2009 Fattest Cities in America

From Men's Fitness: 25 towns in need of a fitness overhaul

As we've done for more than a decade, MF collected and analyzed reams of data on the 50 most populated areas in the nation in an effort to determine just which cities take fitness the most seriously. Here are the 25 that landed on this year's list of the Fattest Cities in America.

10.) Louisville-Jefferson, KY

According to Nielsen Media Research, viewers in the Louisville-Jefferson television market spend 15 percent more time in front of the tube than average among cities in our survey.

According to the CDC, 42.4 percent of adults here are heavy enough to increase their risk for weight-related health problems. Compare it to a national average of 36.09 percent.

Just 12 percent of Louisville-Jefferson residents have a health club membership. That's 33 percent less than average, and the lowest rate in our survey.

9.) Charlotte, NC

Charlotte residents received a bottom score in fruit and vegetable consumption, with only 21 percent eating the recommended five or more servings per day.

Feel like hitting the public pool for a morning swim? Good luck finding one. Charlotte has one pool for every 67,159 residents — 52 percent fewer than average in our survey.

A mere 11.1 percent of Charlotte residents run or jog — 2nd lowest in our survey.

8.) Jacksonville, FL

Florida state law limits or prohibits obesity-related lawsuits against food manufacturers and restaurants.

Jacksonville residents participate in sports much less than average — 18 percent less than average, in fact.

Just 9 percent of Jacksonville residents exercise with dumbbells. That's 30 percent less than average and the 4th lowest rate in our survey.

7.) El Paso, TX

Basketball courts are practically nonexistent here, among the fewest per capita in our survey. There's just one court here for every 9,634 residents; the national average is one court per 6,909 people.

There are 134 percent fewer tennis courts per capita here than average among cities in our survey.

Golfers are limited to two city-owned courses. Relative to population, that's less than almost anywhere else we surveyed.

6.) Houston, TX

Air quality here is among the most unhealthful of any city in our survey, according to EPA air quality standards.

Donuts are 132 percent more popular here than average, according to a comparison of places where they are sold. Houston has the 6th highest number of donut outlets per capita in our survey.

Just 2 percent of Houston residents have a home gym. That's 42 percent less than average, and the 4th lowest rate in our survey.

5.) New York, NY

The local commute is much more oppressive than in most cities — 54 percent more oppressive than average, leaving less time to exercise and prepare healthy meals.

Our survey has found 87 percent fewer sporting-goods stores in New York than average an indicator of an inactive populace.

New York has one pool for every 135,648 residents — 207 percent fewer than average in our survey.

4.) Las Vegas, NV

Fast food, widely implicated as a contributor to obesity, is more common in Las Vegas than most places in our survey. In a per capita comparison there are 68 percent more fast-food joints here than average.

Las Vegas has 106 percent more pizza places per capita than the average among cities in our survey.

Las Vegas has 69 municipal parks, among the fewest of any city on a per capita basis, according to our exclusive survey of municipal park departments.

3.) San Antonio, TX

Just 12 percent of San Antonio residents have a health club membership. That's 31 percent less than average, and the 2nd lowest rate in our survey.

Just 2 percent of San Antonio residents have a home gym. That's 57 percent less than average, and the 2nd lowest rate in our survey.

According to the CDC, 28 percent of residents in the San Antonio area are clinically obese.

2.) Oklahoma City, OK

Oklahoma City residents received a bottom score in fruit and vegetable consumption, with only 17 percent eating the recommended five or more servings per day.

Oklahoma City residents are 28 percent less likely to participate in fitness walking than average, the 2nd lowest overall participation rate among cities in our survey.

Basketball courts are practically nonexistent here, among the fewest per capita in our survey. There's just one court here for every 12,162 residents; the national average is one court per 6,909 people.

1.) Miami, FL

Despite wide availability of local running and biking trails Miami residents are 35 percent less likely than average to jog or cycle.

Ice cream shops are 141 percent more popular in Miami than average.

Mayor Manuel A. Diaz participates in fewer fitness-related public events than most mayors.

HOW THE REST RANKED:

11. Memphis, TN
12. Detroit, MI
13. Chicago, IL
14. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
15. San Jose, CA
16. Tulsa, OK
17. Baltimore, MD
18. Columbus, OH
19. Raleigh, NC
20. Philadelphia, PA
21. L.A.-Long Beach, CA
22. Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
23. Indianapolis, IN
24. San Diego, CA
25. Kansas City, MO

Clinton Township man dreams of creating flying machine

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News

CLINTON TOWNSHIP -- The Macomb County moon man stood next to his forlorn flying saucer, which sat perched on milk crates in a weedy patch along Interstate 94. He railed against corporate conspirators and misinformed scientists.

Click here for a VIDEO

According to the moon man, a nefarious cabal has blocked him from laying his hands on the necessary money to complete his perpetual flying machine -- a machine he says, that could reach Mars in a mere two weeks.

"Bankers promise calls they never return," said Alfie Carrington, who when not working in his laboratory makes ends meet as a part-time construction worker. "The governor's office told my mother no. And these so called scientific experts who have never seen it, say it won't work."

And so the earthbound saucer sits north of 14 Mile, smothered in a blanket of bird-dung and snow.

"I say 'Is saucer aircraft technology in somebody's college?' " he asked. "There's no MIT for this. There's no Berkeley for this. They say 'Where did you get your saucer information from.' Nowhere. Because the saucer information is in here."

Alfie Carrington of Clinton Township says he's been working for 30 years developing his flying saucer, which sits in a lot north of 14 Mile. (Max Ortiz / The Detroit News)

And with that, he knowingly tapped his temple with his forefinger.

