Robot helps around the home

post from Top stories on 09 November 2011 09:23:39 AM. © Top stories

A new human-shaped robot that can take a drinks order, open a thermos flask, and pour out a juice has been unveiled by Japanese scientists. It can even spell out its own name in sign language.

Read The Full Article:
http://machineslikeus.com/news/robot-helps-around-home

Digg this

LIFE “OUT THERE” LOOKS LIKELY

post from Science Ain't So Bad on 09 November 2011 09:16:02 AM. © Science Ain't So Bad

STAR GOO

Remember how Doctor Spock and Captain Kirk, in the Enterprise, were always running into alien life forms? I don?t believe they ever explained, exactly, how the plug uglies they encountered happened to be up there (or maybe I missed that episode). Did they evolve from monkeys just as we did? Very homely ones? Were their planets colonized by refugees from Earth who, under the constant bombardment of gamma rays on Alpha Four, began to look like they had a case of bad stage makup?

Maybe there’s another explanation for how alien civilizations get their start. Two researchers at the University of Hong Kong say the ?building blocks of life? are everywhere, waiting for the deft touch of nature (or, if you prefer,the finger for God) to turn them into living cells.

They (the researchers) say stars make a petroleum like substance which is full of complex organic molecules. Aromatic rings, even. This ”Star Goo”, eventually, spreads throughout space.

The last time we watched life get started – um that would be the first time too – it happened in the wink of an eye. A cosmic eye, anyway. Since we know there are lots of planets and lots of water out there and, now, thanks to Kwok and Yong Zhang , we know that every star in every galaxy contains an E Z STARTER KIT FOR LIFE , it?s a good bet that there are plenty of living creatures to be found.

BUT NOT A SINGLE DROP TO DRINK

Doesn’t that just suck? Living creatures inhabiting biological niches throughout this busy universe, and, yet, we continue our lonely existence with no practical way to know who or what is out there? Life everywhere but ?not a single drop to drink??

As it were.

For a while, the SETI Project seemed like it might come up with something but it’s beginning to dawn on some that we’re probably barking up the wrong antenna. Our own civilization sends out very few stray radio waves anymore. More underground cables. Less antennas. If it’s like that, upstairs, this is bad news for SETI.

Sad, I suppose, although, maybe it?s good for us to figure things out on our own. And, maybe, we?re better off without yet another higher power. Heaven KNOWS we?re having enough problems with the lower ones.

Get this though. There may BE a way to sniff out another civilization. Wouldn’t aliens, independently, come up with the idea of artificial light? Just like we did? It makes sense. Abraham Loeb and Edwin Turner think so. Loeb (Harvard) and Turner (Princeton) feel that a well lit alien city could be detected with a sensitive telescope. It would have to be more sensitive than anything we have now but, with the right filters, a new generation of telescopes might do the trick.

At least, that’s the theory.

Read The Full Article:
http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/10308

Digg this

Refrigerant Evaluation and Selection - New
Information

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 09 November 2011 09:00:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

Editor's Note: CR4 would like to thank Larry Butz - President, GEA Consulting for contributing this blog entry.In our ongoing series titled Making a Successful Transition to New Refrigerants we have been addressing many of the issues in this increasingly complex issue. We even revisited the concep

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/18219/Refrigerant-Evaluation-and-Selection-Ne
w-Information?from_rss=1

Digg this

Metal of Honor

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 09 November 2011 09:00:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

This '32 Ford hot rod will be auctioned at Barret-Jackson in January, with all proceeds going to the worthy cause of providing scholarships for the children of killed and wounded American soldiers. Dubbed "Metal of Honor," it has been built entirely with donated parts from the Ford Racing 302 to the

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/18218/Metal-of-Honor?from_rss=1

Digg this

MRSA found in Iowa meat

post from Aetiology on 09 November 2011 09:00:00 AM. © Aetiology

I've blogged previously on a few U.S. studies which investigated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in raw meat products (including chicken, beef, turkey, and pork). This isn't just a casual observation as one who eats food--I follow this area closely as we also have done our own pair of food sampling investigations here in Iowa, and will be doing a much larger, USDA-funded investigation of the issue over the next 5 years.

Let me sum up where the field currently stands. There have been a number of studies looking at S. aureus on raw meat products, carried out both here in North American and in Europe. In a study from the Netherlands, a large percentage of samples were found to harbor MRSA (11.9% overall, but it varied by meat type--35.3% of turkey samples were positive, for example). Most of there were a type called ST398, the "livestock" strain. This was also found in one Canadian study (5.5% MRSA prevalence, and 32% of those were ST398), but no ST398 were found in a second study by the same group.

