Chekonim: July 2008 Archives

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July 31, 2008

Lyrics Mode

http://www.lyricsmode.com/

Song lyrics archive with more than 650,000 lyrics for more than 25,000 artists

Posted by chek at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2008

Animal Alcohol Consumption

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7530720.stm

07/29/08
Tree-shrew is heavyweight boozer

A tiny tree-shrew that lives on alcoholic nectar could - pound for pound - drink the average human under the table, scientists have discovered.

Malaysia's pen-tailed tree-shrew waits until nightfall to binge on fermented nectar from the bertam palm.

The animal could give insights into how humans' alcohol tolerance first evolved, the scientists say.

The team has published details of its work in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Despite the shrews' small size, they are no lightweights when it comes to their alcohol intake.

Nectar from the flower buds of the bertam palm is fermented to a maximum alcohol content of up to 3.8%.

Each bud is a miniature brewery, containing a yeast community that turns the nectar into a frothy beer-like beverage.

Yet the animals, which are about the size of a small rat, do not seem to get drunk at all, researchers say.

Frank Wiens, from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, and colleagues confirmed the animals' high alcohol consumption by analysing their hair.

Chemicals in the hair samples showed that on any given night, a tree-shrew had a 36% chance of being drunk by human standards.

The shrew's resistance to intoxication suggests its body must have an effective mechanism for breaking down alcohol.

This should not come as too much of a surprise: scientists believe the animals - which are distant relatives of humans - have had 55 million years of evolution to adapt to their boozy lifestyle.

The researchers used radio tags to track the creatures on their crawls and recorded video of their feeding sessions.

Humans may even preserve a relic of the shrews' love of alcohol that has lasted through millions of years of evolution.

In their PNAS paper, the scientists wrote that the pen-tailed tree-shrew is "a living model for extinct mammals, representing the stock from all extinct and living tree-shrews and primates radiated".

They added: "Therefore, we hypothesise that moderate to high alcohol intake was present early on in the evolution of these closely related lineages."

The researchers also filmed a primate known as a slow loris feeding from the bertam palm.

The palm produces nectar year-round on a complex schedule that appears to maximize pollination by small mammals.

Posted by chek at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2008

DNA Testing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7518061.stm

Your DNA's in the Post

Fancy being told you have a higher-than-average chance of getting prostate cancer but are at low risk of glaucoma? Now for about £500 you can have your genetic make-up analysed. Rob Liddle swabbed his cheek and sent off for a scan.

An e-mail pops into my basket to say the results of my genetic scan are ready. I have a few minutes free - shall I take a peep now or wait until I can devote the time to digest the results properly?

Curiosity gets the better of me and I log on to the Decodeme website to view my password-protected "gene profile".

This is quite exciting - could what I find out in the next few minutes alter the course of my life? I'm curious by nature, but that doesn't extend to wanting to know when the Grim Reaper is going to come a-knocking.

Up pops a list of grisly conditions - most of which are familiar to me, indeed some of them lurk in my family history.

And it's the ones that have touched my life that I am drawn to first. I click on Heart Attack, bypass the warm-up "introduction" to the condition, and head straight for my own "risk summary".

I'm told: "According to the selected literature, the relative genetic risk calculated from your genotype for males of European ancestry is 0.90.

"This corresponds to a 44.2% lifetime risk of developing heart attack, which is 10% less than for males of European ancestry in general."

Fated to be fat?

So far so good, I suppose, but that's still a high risk and I'm not celebrating with a full English breakfast yet.

I scan the list of 25 traits again and settle on Crohn's disease. Here I'm told the research indicates that I have a lifetime risk 1.42 times the average. Not so good. But for Diabetes, types 1 and 2, better news.

Next I plump for Obesity - surely a banker. These genes make me look fat, right? No, a lower-than-average risk. I can't use that as an excuse for my fuller figure.

A number of personal genomics firms, including Iceland-based Decodeme and 23andme and Navigenics, in the US, are now directly selling tests to the public that assess genetic risks of suffering from certain conditions.

Some also provide information about your ancestral origins.

After receiving a sample taken from the inside of your cheek, Decodeme analyses up to one million DNA markers, annotates them and puts them in the context of disease risk, providing you with a personal profile.

'Do more exercise'

One reason the tests have proved controversial is that they can measure only the genes that studies have linked to certain conditions - not the many that have yet to be discovered.

Decodeme says it is continually adding the results of new research to its database, improving the accuracy of the existing risk summaries and extending the list of traits for which you can assess yourself.

But there are other risk factors that could easily override these genetic indications, such as family history and lifestyle. My genetic risk of getting type 2 diabetes is rated as below average, but being overweight probably counts for more.