Carrington, 59, is one of those Michiganians with an obscure, beautiful mind who, in the dark recesses of his pole barn, tinkers with gadgetry or studies science or listens to Mahler into the late evening. But once this man leaves the orbit of his own private universe, he appears to the general public as a little more than a nut job, a loon, a man likely to find his end at the bottom of an unmarked grave.

Carrington said he accepts disdain as the price of genius. And although he has no formal scientific training, Carrington does hold an associate's degree in psychology.

"People think I'm nuts," he said.

He claims he's spent 30 years and $60,000 of his own money building the flying saucer, which he insists will replace the automobile and render the combustion engine and gasoline irrelevant.

Unfortunately, Carrington ran out of money before he could build his motor and hasn't been invited to this year's North American International Auto Show.

To make a tall tale short, Carrington fell on hard times. His mother's feet swelled with diabetes, and she moved into his home. Construction jobs dried up. The saucer prototype fell into disrepair and was evicted from its hangar.

Carrington grew forlorn and found solace in yoga, fried chicken and cold beer.

But now, Carrington believes his saucer may indeed take flight, what with Washington prepared to hand-out $1.5 trillion in stimulus and bailout money.

"Everybody else has got their hand out," said Carrington. "Wall Street, Chrysler, even Larry Flynt. I'm the only one that's got a plan. All I need is about $250,000. We could have it up and flying in nine months."

Carrington, who holds an associate's degree in psychology and works part-time in construction, realizes his ideas may sound a bit far-fetched.

Inspired by "Star Trek" episodes and science fiction novelist H.G. Wells, the simplest explanation of Carrington's flying saucer goes something like this: Measuring 14-feet in diameter and constructed of carbon fiber, the craft would have two discs that rotate in opposite directions. The discs would be fitted with electro-magnetic technology and would connect to a coil mounted in the interior of the discs, which in turn would send electrical power to batteries.

This, according to Carrington, would create a continuous, perpetual power source. Steering would come by benefit of air ducts running through the craft that could be opened or closed for desired propulsional direction.

"This is the answer to Detroit's problems," Carrington said. "Think of it as something like a flying car. It would have space capabilities too, but when I mention that, people treat me like I'm crazy."

Listen to the man for 10 minutes and you too may start to become convinced. His pitch is so convincing in fact, that NASA warmly received him at a symposium 15 years ago only to grow cold when they realized he knew nothing about computers.

Richard E. Wirz is an assistant professor at UCLA and formerly a senior engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who specializes in spacecraft integration and developed the world's first miniature noble gas ion thruster. He says Carrington's flyer-saucer has about as much chance of getting airborne as a dead elephant.

"Using electro-magnetic energy to power his craft is like saying I'm using tires to power my car," says Wirz.

"The power has to come from somewhere. He's talking about using batteries, but the size of batteries he needs would be so large, he wouldn't be able to get the craft off the ground. Did you see the 'Iron Man' movie? If he had a little reactor like that, then that might do the trick."

But Wirz said the Moon Man should be supported not scorned.

"Don't discourage the guy," the professor said.

"One of his 100 ideas might actually be helpful. What would you have him do? Sit around watching reruns of 'Seinfeld?' We'd be better off with more men like him."

You can reach Charlie LeDuff at (313) 222-2071 or charlie@detnews.com.

Reflective Flower Shot

pretty lat/long

~ more drops ~

Senator Says Former FBI Agent Who Vanished in 2007 Is in Secret Iran Prison

HelpBobLevinson.com

Robert Levinson

• 
• 

A U.S. senator revealed Tuesday that he believes a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran nearly two years ago is being held in a secret prison there — much to the surprise of the ex-agent's wife.

Sen. Bill Nelson's comments on the disappearance of Robert Levinson came during Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's secretary of state confirmation hearing in Washington.

"I haven't received any information about my husband," Levinson's wife, Christine, told The Associated Press.

She met with government officials in Iran in December 2007, but said there was no word on her husband's fate.

Levinson, 60, was last seen on March 8, 2007, on Kish Island, a tourist haven in the Persian Gulf, where he was doing investigative work for a private security firm. His credit cards and passport have not been used since his disappearance.

Iran says it has "no record" of Levinson's stay on Kish and has resisted attempts by the U.S. government to investigate.

"The door has been closed at every turn," Nelson said during Clinton's confirmation hearing. "We think he is being held by the government of Iran in a secret prison."

Clinton said Iran could improve relations with the U.S. by offering information on Levinson.

"With respect to the Floridian who is in prison, it would be an extraordinary opportunity for the government of Iran to make such a gesture to permit contact, to release him, to make it clear that there is a new attitude in Iran," Clinton said during the hearing.

In November, Nelson introduced a resolution asking Iranian investigators to confer with the FBI and for the Iranian government to provide the assistance it has pledged to Levinson's family, who have kept up a campaign to locate him for nearly two years.

The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic ties with Iran and uses the Swiss government as an intermediary. Iran has refused access to Swiss investigators seeking to visit Kish Island.

The resolution, however, does not have the force of law and cannot impel the government to act on Levinson's behalf.

Outside of declarations of war, Senate resolutions generally have little impact in the U.S. Nelson's resolution is mostly a symbolic gesture, intended to increase pressure on the Iranian regime to account for Levinson.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the U.S. State Department or the Levinson family at www.helpboblevinson.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Basking in Big Data

Visualization software makes viewing and interacting with enormous data sets practical without a supercomputer.