Here in the US, prevalence has found to be lower than in that Dutch study (from no MRSA found, up to 5% of samples positive). Furthermore, in the previously-published studies, no MRSA ST398 was found in samples of US meat, though this paper did find plenty of methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) ST398 strains. Instead, most of the MRSA isolates have been seemingly "human" MRSA types, like USA100 (a common hospital-associated strain) and USA300 (a leading community-acquired strain).

Why am I rehashing all of this? We have a new paper out examining S. aureus in Iowa meats--and did find for the first time MRSA ST398, as well as MRSA USA300 and MSSA strains including both presumptive "human" and "animal" types. This was just a pilot study and numbers are still fairly small, but enough to say that yes, this is here in the heart of flyover country as well as in the other areas already examined.

As I mentioned, this is one of two studies we've completed examining MRSA on meat; the other is still under review and much more controversial, but I will share that as soon as I'm able. And with the USDA grant, we'll be working on better understanding the role that contaminated meats play in the epidemiology and transmission of S. aureus for the next several years, so expect to see more posts on this topic...

References

Hanson et al. Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on retail meat in Iowa. J Infect Public Health. 2011 Sep;4(4):169-74. Link.

Waters et al. Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in US Meat and Poultry . Clin Infect Dis. 2011 May;52(10):1227-30. Link.

Weese et al. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) contamination of retail pork. Can Vet J. 2010 July; 51(7): 749-752. Link.

De Boer et al. Prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in meat. Int J Food Microbiol. 2009 Aug 31;134(1-2):52-6. Link.

Pu et al. Isolation and characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains from Louisiana retail meats. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2009 Jan;75(1):265-7. Link.

Bhargava et al. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in retail meat, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Jun;17(6):1135-7. Link.

Read the comments on this post...

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/aetiology/~3/yqx7kuGMpsY/mrsa_found_i
n_iowa_meat.php

Digg this

Hemmings Classic Car Celebrates Chevrolet
Centennial With Special Collectors Issue

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 09 November 2011 09:00:00 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

Not many car companies have been around 100 years, but Chevrolet certainly has, and what an incredible achievement it is. So to celebrate this significant accomplishment, we at Hemmings Classic Car have devoted the entire December issue to honoring this great American institution. All 120 pages ar

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/18208/Hemmings-Classic-Car-Celebrates-Chevrol
et-Centennial-With-Special-Collector-s-Issue?from_rss=1

Digg this

FEMA to Test Nationwide Emergency Alert System
Today

post from CR4 - Recent Blog Entries on 09 November 2011 08:30:38 AM. © CR4 - Recent Blog Entries

From Engadget: Don't freak out or anything, but at 2 PM EST today, the US government will sound a nationwide alarm. Barring a coincidence of cataclysmic proportion, however, it will only be a test. It's all part of FEMA and the FCC's Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is slated to be tr

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/18236/FEMA-to-Test-Nationwide-Emergency-Alert
-System-Today?from_rss=1

Digg this

Whats The Correct Investment In
Preventive Actions

The Micron Manufacturing Team was awarded the Shingo Silver Medallion for excellence in manufacturing. You can check it out here.I was having a side conversation with Dan via email about another subject that had been posted on PMPA's members-only Listserve when we started talking about the import

Read The Full Article:
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/18235/What-s-The-Correct-Investment-In-Preven
tive-Actions?from_rss=1

Digg this

Russian probe fails to take route for Mars

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 09 November 2011 08:15:55 AM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Moscow (AFP) Nov 9, 2011
Russia's Phobos-Grunt space probe has failed to take its planned trajectory towards Mars and is stuck in an Earth orbit, the space agency said, adding it now had three days to try to fix the problem. "We have three days while the batteries are still working," said Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin. "I would not say it's a failure. It's a non-standard situation, but it is a working situation.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Russian_craft_embarks_on_voyage_to_Mars_moon_999
.html

Digg this

Large asteroid makes rare fly-by of Earth

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 09 November 2011 08:15:55 AM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Washington (AFP) Nov 9, 2011
A big asteroid made its closest fly-by of Earth in 200 years on Tuesday, but there was never a chance of a crash landing as it zipped past our planet, NASA said. Astronomers around the world aimed their telescopes to catch a glimpse of the 2005 YU55 asteroid, which is the size of an aircraft carrier but was not visible to the naked eye when it passed by at its closest point at 2328 GMT.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Large_asteroid_makes_rare_fly-by_of_Earth_999.h
tml