Steve Jones, author and professor of genetics at University College, London, believes that, in most cases, individual genes cannot say much about a person's risk. For him, potential customers would be better off following the advice of the health lobby.

"It is a new form of diagnosis - before any symptoms manifest themselves - but really what everybody should do is smoke less, eat less and do more exercise," he says.

The Decodeme website has a section on risk factors and prevention for each of the conditions featured, which I later peruse.

From this I learn that the prevalence for Crohn's is highest during the second and third decades of life - but that it can crop up in the over-70s. I'm 42, so may have dodged that bullet.

And if I still have questions, I can message Decodeme's team, who may then refer me to a genetic counsellor.

But for some critics, discovering your risk of developing a serious condition from a web page rather than a doctor presents a serious problem - even if the scans are unlikely to throw up any catastrophic results.

The authorities in some states in the US have recently warned testing companies that they should not continue to solicit business from residents unless the process is being sanctioned by a licensed physician.

'Reduced autonomy'

Daniel Sokol, a lecturer in medical ethics at the University of London, says the absence of the direct doctor-patient relationship does create a problem.

"The results could allow people to make changes for the better to their lifestyle," says Dr Sokol.

"However, if they misinterpret them - the scans could do more harm than good and could actually reduce people's autonomy if they interpret the results incorrectly or exaggerate their implications."

But Kari Stefansson, chief executive of Decodeme, says it should be a matter of personal choice how people treat their own data.

"The people who feel that they want to go over the results with a doctor should go to a doctor," he says.

"When I got mine, I went into the office and closed the door. I wanted to be alone.

BEING ROB LIDDLE
Alcohol flush reaction - no
Nicotine dependence - normal
Baldness - likely before age 40
Can taste bitter flavours - yes

"It should be your decision - we are not ramming it down anyone's throat. How you use it depends on who you are, but you are entitled to make the choice of getting the information or not getting it.

"But you can get so much out of it - it could be extremely beneficial to know that you are at a higher risk."

Dr Stefansson admits that the cost of the test at $985 probably puts it out of reach for most people, but he predicts a future in which accessing such personal genetic information will be commonplace - with the tests possibly costing a 10th of what they do now in five years' time.

We go through my results together. I appear to have a slightly increased chance of suffering macular degeneration (an eye problem), coeliac disease and Crohn's, but there is nothing in my risk summary that indicates that I need to take further medical advice immediately.

"I'm afraid to tell you that you are just an average guy," jokes Dr Stefansson.

Perhaps this news is the hardest of all to take.

Posted by chek at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

Virgin Galactic White Knight

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7529978.stm

Branson unveils space tourism jet

The British business tycoon, Richard Branson, has unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space.

The high-altitude jet will act as the mothership for a spacecraft, releasing it in mid-air to take two crew and six passengers on sub-orbital flights.

More than 250 people have already paid $200,000 (£100,000) each to be among the first making the tourist trips.

Mr Branson predicts the maiden space voyage will take place in 18 months.

A crowd of engineers, dignitaries and space enthusiasts gathered inside a hangar in the Mojave Desert in California for the unveiling of White Knight Two "Eve".

'Pioneering spirit'

Virgin Galactic has contracted the innovative aerospace designer Burt Rutan to build its spacecraft at his Scaled Composites factory in California.

But some hurdles remain before Virgin Galactic customers can experience zero gravity.

White Knight Two must undergo a rigorous flight testing programme, beginning in the autumn.

The mothership is a white, four-engine jet designed to cradle SpaceShipTwo under its wing and release it at 50,000 feet (15,240m) in the air.

Once separated, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 62 miles (100km) above the Earth.

Engineers still need to finish building SpaceShipTwo, which is now about 70% complete, according to Virgin Galactic.

Mr Branson said the name of the White Knight Two reflected the pioneering spirit of his space tourism venture.

"We are naming it Eve after my mother, Eve Branson, but also because it represents a first and a new beginning, the chance for our ever-growing group of future astronauts and other scientists to see our world in a completely new light," he said.

July 17, 2008

Hermes Records

http://www.hermesrecords.com/

There is no reason for Music. It simply exists.

Hermes Records was formed in early 2000 to produce and promote modern Iranian Music, discover creative musicians and help artists approach new musical horizons.

Lying on a great musical potential in Iran, Hermes Records tries to interpret different modalities and ambiences of Persian Music as well as enjoying interactions between the roots of occidental and oriental musical textures and harmonies.

While the music industry in Iran is devoting most of its attention to popular and traditional genres, artists from diverse backgrounds have been brought together in Hermes Records to explore common understandings and new musical colorings under our slogan "Music for Music".

Till now, the trust of well known and talented Iranian musicians as well as artists from abroad has helped us walk through this path and continue searching for new ideas.

Posted by chek at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)