Data extraction: This image shows an experiment in which aerogel, a porous material, is bombarded by a micrometeroid traveling at five kilometers per second. Aerogels are commonly used to shield electronic equipment in satellites because they are both durable and extremely light. The Morse-Smale complex identifies the structure of the porous solid as the micrometeroid enters it, providing detailed information about the filament structure of the material (shown at right).
Credit: Attila Gyulassy/UC Davis

In some ways, science is suffering from too much data. Experiments and computer simulations analyzing everything from the dynamics of climate change to the precise details of folding proteins can churn out billions of numbers describing these physical phenomena. Making sense of all this data remains a challenge.

Recently, however, researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that they have developed software that makes analysis and visualization of huge data sets possible without the aid of a supercomputer. The researchers' algorithm slices up data into more manageable chunks, then stitches it back together on the fly, so that the data can be manipulated in three dimensions, all on a computer with the power and capacity of a high-end laptop.

The team's algorithm offers a practical way to get structural information about materials, proteins, and fluids, says Attila Gyulassy, the researcher at UC Davis who led the project. It allows users to "interactively visualize, rotate, apply different transfer functions, and highlight different aspects of the data," he says.

The software employs a mathematical tool called the Morse-Smale complex, which has been used for around 4 years to extract and visualize elements of large data sets by sorting them into segments that contain mathematically similar features. But while the Morse-Smale complex has been known for decades, it normally requires huge amounts of memory to perform the necessary calculations on a computer.

Gyulassy and his colleagues found a solution to this memory problem by writing an algorithm that breaks apart a data set before using the Morse-Smale complex, then stitches the blocks back together again. This means that only a small amount of data is needed at each step, so much less has to be stored in memory. As a result, the software can run on a desktop computer with just two gigabytes of memory.

Memory is one of the big limiting factors when trying to perform complex analysis of large data sets, says Peter Schröder, a professor of computer science at California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena. "You can't even fit the stuff in memory," he says. "But [the researchers] have addressed it."

Schröder adds that, while the new software isn't the only data-visualization tool available, it looks particularly powerful and practical for a number of scientific applications. Algorithms such as this are changing science, he adds: "Things that used to be considered too abstract or too crazy to use for data analysis are turning not just into algorithms, but practical algorithms."

Gyulassy says that his team has plans to release an open-source software library by the end of March so that other researchers can take advantage of the approach, and modify it to suit their needs.

Secret Micro Sat Mission Fuels Space War worries

An American missile-warning satellite has died, more than 22,000 miles up. So now, the U.S. is sending a pair of mini-spacecraft on a top secret operation to investigate, Craig Covault reports for Spaceflight Now. If the mission is successful, analysts say, it'll have a global impact. Because the same technologies used to investigate a friendly, out-of-service satellite could also be used to help take out an enemy orbiter.

In June 2006, a Delta 2 rocket launched a pair of Darpa spacecraft into geosynchronous orbit. The stated goal of the "MiTex" (Micro-satellite Technology Experiment) project was to have the 225-kilogram ships inspect each other, while twirling around the planet. Equipped with advanced thrusters, batteries and solar panels, the two tiny satellites were meant to be more maneuverable, and longer-lasting, than almost anything else in its class. For two years -- as far as we know -- the pair did their inspection pas de deux, tens of thousands of miles up.

Then, the Defense Support Program DSP 23 missile warning satellite failed. It was a major blow because it carried "a sensor package designed to detect whether rogue nuclear powers like Iran or North Korea were conducting secret nuclear tests [from] deep space," Covault writes. "That capability [died] with the loss of DSP 23."

But it gave the MiTex craft a new mission: find out why the 5,000-pound orbiter dropped dead.

Imaging of the satellite could possibly show damage from a micrometeorite hit or perhaps a bent antenna. Radio data obtained up close could also perhaps detect a malfunctioning circuit or computer. And the exercise of coordinating the Mitex visits to the DSP in itself is valuable to Darpa.

In addition the Delta 2 that launched the Mitex spacecraft from the Cape here was a unique four-stage version that used a new, solar array-equipped upper stage developed at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) near Washington, D.C. This new NRL upper stage is itself an important new military space element, that in the future could allow the delivery of small covert spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit.

"One cannot escape the fact that this technology, while potentially extremely useful in diagnostics of sick and ailing birds, also has tremendous potential for ASAT [anti-satellite] missions. It's stealthy, highly maneuverable, potentially lethal in more ways than one -- with potential kinetic, electronic or laser-killing payloads," Theresa Hitchens, the former director of the Center for Defense Information, tells Danger Room.

The Chinese -- who have taken American heat for their own ASAT test -- "will complain to the international community," says Greg Kulacki of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"If this story was that China had secretly developed inspection satellites and orbited them around one of their failing satellites, what would be the reaction from the U.S.? I'm betting on hysteria," Hitchens adds. "It behooves the U.S. government to be more transparent itself if it wishes others to open up about their programs; doing this in secret only adds to the suspicions of other nations [about] U.S. intentions and provides political cover for others who may not have benign goals in mind."

[Photo: Spaceflight Now]
By Noah Shachtman

Supreme Court OK's Searches based on Computer Errors

Drug evidence found during an unlawful arrest arising from a police computer error could be used at trial, a divided Supreme Court says.

The 5-4 decision on Wednesday means that the nation's high court is distancing itself from the so-called "exclusionary rule" that prohibits police from using evidence obtained from illegal searches. In this instance, the court ruled that there was an innocent mistake: an erroneous computer record about a motorist stopped in traffic by Alabama authorities stating he had an outstanding arrest warrant, which made him eligible for an automatic search.

Four dissenting judges said the search, which found drugs and a gun, violated Bennie Dean Herring's Fourth Amendment rights to be free of unreasonable searches.

