be reached. To find the state beyond miseries, there are many recommended rules and practices. Though bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, is about love and thus not limited to any specific practices or guidelines, the Vedic texts are still there for everyone to use, especially those looking to connect with Krishna, or God. Krishna’s crawling as a baby in Vrindavana, His stealing butter from the neighbors, His lifting a mighty hill over His head to protect the citizens from a torrential downpour of rain, His intimate dealings with the devoted cowherd women of the town and their dancing together cannot be appreciated if one is deluded by the senses attached to material existence. What does this mean exactly? Think of sitting down at night to watch your favorite television program. You took care of your work for the day, so now you just want to relax. Your show is highly anticipated, as it is a program that you like the most. But as soon as the program starts, the phone starts to ring. Simultaneously the doorbell also sounds. Now you have someone on the phone and a house full of unexpected guests. Pretty soon you have a loud clamoring of crosstalk coupled with the responsibility of tending to your guests. The person on the phone also needs attention, but as soon as you hang up with them, the phone rings again. With all of this commotion, is there any chance of enjoying the program airing on television? If you can’t hear what’s going on, if you’re constantly distracted, how will you focus your mind on the drama that is unfolding with your show? Obviously, to truly enjoy what you are doing, you need distractions eliminated. As more and more external impediments are removed, the primary engagement can be further relished. There are mental demons as well, worries and fears over the future and lamentations over events gone wrong in the recent past. These subtle forces weigh heavily on the mind. Because of the influence of the mind, It is actually possible to read a book, watch a movie, or have a conversation with someone and not have any idea what is going on. The mind can travel faster than the speed of light; so it can take the contemplative individual anywhere they want to go, at any time. While hearing of the pastimes of the original form of Godhead who descended to this earth some five thousand years ago, if the consciousness is situated elsewhere, no amount of immersion in Krishna-kathawill produce the most tangible fruit of an enlivened spirit. At the core of the living being is a spiritual spark that is just bursting with potential for action. During youth, action is less inhibited, but there is a lack of intelligence. Therefore the full bundle of energy found within the body is forcefully directed by higher authorities into accepting restraint and following the path of education. As the body ages, the energy within dwindles, while the knowledge level ideally increases. This seems most unfair. If we’re getting smarter, shouldn’t we get to keep the same high energy levels so that we can utilize our time wisely? Nevertheless, the spirit soul is there, and its potential for action is unchanged. By following a regulative path authorized by bona fide teachers, the exuberance found during youth can be reawakened and channeled towards the proper destination. The soul is inherently tied to the Supersoul, which is an expansion of God that resides within every single person. God is already localized; He has a presence within every living being. His presence is there for a reason; He is not there to simply go along for the ride and suffer or enjoy the efforts of the individual soul ignorant of His presence. The Supersoul is meant to be reached. Our duty is to find Him and form a steady connection with Him that provides both sublime wisdom and satisfaction. “The yogi who knows that I and the Supersoul within all creatures are one worships Me and remains always in Me in all circumstances.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 6.31) For finding the Supersoul, the first step entails knowing who we are. The gross materialists, the foolish atheists, and those just not interested in spiritual life don’t even understand who they are. They associate with a temporary body destined for destruction. From the lack of intelligence, there is a tendency to hoard possessions and label everything as “Mine”. On the flip side, there are those who want to see God right away, preferably in His universal form, which is known as the virata-rupa, for that is the only concept they have of God. Thinking that God cannot be seen any other way, they determine that everything in the world is false and that the only way to see the Lord is through finding His invisible form, His unmanifested feature which thus encompasses all things matter and spirit. In the Vedas God is described as being both nirguna and saguna, or without qualities and with qualities. Nirguna equates to the unmanifested feature, while saguna refers to His qualified forms that can be seen with the eyes. In either case, the Lord is free of gunas, or material qualities. The distinctions are made from the perspective of the observer not fully cognizant of God and His transcendental attributes. Unmanifested doesn’t actually mean invisible; rather, it just says that this feature of the Lord, the all-encompassing universal form, is practically impossible to understand for one who is embodied, a fact confirmed by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. “For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 12.5) It’s understandable that the invisible/unmanifested aspect would be difficult to comprehend. The living entity can’t even see that he is spirit soul, that he is not his body, so how is he going to be able to see God within the creation? If we can’t see something right in front of us, that which is situated right before our very eyes, how are we going to see something that is miles away? Therefore in the Vedic discipline, those wishing to see the impersonal aspect of the Lord are advised to first understand who they are. Aham brahmasmi, or “I am Brahman”, is the first instruction taught to aspiring transcendentalists. If I know who I am, I can then gradually expand on that knowledge and realize my position in the world and why I am placed into it. Just