Etchujima Inspiration

By Daily Mail Reporter
A solar car made by students from Japan's Tokai University has won the 1,864 mile biannual race across the Australian outback, which showcases green technology.

The Tokai Challenger crossed the finish line just north of Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon after a smooth run hampered by just one flat tyre along the way.
The winning vehicle speed along with a top speed of 93mph powered by 1.8KW of energy, which is just half that used by standard kettles.


Team members polish solar panels of the 'Sharp Toki' car at the start of the World Solar Challenge in Darwin. They went on to claim victory

It was equipped with 2,176 solar cells from Sharp, which covered a surface area of 65 sq ft. The cells that generated the energy were made from rare metals usually used in satellites.

'The victory by Tokai Challenger is the first by a Japanese team since 1993 when the event was won by Honda Dream II,' said the organisers of the 2009 Global Green Challenge.
The Tokai Challenger had started the event in fourth position as a fleet of 32 solar-powered cars from 16 countries set off from Darwin last Saturday, a showcase of prototype solar cars.

But the Japanese car went into the lead at the end of the first day, ahead of favourites Michigan University's Infinium and the Netherlands' Nuna V.
A total of 31 cars took part in the race including The Endeavour, which was Britain's only entry and designed by Cambridge University.

The 'Endeavour' solar car from Cambridge University has a top speed of 60mph

The British car had a top speed of 60mph and the team were hoping for a top 10 finish. Cambridge University team manager Anthony Law said: 'We can't hope to compete with teams who have millions of dollars to spend on their cars.
'Our longer-term aim is to come back here in 2011 having raised even more sponsorship, and there is no reason we can't be competing for the top spot if we can get more funding.'
On day one, Belgium's Umicar Inspire from the Umicore Solar Team crashed 380 kms into the race after losing control during to a wind gust. The car was withdrawn from the event.

Race spokesman Mike Drewer said the second and third running cars are expected to cross the finish line on Thursday morning.

The University of Michigan in their vehicle, 'Infinium' also participated in the 1,864mile trip across the outback

The solar race, staged every two years since 1987, was this year joined by another event, the Eco Challenge, in which 17 cars from 10 manufacturers are competing with eco-friendly vehicles to prove which is the most fuel-efficient. This race is expected to finish on Saturday.
Competitors included the all-electric Teslta sports car, vehicles made by Ford, Kia, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Skoda, Suzuki, Holden, and HSV, and a modified Honda postman's scooter running on alcohol.

Action allows hospitals to better handle large numbers of patients as outbreak spreads

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

SATURDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- President Barack Obama has declared the H1N1 swine flu a national emergency.

His proclamation, signed Friday night and released by the White House Saturday morning, will allow hospitals and doctors' offices to get legal waivers of federal rules so they can handle large numbers of sick people as the outbreak spreads.

"The H1N1 is moving rapidly, as expected. By the time regions or health-care systems recognize they are becoming overburdened, they need to implement disaster plans quickly," White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said Saturday, according to the Washington Post.

The waivers, which will be issued by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, still require individual requests by the hospitals, Cherlin noted.

The goal, according to the Associated Press, is to remove bureaucratic roadblocks and make it easier for sick people to seek treatment and for medical personnel to provide it immediately. That could mean fewer hurdles involving Medicare, Medicaid or health privacy regulations, the AP added.

The H1N1 swine flu is now widespread in 46 states, and there have been 1,000 laboratory-confirmed deaths since April, according to the latest estimates released Friday by U.S. health officials.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news conference Friday, "We have already had millions of cases of pandemic influenza in the United States, and the numbers continue to increase."

At the same time, he said, production delays continue to hamper distribution of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

The vaccine is growing more slowly in egg-based cultures than manufacturers had anticipated, resulting in fewer available doses at this time, Frieden explained.

As of Friday, there were 16.1 million doses on hand nationwide, up from 14.1 on Wednesday, Frieden said. And there will be far fewer than the 40 million doses originally planned for the end of October, he added.