"The most serious impact of the court's holding will be on innocent persons wrongfully arrested based on erroneous information carelessly maintained in a computer database," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote (.pdf) in a dissenting opinion.

After an officer stopped Herring, a clerk messaged him that he was a fugitive who did not appear in court on a felony accusation. The officer subsequently searched Herring and found methamphetamine and a gun. Moments later, the clerk called back the officer and said the warrant had been vacated -- a fact that was not entered into the police's computer database.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said evidence could be used against the motorist because the police mistake was a "negligent bookkeeping error" and that the authorities did not deliberately violate Herring's rights.

Photo: functoruser
By David Kravets

The Train in Spain Replaces the Plane

The trains in Spain are doing better than planes as a growing web of high-speed lines carrying sleek bullet trains steal hundreds of thousands of passengers from airlines and cut emissions in the process.

As the government pumps more money into the system, Spaniards are abandoning commercial airlines so quickly that domestic flights carried 20 percent fewer people last year. That's big news in a country that has long depended upon commercial aviation to connect its major population centers.

Spain has been late to the train game in part because it is larger than other European countries and its major cities are typically 300 miles apart. For that reason, Spain has long favored air travel, and it has been a boon for the nation's airlines.

But no more.

Air travel has been so big that the route linking Madrid and Barcelona was the busiest in the world in 2007 with 971 departures per week. That started to change in February when the government joined the two cities, which are 410 miles apart, with a high-speed line that cut travel time to 2 hours and 35 minutes. Other lines have opened or are in the works, each of them carrying AVE trains capable of 220 mph, and they're stealing passengers from airlines.

Airlines carried 72 percent of the 4.8 million long-distance travelers who opted to go by rail or air in 2007. That fell to 60 percent last year, and Joseph Valls, a professor at the ESADE business school in Barcelona told The Guardian "The numbers will be equal in two years."

Trains also have seen a boost from the unusually severe weather Spain has endured recently. Heavy snow forced the closing of Madrid's Barjas Airport last weekend, stranding more than 45,000 people. Adding to the industry's woes, Iberia airline has endured a labor dispute that's canceled more than 500 flights and delayed 5,000 others. No wonder travelers are heading for the trains instead of the planes.

Beyond convenience, there is a strong environmental argument for the high-speed AVE trains, which are a more energy-efficient way to get around. Alberto Garcia of the Spanish Railways Foundation estimates AVE trains use 19 percent less energy than conventional trains and generate one-sixth the carbon emissions of a plane.

The government plans to lay another 10,000 km (6,200 miles) of high-speed track by 2020 and ensure 90 percent of Spaniards live within 30 miles of a station offering high-speed service. Prime Minister Jose Luiz Zapatero promises to build Europe's finest high-speed rail system, no small feat considering the web of tracks covering Western Europe.

Zapatero hopes the giant investment in transportation infrastructure will kick start Spain's cratering economy. The Obama administration would do well to take note of Spain's trains.

Main photo: NASA Videographer/Flickr

New Weapon to Fight Drug Tolerant Bacteria

The key to battling drug-tolerant superbugs could be keeping them awake. New research into how bacteria go dormant, allowing them to evade drugs, could lead to a method to keep them from hiding.

Bacterial infections are often hard to eradicate because a small percentage of germs are dormant at any one time. These mysterious "persisters" duck antibiotics, then awaken and multiply again after drug treatments stop.

But the mechanisms of bacterial persistence are becoming clearer, and so are ways to combat the phenomenon. A new study in Science Thursday maps out the structure and function of one major dormancy-inducer in bacteria, a protein called HipA. And it suggests how another protein, HipB, neutralizes it.

"Now we know what HipA looks like and how it functions," said lead author Maria Schumacher, a biochemist at the University of Texas' M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "We can try to develop more specific inhibitors against it."

Scientists could mine libraries of known compounds for more inhibitors or try to design them anew. Either way, unlocking HipA's secrets is a big step forward.

"Persistence has been underappreciated for some time as a mechanism for bacteria to evade antibiotics," said microbiologist Thomas Hill of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, who was not involved in the study. "This paper takes us one step closer to understanding what persistence is all about."

Persistent bacteria are different than antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which evolve as a population to withstand the action of a particular drug. Persistent bacteria aren't resistant to drugs; they just wait them out. Most antibiotics target growing bacteria, killing by forcing the germs to make toxic byproducts. But a dormant bug isn't producing anything, toxic or not. So it survives, rising again another day.

These drug-tolerant bacteria are a major health issue because they are common in biofilms, thin skins of microorganisms that coat surfaces and cause about 60 percent of infections in the developed world.

"Biofilms build up on medical equipment," said co-author Richard Brennan, also a biochemist at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. "Cystic fibrosis patients have biofilms growing in their lungs."

The persistence phenomenon was identified during World War II, when doctors discovered that many bacteria remaining in the human body after a course of penicillin were actually susceptible to the drug. Persistence has proven difficult to investigate, however, because only about one in a million bacteria are dormant at any particular time.

In the new study, Schumacher's team found that HipA inactivates a compound involved in protein production. With their protein pipeline shut down, bacteria become dormant.

HipB counteracts HipA by latching onto it and locking it into a shape that prevents it from shutting down the protein production. And HipB also likely hides HipA away where the bacteria's DNA is stored, keeping the HipA from even encountering the protein-producing compound, which is found mostly in the membranes and cellular fluid.

This system is probably not confined to E. coli, making it an intriguing target. According to the study's authors, HipA occurs in many different pathogenic bacteria and likely plays a major role in the development of persistence.

Though the study sheds light on how bacteria become dormant, it doesn't clarify what spurs the phenomenon on — why HipB sometimes falls away and lets HipA work its soporific magic.

