July 11, 2007, 5:27 AM CT

The New Wildlife Refuge: Golf Courses?

Golf courses are known as centers for human recreation, but if managed properly, they also could be important wildlife sanctuaries, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has found.

"There are more than 17,000 golf courses in the United States, and approximately 70 percent of that land is not used for playing," said Ray Semlitsch, Curators' Professor of Biology in the MU College of Arts and Science. "These managed green spaces aren't surrogates for protected land and ecosystems, but they can include suitable habitat for species native to the area. Golf courses could act as nature sanctuaries if managed properly."

Semlitsch, along with Michelle Boone, an assistant professor at Miami University in Ohio and former MU graduate student, and J. Russell Bodie, senior scientist for Audubon International, outlined recommendations that would improve golf course habitats for amphibian populations in a paper published in USGA Turfgrass and Environmental Research Online in January. Their recommendations included buffering aquatic habitats from chemical runoff, surrounding wetland areas with 150 to 300 meters of forest or natural grassland, and creating a diversity of pond types that mimic natural wetlands.

A recent study by Semlitsch, Boone and Cory Mosby, a senior at MU, built on these suggestions. They observed that completely drying golf course ponds in the late summer or early fall would benefit amphibian populations and biodiversity......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

July 10, 2007, 5:23 AM CT

No Direct Links To Segregation, Income

A new study examining two possible factors leading to "environmental racism" finds that eventhough the average black or Hispanic resident of a major U.S. city lives in a more polluted part of town than the average white person, the levels of inequality vary widely between cities and defy simple explanation.

In a study of the 61 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, University of Colorado at Boulder Assistant Professor Liam Downey observed that in some cities Hispanics live in the most polluted neighborhoods, but in other cities it is blacks and in still other cities it is whites. Moreover, the degree to which each of these groups is exposed to pollution varies greatly.

The study was reported in the recent issue of Urban Studies, an international journal for research in urban and regional studies published at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

"The results may surprise people who believe that environmental racial inequality is due solely to poverty and residential segregation," said Downey, a sociologist. "Instead, it seems likely that the role these factors play in shaping environmental inequality is highly contingent on local conditions".

Since the term "environmental racism" was coined in 1987, scientists have investigated why minorities are more likely than whites to reside in areas where there is more pollution, with a number of arguing that environmental racial inequality is due to racial income inequality or residential segregation. In order to determine whether either of these factors produce environmental inequality, Downey compared environmental inequality levels to levels of residential segregation and racial income inequality in each of the 61 metropolitan areas......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:05:36 GMT

Moms Connecting With Moms

CafeMom is like a MySpace for moms. When you join CafeMom you'll be able to connect with other moms and even share ideas and get help.

Join some of the groups. Groups are a great place to get and give advice about what it takes to be a parent. There are groups for mothers of boys, plus size moms, moms who want to talk about relationships, work at home moms, getting sex tips, pregnancy and babies.

CafeMom also has a large photo album area. Post photos of your children and see photos of other CafeMom children. There are also journals where you can write about your children and your family.

The best thing about CafeMom is that you'll be able to make connections with other moms. Meet other moms that struggle with the same things you struggle with, give advice and find the help you need. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:02:29 GMT

The summary of a long exam period

I can’t believe it, but after nearly 50 days of hard learning and 7 exams (gynecology, pulmonology, radiology, pharmacology, preventive medicine, surgery and nephrology), I’m finished! I tried to provide quality content during this long and painful period, so here is a collection of Scienceroll’s best posts from the last 4-5 weeks:

• Towards a World without Genetic Diseases
• Medicine 2.0: The Second Edition
• Medicine 2.0: The Second Edition
• 10 Tips for How to Use Web 2.0 in Medicine
• Medicine 2.0: The Second Edition
• 10 Tips: how to search for genetic conditions

And why you should follow Scienceroll in the summer as well? Here are some reasons:

