August 29, 2006, 9:31 PM CT

Collecting Data about Nantucket Sound

Ferries that connect Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are taking on another role - research vessels.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Scott Gallager and colleagues have installed a package of sensors on the 235-foot freight ferry Katama to measure water quality and to photograph plankton as the ferry crisscrosses the western side of Nantucket Sound year-round, several times daily.

"Hitchhiking science on a ferry provides a terrific opportunity for us to better understand how water quality and ocean life change over time," Gallager said. The measurements for the Nantucket Sound Ferry Scientific Environmental Monitoring System began in May.

With the interest and cooperation of the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, which operates the ferry service between Cape Cod and the islands, Gallager and colleagues developed a sensor package to measure water temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, and water clarity, and take images of plankton living in the water column. Real-time data from the sensors travel over a wireless connection to Gallager's shore-based lab, where he and WHOI colleagues Steve Lerner, Emily Miller, Andrew Girard, Andy Maffei, and collaborator Kevin Fall from Intel Corporation make them available to scientists and the public on the project Web site, http://4dgeo.whoi.edu/ferries.........

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August 29, 2006, 8:28 PM CT

Shorts 8 24

Tom Tykwer's Perfume, the Bernd Eichinger-produced adaptation of Patrick Süskind's novel, doesn't open in the States until December 27 and doesn't even open in Germany until September 14, but Die Zeit's Katja Nicodemus has seen it. I honestly wish I could report that she likes what she's seen. But:

Perfume is the work of an assiduous illustrator who doesn't know how to use the novel as a gateway to a world of his own imagination. Tom Tykwer may be a fount of invention and enthusiasm, ideas and visions, but his problem is that the images for all this completely escape him. He's the painter who, equipped with all the paints and brushes, stands in front of his easel, the scene before his eyes, and dreams of transcendence but ends up painting by numbers after all.

Anthony Kaufman on Michael Haneke's forthcoming remake of his own Funny Games with Tim Roth and Naomi Watts: "I can't imagine the English language version will be as cold-hearted and subversive as the original version, but then again, with popular, mainstream films such as Hostel and Saw and the US government making torture an accepted aspect of everyday life, maybe Haneke has an even greater licence to upset than he did in 1997".

Charlotte Higgins talks with Charlize Theron about the doc she's produced, East of Havana: "You have to ask: would I take the free healthcare and education and accept being a prisoner in my soul?".........

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August 29, 2006, 6:47 PM CT

The Sexiest Dining Table!

A group of HONGIK UNIVERSITY students presented 'Hot Dinner' a sexy table with four legs that imitate women's legs at Korea Int'l Furniture & interior Fair 2006.

Nice try!........

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August 29, 2006, 6:38 PM CT

Human Powered LED Nose Ring

You might have worn mood rings sometime in your teens. So, how about a LED nose ring this time! The Firefly nose ring is a magical piece of jewelery that glows when you breathe.

The LED nose ring uses a delicate fan structure, that creates the delicate luminous pulses to glow when you exhale the air which transforms into electric energy, thus lighting up a led light. Though, you might have come-out of your teenage but sporting a funky look is not a bad idea at all! And, anyways this is uber-cool.isn't it gals!!........

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August 29, 2006, 6:31 PM CT

Hitachi W43H 'au' Phone

Hitachi joins the list of KDDI phones that were launched today. Not to be left behind, Hitachi also made its presence felt with the launch of its W43H mobile phone. The phone features a 2.6-inch large 240x400 TFT display. One of the highlights of the phone is the battery backup, as it can last approximately a good 4 hours when viewed continuously, unparalleled by any in the market in its class.

The W43H makes use of the DBEX technology, a signal processing technology which actualises the sound quality. It comes equipped with a 2.1 MegaPixel camera with auto focus. The camera function also includes, anti blurr function and makes use of high-speed shutter sensitivity feature as well. Like most of the KDDI phones launched in the market today, Hitachi W43H also makes use of the Information transmission services like EZ channel plus,"EZ news flash and also users can enjoy the up-to-date services with au My Page. Rest of the specs include, a 512MB of default memory, an expandable memory stick Pro-Duo slot, an MP3 player and PC document viewer applications like Microsoft word and excel. No word on the pricing as yet.........

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August 29, 2006, 6:24 PM CT

Cruising With The Camaro

GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner met with members of the media Friday at the Athens Coney Island in Royal Oak, Mich., to talk about the Chevrolet Camaro.