"It seems to happen randomly," Brennan said.

For Schumacher and her team, the next step is finding out what else HipA does, and looking for other compounds that may induce bacterial dormancy.

"There are other mechanisms for persistence that we'd like to investigate," Brennan said. "But it's still early days."

Schumacher and Brennan see their results as a validation of basic research — attacking interesting questions without necessarily knowing what practical applications will result.

"This is basic science at its best," Brennan said. "It's a discovery of how things work that has opened up new possibilities for research."

"A lot of people wonder where their tax dollars are going," Schumacher said. "But people are seeing more and more how important it is to understand biological processes on a mechanistic level."

Citation: "Molecular Mechanisms of HipA-Mediated Multidrug Tolerance and Its Neutralization by HipB." By Maria A. Schumacher, Kevin M. Piro, Weijun Xu, Sonja Hansen, Kim Lewis, Richard G. Brennan. Science Vol. 323, 16 January 2009.

Pop Music Mystery Chord Solved

Mathematician (finally) finds opening chord to "A Hard Day's Night"

Imagine All the People: Taylor Hengen

The opening chord to “A Hard Day’s Night” has reached an almost mythical status. For years, no one knew what it actually was. People would come close, through trial and error, watching Ed Sullivan performances, and studying advanced music theory, but no attempts ever quite captured the exact chord.

Enter Dr. Jason Brown, from Dalhousie University in Canada. An avid Beatles fan and amateur musician, Brown had tried for years to play that chord, but it never seemed quite right. “It sounds outlandish,” said Dr. Brown, “that someone could create a mystery around a chord from a time when artists used such simple recording techniques.”

Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Brown decided to use the Fourier calculation to decompose the song into its original frequencies and figure out the notes from there. It almost worked, save for one not- so- minor detail; the instruments didn’t match up. Oh, George was definitely playing his 12 string Rickenbacker, Lennon was was playing his six string, and Paul (oh Paul) was there on bass, but there was also an unaccounted-for F note that was impossible to play with just the instruments there. “Then the solution hit me: it wasn’t just those instruments. There was a piano in there as well, and that accounted for the problematic frequencies.”

Brown decided that there was a second George (George Martin, the producer, to be precise) who played that piano chord with the F note. This was never mentioned in any of the literature about the song, making it impossible for others to figure it out until the what Dr. Brown did. He just might be the only mathematician to ever have been published in Guitar Player magazine.

Via: Science Daily

If TV Shows Had Truthful Titles

This is what some TV shows might be called if they were being a little more truthful.

The New Virus Killer

Scientists try to turn HIV’s greatest strength—mutation—against itself

Death by Mutation: A scientist isolates virus samples from an AIDS patient. Hank Morgan/Getty Images

At first it sounds like a terrible plan, the kind that results in zombies ruling the Earth. Imagine a killer virus, a bug that mutates so often that it inevitably finds a way to resist every drug. Now, rather than fight its ability to evolve, you enhance it. You speed up the mutation rate, forcing such dramatic genetic change that the virus crashes completely. In the movies, this technique, known as lethal mutagenesis, would create a supergerm, but in real life it’s spawning a powerful new class of antiviral drugs. “It’s a fundamentally different strategy,” says University of Washington biologist Robert Smith. “Death by mutation.”

Few Options: A clinic in India admits 60 HIV patients a day as the worldwide total hits 33 million. M. Lakshiman/AP Photo

Several university labs are investigating this tactic for combating viruses such as hepatitis C and West Nile. But the research that’s furthest along, and that a few pharmaceutical companies are backing, targets HIV, a virus that is rapidly out-evolving the medications on which 33 million infected people depend. Seattle-based Koronis Pharmaceuticals is leading the way with the first HIV mutation booster to advance to human trials.
Known as KP-1461, the drug employs a counterintuitive attack. When an HIV particle invades a cell, it transforms its genetic information into double-stranded DNA. The cell, mistaking the infected DNA for its own, replicates it and churns out more HIV particles. Most drugs disrupt this process, but HIV evolves around them. KP-1461 lets the replication run so wild that the virus self-destructs.

The trick is disguising the drug’s molecules as the building blocks of HIV. When the virus replicates, it inserts the KP-1461 imposters throughout its genetic code, creating so many mistakes that it no longer has enough viable DNA to sustain its basic functions, let alone take over a host cell. As a result, the virus dies.

KP-1461: KP-1461 molecules [yellow] kill a virus by disrupting DNA [blue] replication. Koronis Pharmaceuticals

Though promising, the basic premise has raised concerns about cultivating that Hollywood-caliber supergerm. Louis Mansky, a virologist at the University of Minnesota, says that risk is minimal. In nature, he points out, the vast majority of mutations are either harmful or neutral to organisms, and a virus must replicate 10, 20 or even 100 times for drug resistance to evolve. Crippling the bug before that stage is key, he says.

But nailing that cutoff remains a sticking point. Mansky is lab-testing a drug cocktail that kills nearly the entire population of HIV cells after just one round of replication, but human tests are a few years away. Koronis’s clinical trials of KP-1461 last summer weren’t as effective as lab tests. Jeff Parkins, the vice president of clinical development, says researchers are honing the dosing strategy for trials planned for later this year.
Harnessing lethal mutagenesis may soon become easier, following a new mathematical formula by bioengineer Michael Deem of Rice University that could help researchers fine-tune compounds earlier in the process. Given a few key variables, such as how often viral genes shuffle inside cells, his equations can provide the minimum mutation rate to safely kill a virus. At this pace the virus won’t have time to correct errors or absorb drug-evading changes, and it will crash. “It’s not going to come back and cause problems,” Deem assures.