• Many posts about personalized genetics and the improvements of clinical genetics
• Reviews of web 2.0 based sites and communities
• Interviews with famous medical bloggers
• Superb editions of Medicine 2.0: The Second Edition, Medicine 2.0 and Medicine 2.0: The Second Edition
• Images and videos of an exceptional Hungarian medical project (details later)
• New slideshows about Medicine 2.0: The Second Edition
• And the first medical simulations in Second Life

So let the summer begin with hardcore blogging! Posted by: Bertalan      Read more     Source

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:58:24 GMT

L'Oreal found guilty of racism

A division of French cosmetic giant L'Oreal has been fined €30,000 ($US41,000) and one of its officers given a suspended three months prison sentence for systematic racial bias.

L'Oreal unit Garnier has been found guilty of excluding non-white women when it recruited people to hand out its samples of its shampoo and discuss styling with shoppers. The company had set out exactly what size it expected the women to be, and also specified that they needed to be "BBR", the initials for bleu, blanc, rouge, the colors of the French flag. Anyone who has spent time in France knows that BBR is code used by the the far right. For employers, it's code for whites only. Asians, North Africans and Africans needn't apply.

Women with foreign sounding names or with a photo showing they were of North African or African background were eliminated. And the most chilling revelation came from one candidate who said she realized she wouldn't get the job because she was of mixed race. Some obvious historical parallels there.

L'Oreal claims its business is a "celebration of diversity" and it's famous slogan is "Because you're worth it". Obviously in L'Oreal's view, you're worth a lot more if you're white.

While on the subject, let's not forget that Anita Roddick raised many eyebrows when she sold Body Shop to L'Oreal for for a cool £652 million ($US1.3 billion), prompting claims that the self-styled social activist was a hypocrite. Some time later, Roddick claimed she was really a "trojan horse" who by selling her business to a huge firm, was putting herself in a position where she would influence the decisions it made.

Let's see if she says anything now! Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:55:09 GMT

They also taste better

Last year we learned from researchers at UT-Austin that that fruit and vegetables are less nutritious than they were 30 years ago, due to agricultural techniques that increase their size but don’t allow them to properly develop nutrients. This year we learn from scientists at University of California that organic tomatoes have more disease-busting flavonoids than non-organic tomatoes.

In this study, the researchers measured the amounts of quercetin and kaempferol, two flavonoids, in dried tomato samples. They found that levels of quercetin were 79% higher, and kaempferol 97% higher in the organic tomatoes, compared to the non-organic ones.

Flavonoids are known to lower high blood pressure, which decreases the risk of heart disease and stroke, and are thought to prevent cancer and dementia. The UC scientists believe that the flavonoid levels depend on the quality of the soil, citing the absence of chemical fertilizers as the reason for higher levels of the compounds.

When nitrogen levels are not high enough in the soil, plants produce flavanoids as a defence mechanism. If inorganic nitrogen, which is present in everyday fertilizers, are applied to the soil, this over-fertilization may hinder flavonoid production.

Incidentally this study is forthcoming in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, which is about:

Chemistry and biochemistry of agriculture and food along with safety, composition and processing; including feeds, pesticides, veterinary drugs, plant growth regulators, fertilizers, and other agro-chemicals with their metabolism, toxicology, and environmental fate and the chemical processes involved in nutrition, phytonutrients, flavors, and aromas.

Wow. Maybe I’ll grab my copy of Mother Earth News instead.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. Posted by: Caroline Brown      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:20:24 GMT

Amys Pals Pleads Her to Enter Rehab

Amy Winehouses pals are really worried about her wild ways so they tried to convince the jazz singer to enter into rehab but she refused to listen and stormed out on them, leaving one in tears. Poor pals!

Winehouse met some old school friends at London’s Mem & Laz restaurant on Thursday night, but she reacted badly to suggestion that she needed to seek help and ditch her wild behavior.

According to an onlooker:

It turned serious pretty quickly. They were huddled around in deep conversation. At around 9pm, just half an hour after she arrived, Amy got up and left. Two of the girls followed her outside, but she ran off. Then one of them started crying. They were going on about how they had ‘never seen her this bad’ and saying she was a total mess.