The new Camaro will be built at the Oshawa, Ontario, car plant with early production versions at the end of 2008 and sales in early 2009.........

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August 29, 2006, 4:59 AM CT

Hurricane Katrina One Year Later

The 2005 hurricane season will long be remembered both for the record-breaking number of storms and a devastating hurricane named Katrina.

Several NASA satellites gave important details about Katrina's storm structure and strength throughout her life cycle, aiding forecasters and emergency managers. In the aftermath, data from satellites and instruments on NASA planes became useful in recovery efforts, damage assessments, and analysis of the storm's environmental impacts. Katrina left as many as 1,833 dead according to the National Hurricane Center, and over $80 billion in damage.

Katrina began as only a feeble storm being tracked by satellites and forecasters. On Aug. 23, Katrina was nothing but a mass of organized clouds over the Bahamas. But later that day, she quickly intensified and headed toward the U.S. coastline. Late on Aug. 25, she made her first landfall just south of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a Category 1 hurricane.

As Katrina moved into the Gulf of Mexico, atmospheric conditions were favorable for rapid development. Data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite showed unusually warm ocean temperatures in her path -- prime fuel for a hurricane.

By early in the morning of Aug. 28, Katrina's winds reached a remarkable 175 mph -- a category 5 storm -- with a central pressure of 902 millibars, the fourth lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic. During this phase of rapid development, forecasters were aided by data from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra satellite that supplied information on Katrina's cloud motion and height, improving the accuracy of forecasts and warnings.........

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August 29, 2006, 4:51 AM CT

Too many men could destabilize society

Cultures that favour male babies have bred a surplus of men who will struggle to find sexual partners and could find themselves marginalised in society, warns a new paper co-authored by a UCL (University College London) researcher. As more men discover their lack of marriage prospects, this could lead to antisocial behaviour, violence and possibly more opportunities for organised crime and terrorism, threatening the stability and security of a number of societies.

In the paper, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Dr Therese Hesketh of the UCL Institute of Child Health and Dr Zhu Wei Xing from the Zhejiang Normal University in China warn that measures to reduce sex selection and change cultural attitudes are urgently needed.

Dr Therese Hesketh, of the UCL Institute of Child Health, says: "The ratio of men to women in most populations is remarkably constant if left untouched. The tradition of son preference, however, has distorted these natural sex ratios in large parts of Asia and North Africa. Sex-selective abortion and discrimination in care practices for girls have led to higher female mortality. Eventhough health care for women is generally improving, these advances have been offset by a huge increase in the use of sex-selective abortion, and there are now an estimated 80 million missing females in India and China alone.........

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August 28, 2006, 9:49 PM CT

Mind over matter

A significant number of people world-wide suffer with chronic pain, which affects every aspect of their lives, and often results in depression.

Scientists at Kent State University and Case Western University, led by Kent State nursing professor Wendy Lewandowski, tracked the experience of 44 patients being treated for chronic pain. Patients in one group listened to a seven-minute audio tape that helped them to relax, focus on the sensory images their pain evoked, and then guided them to change the sensory images. This technique, known as "guided imagery," is an effective supplement to medicine treatment. Unlike those in the control group, the guided imagery patients in the study described their pain as ultimately more tolerable or easier to control.........

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August 28, 2006, 9:47 PM CT

Video Game For Stroke Rehabilitation

Engineers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have modified a popular home video game system to assist stroke patients with hand exercises, producing a technology costing less than $600 that may one day rival systems 10 times as expensive.

The Rutgers hand rehabilitation system is an example of virtual rehabilitation, which combines virtual reality computer-generated interactive visual environments in which users control actions in a lifelike way with traditional treatment techniques. Virtual rehabilitation gives therapists new tools to do their jobs more effectively and engages patients who may otherwise lack interest or motivation to complete normal exercise regimens.

The Rutgers engineers are describing their work at the fifth International Workshop on Virtual Rehabilitation taking place Aug. 29 and Aug. 30 in New York City.

"Virtual reality is showing significant promise for promoting faster and more complete rehabilitation, but the cost of a number of systems is still prohibitive for widespread deployment in outpatient clinics or patients' homes," said Grigore Burdea, professor of electrical and computer engineering and a noted inventor of virtual rehabilitation technology. "While it's essential to keep pursuing breakthrough technologies that will initially be costly, it's just as important that we find ways to make innovative therapys accessible to the a number of patients who need them".........

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