being told that we are spirit soul is rare enough, but actually taking the steps to practically realize the fact is even more difficult. If after suffering tremendous heartbreak someone tells us not to worry, that we’ll get over the pain eventually, their words of comfort are hard to take seriously. “I don’t want to feel better in the future. I want the pain to go away now!” Eventually it turns out that they are correct, that we can get through the tough times. Similarly, someone may tell us that we are Brahman, or pure spirit, and that we shouldn’t be attached to anything relating to the body, but if our activities aren’t tailored to meet that understanding, the words of wisdom will just go in one ear and out the other. Therefore, central to any real yoga discipline are knowledge and austerity. Regularly study from the Vedic scriptures to learn about the science of self-realization - how the soul transmigrates from body to body based on desires, how karma works, why the material existence comes into being, and what is needed to gain moksha, or release. At the same time, practice austerity. Limit your interaction with the senses, for they are like twisted vines that grow, hiding the true nature of the living entity and swallowing up their bliss and knowledge with each entry into pursuits to find material satisfaction. “One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 18.54) Though renunciation, knowledge, sacrifice, austerity and other principles of self-realization are important, they are meant to further a goal. They are not the goal in and of themselves. They are not even meant for just understanding the impersonal feature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. When one realizes who they are and renounces activity that keeps them attached to that which is not Brahman, maya, they attain the liberated platform. What is the point to reaching this state? In addition to seeing that God’s presence is everywhere, the true fruit of the existence is tasted. The sweetness of the lila of the Supreme Person is relished fully by the liberated souls, who know that life is not about amassing wealth, finding false happiness in intoxication, or enjoying unrestricted sex life. These activities have a beginning and an end, so they are guaranteed to lead to unhappiness. As soon as there is separation, there is an unpleasant situation. Yet as soon as something is accepted, it must be rejected at some point in the future. This holds true with everything except the relationship to Krishna, or God. The liberated soul transcends the influence of the senses and thus does not have to worry about reincarnation or finding unhappiness in the future. At the same time, the active propensity in the soul is there. If anything, this potential for the outpouring of service, which is the soul’s dharma, is more fully stocked when one is liberated. Without the inhibiting influence of material nature, the consciousness is ready to fully enjoy the proper set of activities. If the material world is maya, or false, however, what could the liberated soul possibly do? Shouldn’t they just sit in quiet meditation and await the time of merging into Brahman? The manifested feature of the Supreme Lord is always superior, for even the liberated souls derive tremendous pleasure from interacting with it. With the visibly manifest forms of the Lord, the non-liberated souls get an idea of what God looks like, what His tendencies are, and how to interact with Him, but only the liberated souls truly relish the pastimes of the Supreme Person. Even if they are not in touch with those pastimes, or if they want to invoke the memory of them within the mind, they simply chant, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. A person would have to be liberated to repeat this sacred formula day after day, with increased attention given with each successive utterance. No other set of words could be repeated regularly and still provide happiness to the chanter. This shows that Krishna and His names are non-different. The holy name is as good as Krishna Himself, as it carries with it Krishna’s forms, pastimes and qualities. In the conditioned state, the mantra can also be chanted, but it won’t be relished as much. Moreover, the equality between Krishna and His names won’t be realized. The Vedic seers compiled the wonderful texts like the Ramayana and Shrimad Bhagavatam for the pleasure of the liberated souls, to give something to focus their minds on. Transcendental mellows, or rasas, can only be tasted with the personal feature of the Lord. This doesn’t invalidate the purpose of the impersonal manifestation, as it serves as a wonderful target for those unable to appreciate the form belonging to Krishna or His direct incarnations. Nevertheless, the highest transcendental taste will be found when the consciousness becomes immersed in bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, whose most potent practice is hearing. As chanting creates a nearby, audible version of Krishna, hearing is taken care of at the same time. Thus the same person that was previously distracted by material affairs and didn’t appreciate hearing about Krishna will soon not be able to go a single day without transporting the mind to Goloka Vrindavana, where Krishna at this very minute is playing His flute and enchanting the hearts of His friends, and even the cows. That sound can’t be received by one who is embodied or one who is tainted by desires rooted in attachment to a temporary form. Only the liberated souls know how to hear and process the sound waves coming from Krishna and delight in them. In Closing: From Krishna’s flute comes the sound, That fills soul with pleasure nowhere else found. To relish this taste, remove every distraction, So that to Krishna you can give full attention. Try to watch television program with others around, Preoccupied mind can’t hear show even with loudest sound. Follow sacrifice, penance and austerity, To remove maya’s influence and give mind clarity. Position as spirit soul does one need to know, From realization knowledge and renunciation do grow. Thus when distractions are finally removed, To mind sweetness of Krishna’s lila is proved. Liberated souls try to remember Krishna every day, Chant His names so that in their minds He will always stay.