"Vaccine availability is increasing steadily, but far too slowly," Frieden said. "It's frustrating to all of us. We are nowhere near where we thought we would be by now. We are not near where the vaccine manufacturers predicted we would be."

The vaccine that is available comes in both nasal mist and injectable forms. The first doses were only the nasal spray, called FluMist, designed for healthy people 2 to 49 years of age. But now, more than half the doses are injectable, he said.

While children continue to be particularly vulnerable to the disease, Freiden said, "we are seeing it increasingly affect young adults as well as children. We are still not seeing significant numbers of cases among the elderly, and that's characteristic of this virus."

That's also a marked difference from run-of-the-mill seasonal flu, which typically poses a much bigger threat to the elderly.

There is encouraging news, Frieden said. The genetic makeup of the H1N1 virus hasn't changed, meaning the swine flu vaccine and the antiviral drug Tamiflu are a good match.

Frieden said the H1N1 flu would probably occur in waves, but "we can't predict how high, how far or long the wave will go, or when the next will come."

"We are now in the second wave of pandemic influenza and whether this will continue through the fall into the winter, whether it will go away and come back in traditional flu season, only time will tell," he said.

Original Source

...Read More>>>

Skyscrapers crumble to the ground, fiery meteorites smash into Earth and a Tibetan monk cowers as a massive tidal wave swamps his mountain retreat.
It is a vision of the coming apocalypse thrillingly captured in the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
But fears that the world is due to end in December 2012 is just a myth fuelled by internet rumour, according to a leading Nasa scientist.

Doomsday? The film 2012 will inflame existing fears about the possible end of the world

Dr David Morrison, who runs the space agency's 'Ask an Astrobiologist' service, says he has received more than a thousand emails from those worried that the world is due to end in 2012.
In an article published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Dr Morrison has answered the top 20 questions in an attempt to assuage these fears.

According to the theories on the internet, the calendar used by the ancient civilisation of the Mayans is due to come to an end in December 2012.
Luckily for conspiracy theorists, this coincides neatly with predictions by an obscure sci-fi author, who wrote about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, that a planet named Nibiru will collide with Fears have been further inflamed by an apocalyptic film called '2012' starring John Cusack, which is out this November. A quick search on Amazon reveals there are 175 books listed that deal with 2012 doomsday.

First off Dr Morrison dismisses the possibility that the planet Nibiru even exists.
He writes: 'The bottom line is that Nibiru is a myth, with no basis in fact.

'To an astronomer, persistent claims about a planet that is "nearby" but “invisible” are just plain silly.'
And Dr Morrison laughs off suggestions that the government has been complicit in hiding its existence from the public.
'Even if they wanted to, the government could not keep Nibiru a secret,' he says.
'If it were real, it would be tracked by thousands of astronomers, amateurs as well a professional. These astronomers are spread all over the world.

'I know the astronomy community, and these scientists would not keep a secret even if ordered to. You just can’t hide a planet on its way to the inner solar system!'

He also addresses the concerns of those who worry that the Mayan calendar is due to end in 2012.
'Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use.
'The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012.
'I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31 2009, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year.'
He added although many believe prophecies by the sixteenth century seer Nostradamus predict the end of the world in 2012, there is no evidence he has correctly predicted anything.

He also tackles the belief circulating on some internet forums that an alignment of planets in our galaxy the Milky Way could in some way disrupt the Earth's gravitational field or reverse the Earth's rotation.
'A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. It has never happened and never will,' he said.

He added that although the magnetic polarity of Earth does take place around every 400,000 years scientists don't believe it will take place for another few millennia and there is no evidence it would do any harm.


Nasa scientist David Morrison (left) has moved to calm fears that the world will end in 2012, as predicted by sixteenth century seer Nostradamus (right)

Publicity for the film '2012' also comes under attack for stirring up fear about the date.