They were despairing about what to do. One was going, ‘She needs to get help. We have to keep trying until she does.’ It was horrible. Her mates clearly love her and were really worried and upset.

Amy also cancelled a gig this week giving the reason that the singer is too ill to perform.

Read

Image credit Posted by: Nidhi      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:04:58 GMT

Microsoft To Release 6 Security Updates

Microsoft Corp. will release six groups of security patches next week including three critical updates for Windows and Excel users, PC World reported.

The critical updates will fix bugs in many different versions of Microsoft's products including the latest versions of Excel, Windows XP, Vista and Windows Server 2003, Microsoft said Thursday in a note on its Web site.

The report added online criminals have used flaws in Excel and other Microsoft Office products in limited attacks over the past year. Typically the attacker will e-mail the victim a maliciously encoded Office attachment. If the document is opened, the hacker can then gain access to the victim's computer. Microsoft isn't releasing further details on the flaws it's fixing until Tuesday, but it rates an update critical if it fixes a vulnerability that could be used by a hacker to remotely install unauthorized software on a victim's computer.

Three other less-critical updates are also planned for next week's "Patch Tuesday" security fixes. They include "important" updates for Microsoft Publisher 2007 and Windows XP Service Pack 2, as well as a fix for Windows Vista. In descending order of severity, Microsoft rates updates as critical, important, moderate or low.

The patches are expected Tuesday July 10, 2007. The Microsoft Security Bulletin Notification page will update at that time with the details of exactly what was fixed. The information is located at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-jul.mspx Posted by: noel      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:05:02 GMT

Paris Jail Experience Christened into a Rock Song

Indeed some people can draw inspiration from almost everything and they are adept to cash in on anything. In recent times it is Paris Hilton, who has become a real source of inspiration. A rock band has composed a hair metal song based on Paris Hiltons jail experience. Paris read her jail dairy and narrated her jail experience on popular TV show Larry King Live and perhaps that gave an idea to bands members. A doubt that whether Paris had even the slightest of inkling that her horrible jail experience would be packed as a rock song.

The video of the song, which is available on FunnyOrDie.com, has managed to lure quite a number of people and most of them are finding is little bizarre. The song explains everything that how Paris was put behind bars, and what all melodrama took place during her sentence.

Earlier it was a jailbird doll, which tried to cash on Paris plight and now this rock video. I wonder what is next? Any guess?

Image

Source: TMZ Posted by: Fineblog      Read more     Source

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:43:21 GMT

Gadget-mania Responsible for Rise in Emissions

Do you love playing your CD player, DAB radio and flat-screen television? Well in that case if you are an environmental champion there might be cause for concern! These precious entertainment gadgets, a necessity of almost every household today, drain a whole lot of energy. Energy that is harnessed at the expense of global warming.


As per a report from the he Energy Saving Trust (EST), The Ampere Strikes Back, the consumer electronics sector is now only three years away from becoming the biggest single user of domestic electricity in Britain.

In 2010, it will overtake lighting, and “white goods” such as fridges and freezers, in home energy use. By 2020, entertainment and computer technology in the home will account for an extraordinary 45 per cent of all electricity used in UK households.

Now consider this: it will be equivalent to the output from 14 power stations along with costing the owners of the gadgetry 5bn a year. So where will global warming stand then? The growth of single person households many with big TVs, set-top boxes, computers, games consoles, TV and music recorders and digital radios will add to the higher energy consumption.

So what can you do? For starters, switch off your gadgets when not in use. Moreover, I mean take out the plug because leaving it in readiness to be switched on also wastes energy. I cannot ask you to stop using flat-screen TVs and digital radios, which are the most energy intensive gadgets, but I can definitely hope that technological advances in the future will turn them into more energy efficient devices.

Image credit

Source: The independent Posted by: Kanchan      Read more     Source