Coupled with work like Deem’s, lethal mutagenesis could lead to a penicillin-like drug that knocks out numerous viruses—influenza, SARS and more. Parkins maintains hope that his company’s drug could eradicate HIV, or at least offer an alternative to current treatements. And that, researchers say, is what makes the mutation tactic attractive. “Even if it just leads to a different antiviral,” says virologist Satish Pillai of the University of California at San Francisco, “it would still be great for patients who have very few options left.”

By Gregory Mone Posted 01.15.2009 at 2:37 pm 3 Comments

A Real Cloaking Device

Fiction inches closer to fact as an invisibility generator passes preliminary tests

It's like something out of a science fiction novel or a Harry Potter book. Engineers from Duke University have constructed a device that can "cloak" items placed on a mirror surface.

First designed in 2006, the new version of the device is a more sophisticated and complicated design that can cloak a wider variety of waves. To create the new device, the researchers developed a new set of mathematical algorithms which, in turn, are used to engineer artificially structured "metamaterials" that have properties not found in natural materials. The metamaterials are what form the cloaking structures, which bend electromagnetic waves, like light, around an object, so it appears the object is no longer there.

We see ordinary objects, like the flat surface above, when light bounces off them to our eyes.

To test the new device, the researchers aimed a beam of microwaves at a bump on a flat mirror surface. Normally, this bump would cause the beams to scatter, as seen here.

But in the experiment, the metamaterial cloaking structure was able to bend the waves around the object, removing any sign of scattered beams, so that the reflected image resembles that of the flat plane, as if the bump were not there.

To think of it another way, the device acts like the mirages created on the road in the summer.

"You see what looks like water hovering over the road, but it is in reality a reflection from the sky," says David Smith, William Bevan Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. "In that example, the mirage you see is cloaking the road below. In effect, we are creating an engineered mirage with this latest cloak design."

While the cloaking device is still in its beginning stages, Smith believes the cloaks show promise and could one day serve as protective shields or improve wireless communications by making signal-blocking obstacles "disappear."

While its uses may be practical, the idea of cloaking objects seems like something straight out of a Star Trek episode. Could H.G. Wells' Invisible Man become a reality? "I still think it is a distant concept, but this latest structure does show clearly there is a potential for cloaking -- in the science fiction sense -- to become science fact at some point," says Smith. "Maybe we wouldn't have something as simple and as all-encompassing as a Harry Potter cloak, but in certain contexts or situations cloaking effects do seem to have some reality."

Cloaking device inside experimental apparatus: The photo also shows the dielectric lens used to shape the incident microwave beam Jack Mock

By Catherine Schwanke Posted 01.15.2009 at 1:59 pm 5 Comments

Massive Underground Ant Colony

A research that finds out how one of the subterranian ants structures looks like, its just amazing, can't stop watching this wonderful creatures, love them... Please, comment about it and tell me what u think..

Stretching your Nest Egg by Living Abroad

More than 150 years ago a popular phrase urged Americans with unlimited financial prospects, "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country."

Today it's more like, "Go south, old man and you may outlive your money in Mexico -- or Costa Rica."

Retirement abroad used to be the purview of the well-to-do -- a luxurious reward of exotic locations, expanded horizons, prolonged travels and a life without schedules.

These days it's a matter of survival, or at least a rather drastic financial maneuver to make a dwindling nest egg last longer.

"It used to be divided between having an adventure and being able to go someplace affordable," says Rosanne Knorr, author of "The Grown-Up's Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad."

"But I'm getting more and more questions about where are the most affordable countries you can go," she says.

In Central and South America, the cost of living is one-third to two-thirds what it is in the U.S., says Barry Golson, editor in chief of ForbesTravel.com, who with his wife, Thia, authored the upcoming "Retirement Without Borders."

"You can have a little house with domestic help and gardening help and you get more for your money," he says. "That's useful for people who are facing tougher times here."

But there are trade-offs. You have to be willing to live in a place that likely has different standards, mindsets and policies. And you also may be quite a distance from family, friends and familiar surroundings.

"If you have family at home and have grandchildren, you really have to think twice," says Golson. On the other hand, he says, if you retire to "an exotic location, it may be easier to have them visit you." Especially if your new home doubles as a cheap vacation destination.

The Money Aspect

There are also two big money factors to consider: the exchange rate in the country you move to and the cost of living in the specific locale you're targeting. For example, with a tough exchange rate in France and Italy, retiring to Provence, France, (which includes such cities as Cannes, Nice and Saint-Tropez) or Tuscany, Italy, (Florence, Sienna and Pisa) is out for many people. But, if you have at least $50,000 a year in income, some areas, like Languedoc (just west of Provence) or Umbria (just east of Tuscany), may still be doable, Golson says.

Keep in mind that exchange rates change, so keep your options open, says Knorr. While the strength of the U.S. dollar made it relatively cheap to live in Europe a decade ago, today it's "exorbitant." One good trick is to check out the price of local rentals and homes, says Knorr. "Look at enough of them and you get an idea" of the costs of housing and standard of living, she says.

To consider this kind of move you need details -- and lots of them. Beyond the exchange rate, other important considerations include the standard of living, the access and cost of health care and health insurance, rental and food prices, culture, infrastructure, taxes on foreign retirees, whether you would be allowed to work part-time, the estate laws, plus the attitude toward foreigners in general and Americans in particular.

You want a good quality of life, access to first-rate medical care, and a country that is economically and politically stable.

You also need to learn as much as you can about the local laws and policies. Some countries make it easy for retirees by not taxing money earned overseas and allowing at least part-time employment for foreign residents. And, just in case, you might also want to learn about estate laws.