Libya & QADDAFI ...FACTS

1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free
for all its citizens.

2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are
state-owned and loans given
to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.

3. Home considered a human right in Libya –
Gaddafi vowed that his parents
would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a
home. Gaddafi’s father has
died while him, his wife and his mother are still living
in a tent.

4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$
50,000 ) by the government
to buy their first apartment so to help start up the
family.

5. Education and medical treatments are free in
Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25%
of Libyans are literate. Today the figure is 83%.

6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career,
they would receive farming
land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and
livestock to kick- start their farms
– all for free.

7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical
facilities they need in Libya,
the government funds them to go abroad for it –
not only free but they get US
$2, 300/mth accommodation and car allowance.

8. In Libyan, if a Libyan buys a car, the government
subsidized 50% of the price.

9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0. 14 per liter.

10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves
amount to $150 billion – now
frozen globally.

11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after
graduation the state would
pay the average salary of the profession as if he or
she is employed until
employment is found.

12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is, credited directly to
the bank accounts of all
Libyan citizens.

13. A mother who gave birth to a child receive US
$5 ,000

14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15

15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree

16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation
project, known as the Great
Man-Made River project, to make water readily
available throughout the desert
country.

83 year old scientist discovers new state of hemoglobin in living red blood cells by Biomechanism

Professor Qin Wenbin from BaoTou Medical College first identified the hemoglobin (Hb) A2 phenomenon 30 years ago. His first paper on this phenomenon was published in Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica, in Chinese, in 1981. Subsequent research investigating its mechanism was published in Chinese in the Chinese Biochemical Journal and Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 1991 and more recently in Electrophoresis, in 2010.

Using electrophoretic methods, he discovered that Hb is re-released in living red blood cells (RBCs) and demonstrated the significance of this process in theory and in clinical practice.

Caption: A: The HbA2 phenomenon. B: Cross electrophoresis. C: Bidirectional diagonal electrophoresis. D: Unidirectional multiband re-release of Hb. E: Bidirectional multiband re-release of Hb. Credit: ©Science China Press

His paper was published in Electrophoresis in 2009. He has since reported a compendium of his findings in a paper entitled “Electrophoresis release of hemoglobin form living red blood cells in Chinese in Scientia Sinica: Life Sciences (2011, issue No. 8 ) His work has opened up a new field of Hb research.

Most proteomics studies are conducted in a typical manner in which cells are lysed to release protein, after which the intended analyses are conducted. This is particularly true for red blood cells. Lysis of red blood cells releases Hb and the resulting mixture is called the hemolysate. It has long been considered that the analysis of proteins in hemolysate can reveal the true conditions inside the RBCs. However, it was unknown whether Hb obtained from the lysed RBCs had similar properties to Hb in intact living RBCs.

Therefore, in 1981, Professor Qin began comparing intact living RBCs with their hemolysate and found that the electrophoretic position of all Hbs, except for HbA2, were the same in both samples. However, the cause and the mechanism of this phenomenon—termed the HbA2 phenomenon—were unknown.

In 1991, to demonstrate the mechanism of the phenomenon he designed two new methods to test the interactions between Hbs, namely (1) Hb cross electrophoresis in starch-agarose mixed gel and (2) Hb bidirectional diagonal electrophoresis in starch-agarose mixed gel. Hb cross electrophoresis demonstrated that, HbA2 could interact with HbA1 outside RBCs. Meanwhile, bidirectional electrophoresis revealed that HbA2 could also interact with HbA1 inside RBCs. In the first direction of electrophoresis, HbA2 and HbA1 were bound together but, in the second direction of electrophoresis, both molecules were moved away from the diagonal.

This finding suggested that the HbA2 phenomenon is caused by an interaction between HbA2 and HbA1 within the RBC. In other words, Hbs do not exist solitarily but are actually dependent on each other and joint carry out their physiological functions. Unlike the electrophoretic release of Hb from living RBCs, the HbA2 phenomenon was not found in the hemolysate of lysed RBCs. Therefore, it was not surprising that the interaction between Hbs within the RBCs could not be detected. Based on these findings, in 2010, he further investigated the mechanisms involved in the HbA2 phenomenon using SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry methods. Using these methods, he found that HbA2 did interact with HbA1. He also found that Prx-2 may be involved in the HbA2 phenomenon.