You can cover a lot of ground on the topic of moving abroad thanks to book stores, libraries and the Internet.

"The Internet is a fabulous tool," says Knorr, who recommends a good Web search to start gathering information.

Moving Abroad? Check Out:

• The CIA World FactBook -- Regularly updated and full of practical information on a wide variety of topics.

• The U.S. Department of State site -- Includes information on special warnings and health issues most countries.

• American Citizens Abroad, ExPatExchange.com, EscapeArtist.com, and ExPatForums.org -- sites where ex-patriots and prospective ex-pats exchange information.

Be an astute consumer when it comes to your research, says Golson, who also suggests the "Retire in ..." series of books. "Beware of (online) outfits that give you good, useful information but the purpose is to sell you real estate," he says. And take the grain-of-salt approach if you communicate with strangers through online sites, too, he says. "You never know what the agenda is for anyone," Golson says. "Judge that the way you would anything else in life."

Nothing Sudden or Permanent

When it comes to real estate, move slow, if you move at all.

"Rent for at least a year," says Knorr. Not only will it give you a chance to "get the lay of the land," she says. But "in most countries outside the U.S., people tend to rent rather than own, anyway."

Golson takes that advice a step further. "Rent, don't buy," he advises. "Not only rent before you buy," he says, "but rent instead of buying. People get off an airplane and have stars in their eyes," he says. "They make a large purchase the way they never would in the U.S." In addition, he says, a good number of the Internet sites that provide relocating information to retirees are focused on selling local real estate.

Local laws may be very different from those at home. Some countries make buying or bequeathing property very easy, while others may decree that at a resident's death, everything reverts to the state, says Barbara Corcoran, author of "Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life." So it pays to do your homework. Or you might be able to swap homes with a local, says Corcoran. "It's a very comfortable way to get beyond the tourist image of an area and actually live there," she says.

Don't Forget Health Care

No one plans to get sick or have an accident. But what kind of facilities will your host city or town offer?

"There are certain pockets in certain countries that are well-known for good medical care," says Knorr. Mexico, for instance, "has excellent medical care around the big cities," says Golson. "But there is a certain risk if you're going to live up in the hills."

"A lot of countries have medical facilities where people are trained in the U.S.," says Knorr. Others don't. Locals and embassies can be good sources of information on local care, costs and access, she says.

You also want to look at the cost of medical care for a foreigner in the country.

Medicare won't cover medical costs if you're living outside the U.S. So find out if you'll have to pay for care out-of-pocket. Some countries make low-cost insurance available to foreign residents. Especially in Central America, "various countries welcome retirees, because retirees bring in dollars from the U.S.," says Knorr. In other cases, you may have to purchase an individual policy or set aside money to pay out-of-pocket.

But don't drop your U.S. medical coverage, either. "If you think you will ever come back to the U.S., you have to maintain health care coverage (here) or you will be stuck," says Knorr.

Citigroup Posts Loss, Will Break up into 2 Units

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup said Friday it is splitting into two businesses as it reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $8.29 billion -- its fifth straight quarterly loss.

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In Citigroup's reorganization, one business, Citicorp, will focus on traditional banking around the world, while the other, Citi Holdings, will hold the company's riskier assets.

CEO Vikram Pandit's move will allow Citigroup to sell or spin off the Citi Holdings assets to raise cash. It also reveals the company's growing focus on back-to-basics lending and deposit-gathering, and dismantles the "financial supermarket" created a decade ago.

Shares rose about 4 percent in pre-market trading.

Some investors have been calling for a breakup of Citigroup for years, as the bank struggled to keep up with its Wall Street peers. Those calls grew louder as the mortgage crisis caused the company's troubles to mount.

There has been harsh blame for Citigroup's woes directed at the board, too -- and the company said Friday it plans to get rid of more board members after the recent departure of long-time director and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

"There has been one announced departure from the board. Together with other anticipated departures, this gives us the opportunity to reconstitute the board and we will do so as quickly as possible," said Richard Parsons, Citi's lead director, in a statement.

The New York-based bank's fourth-quarter loss amounted to $1.72 per share. Analysts expected a loss of $1.31 per share. While the per-share loss was higher than the consensus estimate, the total loss was smaller than the $10 billion many investors feared. For the year-ago fourth quarter, Citigroup had a net loss of $9.83 billion, or $1.99 per share.

The results were "clearly disappointing," Pandit said during a conference call with investors. "I can assure you that my No. 1 priority is to return this company back to profitability."

For the latest quarter, Citigroup marked down $7.8 billion in securities and banking revenue, and $5.3 billion on the value of credit derivatives. It also lost $2.5 billion in private equity and equity investments, $2 billion in restructuring costs, and $6 billion to add to reserves.

It also booked more than $4 billion in gains, after taxes, from selling its German retail bank and its India-based outsourcing business.

Revenue fell 13 percent to $5.6 billion from a year ago. At its peak performance in the second quarter of 2007, Citigroup was pulling in $25.8 billion in revenue. Citigroup used to be the largest bank by assets, but recently lost that title to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

After massive layoffs and business sales in 2008, the bank's work force dropped by about 52,000 to 323,000 in 2008, the company said. Last fall, Pandit announced Citigroup would shed a total 75,000 employees -- meaning there are 23,000 employees still to be let go.

The cuts come as Citigroup has racked up more than $28 billion in losses for the past five quarters. Its biggest deficit was in the fourth quarter of 2007; the losses abated, but then accelerated in late 2008.