“Thirty years have drifted by since I began the work…” Qin sighed with emotion, “…and I’m 83 now. The discovery of interaction between hemoglobins in the RBCs can be taken as my tiny gift I presented to human beings. It should be regarded as a beginning of investigations on the interactions between proteins within the cell with the method of electrophoretic release.”

One day in 2007, the power supply for the electrophoresis was accidentally cut off while he was exploring the mechanism of HbA2 phenomenon. However, the experiment was not abandoned. The electrophoresis continued when the power was on and a wonder appeared! In addition to the HbA2 phenomenon, other Hbs were released from the original cells. In order to verify this finding, he repeated the experiment many times using pause–run (off–on) controls, which yielded similar results to those of the first experiment. Because the Hbs were released again and again in the above-mentioned experiments, this process was termed electrophoretic re-release of Hbs from RBCs.

Accordingly, the HbA2 phenomenon represents the initial electrophoretic release of Hbs within RBCs. It is interesting to note that electrophoretic re-release can be repeated many times in the same experiment, and many bands of Hbs can be released by pause–run control. This phenomenon is referred to as multiband re-release.

At the same time, he met a family with mild thalassemia and did experiments using blood samples from this family and from healthy individuals. The results of these studies showed that multiband re-release of Hbs occurred significantly more frequently in blood samples from individuals with thalassemia compared with those from healthy individuals. As a result, he began searching for a possible relationship between re-release and this disease.

He has since made many important discoveries including a positive correlation between blood sugar levels with the increase in multiband re-release of Hbs from RBCs of diabetic individuals, as well as enhanced multiband re-release in patients with intrahepatic biliary duct cancer, which is more pronounced than that in patients with thalassemia.

Professor Qin has opened up a new area of research, and some of his achievements have been introduced into clinical practice.

______________

Qin WB. Electrophoresis release of hemoglobin from living red blood cells. Scientia Sinica: Life Sciences 2011;41:597-607

First Ebola-like virus native to Europe discovered

 by Biomechanism 

“New virus could be the first filovirus to cause disease in bats.”

A team of international researchers has discovered a new Ebola-like virus – Lloviu virus — in bats from northern Spain. Lloviu virus is the first known filovirus native to Europe, they report in a study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens yesterday Octobr 20th.

The study was a collaboration among scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) in Spain, Roche Life Sciences, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe, Grupo Asturiano para el Estudio y Conservación de los Murciélagos, Consejo Suerior de Investigaciones Científicas and the Complutense University in Spain.

Bats have important roles in plant pollination, spreading plant seeds and controlling insect populations, and pathogens that attack bat populations could have dramatic ecological and health-related consequences.

Filoviruses, which include well-known viruses like Ebola and Marburg, are among the deadliest pathogens in humans and non-human primates, and are generally found in East Africa and the Philippines. The findings thus expand the natural geographical distribution of filoviruses.

“The study is an opportunity to advance the knowledge of filoviruses’ natural cycle,” said Ana Negredo, one of the first authors of the study.

Scientists at ISCIII analyzed lung, liver, spleen, throat, brain and rectal samples from 34 bats found in caves in Asturias and Cantabria, Spain, following bat die-offs in France, Spain and Portugal in 2002 affecting mainly one bat species.

They screened these samples for a wide range of viruses using the polymerase chain reaction, a molecular technique that allows scientists to amplify genetic material, and. detected a filovirus. Filoviruses include ebolaviruses and marburgviruses, two viruses associated with severe disease in humans and other primates..

CII scientists used high-throughput sequencing to characterize the virus’ genome. When they compared it to other well-known filovirus genomes, they found that Lloviu virus represents a class of viruses distantly related to all ebolaviruses and that it may have diverged from ebolaviruses about 68,000 years ago.

“The detection of this novel filovirus in Spain is intriguing because it is completely outside of its previously described range. We need to ascertain whether other filoviruses native to Europe exist, and more importantly, if and how it causes disease,” said Gustavo Palacios, the other first author of the study.

Filoviruses typically do not make bats sick, but because the team of researchers only detected Lloviu virus in bats that had died and whose tissues showed signs of an immune response, they think Lloviu may be a cause for concern. They also did not detect Lloviu virus in samples of almost 1,300 healthy bats.

Bats have important roles in plant pollination, spreading plant seeds and controlling insect populations, and pathogens that attack bat populations could have dramatic ecological and health-related consequences.

“The Lloviu virus discovery highlights how much we still need to learn about the world of emerging infectious diseases and the importance of global collaboration and the One Health initiative in addressing the challenge,” said CII Director Dr. Ian Lipkin.