For all of 2008, Citi suffered a net loss of $18.72 billion, or $3.88 per share. The compares with a profit of $3.62 billion, or 72 cents per share, in 2007.

The new Citicorp will include the retail bank; the corporate and investment bank; the private bank, which serves wealthy individuals; and global transaction services.

Citi Holdings -- which will account for $850 billion of Citigroup's $1.95 trillion in assets -- will include Citi's asset management and consumer finance segments, including CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial. It will also be in charge of Citi's 49 percent stake in the joint brokerage with Morgan Stanley, and the pool of about $300 billion in mortgages and other risky assets that the U.S. government agreed to backstop late last year.

Citigroup said it entered a definitive agreement on that deal with the government on Thursday. The government has already lent the bank $45 billion. Citigroup is not alone in requiring more government funding than originally planned last fall -- early Friday, the Bush administration agreed to give Bank of America Corp. an additional $20 billion worth of fresh capital to help it sustain losses at Merrill Lynch, in addition to $25 billion in rescue funds it previously received.

Pandit said Citi Holdings has some valuable businesses, but ones that are not "core" to Citigroup's mission as it tries to hone in on its global banking business and become more careful about risk.

He said he will consider "all options," but that "we're not in a rush to sell businesses."

The company's new structure is practically a reversal back to 1998, when John Reed's Citicorp merged with Sandy Weill's financial services conglomerate Travelers Group. Travelers Group at the time had an insurance business, an asset management business, the retail brokerage Smith Barney, and the investment bank and bond trader Salomon Brothers.

The 1998 combination was Weill's idea, and was made possible by the partial repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 -- which prohibited banks from also getting involved in investing and insurance. Reed agreed to the deal, saying that average people did not want to have to shop around for financial products.

The culture and technology over the past decade, however, seem to have shot down that forecast.

"In this day and age, with the Internet and access to information, a lot of savvy consumers have figured out that it's better to shop around," said Michael Pagano, a finance professor at Villanova University School of Business. "The reality is there are some customers, but not enough, to justify this comprehensive set of services that are out there."

It's not the model itself, though, that clobbered Citigroup, said Bert Ely, a banking industry consultant in based in Alexandria, Va.

"Possibly, Citigroup bit off too much too quickly to make it work," Ely said. "It was more focused on doing deals ... and not focused on the nitty gritty of integration and execution, of making it work day in and day out."

Many shareholders criticize Citigroup's board and previous management for allowing too much risk-taking.

Back in July 2007, when mortgage defaults were piling up but the credit markets were still functional, Citigroup's then-CEO Charles Prince told the Financial Times: "When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing."

Prince, a protege of Weill, was ousted that November and replaced by Pandit -- a Morgan Stanley veteran brought on in 2007 by Citigroup.

(Another protege of Weill -- JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon -- has garnered praise on Wall Street and in Washington for running a more stable enterprise than Citigroup. JPMorgan just barely eked out a profit for the fourth quarter, it said Thursday.)

Now that Citigroup will be relying more on basic banking, it must address its weaknesses in that area. Citigroup recently lost the opportunity to buy Wachovia Corp.'s U.S. deposit base to Wells Fargo & Co. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s deposit base soared after it bought Washington Mutual Inc.

And the bank's results Friday showed that credit deterioration was severe in the fourth quarter, from North America to Europe to Latin America to Asia. Even if Citigroup separates its "bad" assets from its "good" assets, the bank still faces strong headwinds to profitability.

"A major challenge," Ely said, "is how are they going to build a meaningful domestic banking business?"

Obama gets the remaining $350B in TARP funds

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President-elect Barack Obama secured access to the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package Thursday, after the Senate voted 52-42 to kill a measure that would have blocked the funds' release.

It is unlikely that Obama's request for the money will face any additional roadblocks, since the law says both houses of Congress must pass disapproval measures to stop the bailout funds from being released.

"I'm gratified that a majority of the U.S. Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, voted today to give me the authority to implement the rest of the financial rescue plan in a new and responsible way," Obama said in a statement. "My pledge is to change the way this plan is implemented and keep faith with the American tax payer."

President Bush, acting on behalf of Obama, had sent Congress a formal request on Monday to release the second $350 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to the Treasury Department.

Under the bailout legislation approved by Congress in October, unless Congress passes a joint resolution rejecting the request within 15 days, Treasury can begin tapping the funds. Obama had vowed to veto any resolution denying him the funds.

The campaign to block the funds was spearheaded by a group of Republican senators, led by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, who introduced the resolution on Tuesday.

On Thursday, top Obama economic adviser Larry Summers made the case for the funds in a letter to congressional leaders. Summers offered reassurances that the incoming administration will be responsible with its spending of TARP funds and pledged to commit $50 billion to $100 billion to address foreclosures.

Several key Democrats who had earlier stated their displeasure with the handling of the first $350 billion changed their tune.

"President-elect Obama has made clear he understands the mistakes of the previous administration, and he will try to correct them," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Inaction now would punish the American public that is already suffering."

Still, many Republicans argued that the first $350 billion was largely wasted, and no clear measures have suggested the funding has worked.

"There's been mistake after mistake, embarrassment after embarrassment, and a complete lack of accountability in the TARP program," said Vitter. "The American people are not going to be fooled twice ... I urge all of my colleagues not to be fooled again, to say no to an open checkbook."

Nine Democrats voted to block more TARP rescue money, but six Republicans broke with the majority of their party and voted to release the funds.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that the House will vote next week on a TARP reform bill put forth by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., House Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank authored a bill that sets conditions for the use of the funds, including foreclosure mitigation and improved oversight. Obama has said is in favor of Frank's bill.

Van Damme Friday...Mortal Kombat Style...