Like many Hollywood blockbusters nowadays, '2012' uses a sophisticated PR campaign which incorporates elements of 'viral' marketing.
In the trailer for the film, which plays on conspiracy theorists' fears that the truth is being somehow hidden, viewers are directed to a 'faux scientific' website.
The website purports to be the home for The Institute for Human Continuity, an entirely fictitious organisation which allows visitors to sign up for a lottery which will decide who will be saved when Armageddon comes.
'The whole 2012 disaster scenario is a hoax, fueled by ads for the Hollywood science-fiction disaster film “2012”,' he says.

'I can only hope that most people are able to distinguish Hollywood film plots from reality.'
Dr Morrison noted that a growing interest in outer space has led to a general 'cosmophobia', that is a fear of the cosmos.

He said he found people were frequently worried about the sun's magnetic field, solar storms, black holes and a rift in the Milky Way.
'Previously these would have merely been interesting astronomical ideas to explore, but now for many young people (who read misinformation about them on the web) they are objects of dread.

'This cosmophobia could be one of the worst long-term consequences of the 2012 doomsday hoax - to make people fearful of astronomy and the universe.'

トヨタ自動車は２０日、新型のハイブリッド専用車（ＨＶ）「ＳＡＩ（サイ）」を発表した。５月に発売した新型「プリウス」、７月発売の高級車ブランド「レクサス」の「ＨＳ２５０ｈ」に続く３車種目のＨＶ専用車。サイはセダンタイプで、最廉価モデルを３３８万円に設定。２００万円台が中心のプリウスと、４００万円台が中心のレクサスＨＳ２５０ｈの中間帯に位置付け、新車市場で人気のＨＶの品ぞろえを強化する。１２月７日からトヨタ系列販売店４チャンネルすべてで販売する。

サイはガソリンエンジンとモーターを組み合わせたハイブリッド。排気量２．４リットルとプリウス（同１．８リットル）より一回り大きいが、燃費はガソリン１リットル当たり２３キロと小型ガソリン車「ヴィッツ」並みの性能。４モデルがあり、価格は３３８万～４２６万円。

　サイをセダンタイプとしたことについてトヨタは「中年以上の大人の客層に浸透させたい」としている。


...Read More>>>

HealthDay News
Surfing the Internet just might be a way to preserve your mental skills as you age. Researchers found that older adults who started browsing the Web experienced improved brain function after only a few days.

"You can teach an old brain new technology tricks," said Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatry professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of iBrain. With people who had little Internet experience, "we found that after just a week of practice, there was a much greater extent of activity particularly in the areas of the brain that make decisions, the thinking brain -- which makes sense because, when you're searching online, you're making a lot of decisions," he said. "It's interactive."

Small is co-author of the research, which was scheduled to be presented Monday in Chicago at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting."This makes intuitive sense, that getting on the Internet and exploring and getting new information and learning would help," said Paul Sanberg, director of the University of South Florida Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa. "It supports the value of exploring the Internet for the elderly." Most experts now advocate a "use-it-or-lose-it" approach to mental functioning.

"We found a number of years ago that people who engaged in cognitive activities had better functioning and perspective than those who did not," said Dr. Richard Lipton, a professor of neurology and epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and director of the Einstein Aging Study. "Our study is often referenced as the crossword-puzzle study -- that doing puzzles, writing for pleasure, playing chess and engaging in a broader array of cognitive activities seem to protect against age-related decline in cognitive function and also dementia."

The new study takes the use-it-or-lose-it concept into the 21st century. For the research, 24 neurologically normal adults, aged 55 to 78, were asked to surf the Internet while hooked up to an MRI machine. Before the study began, half the participants had used the Internet daily, and the other half had little experience with it.

After an initial MRI scan, the participants were instructed to do Internet searches for an hour on each of seven days in the next two weeks. They then returned to the clinic for more brain scans.

"At baseline, those with prior Internet experience showed a much greater extent of brain activation," Small said.

After at-home practice, however, those who had just been introduced to the Internet were catching up to those who were old hands, the study found.

"This is a demonstration that, over a relatively short period of time, patterns of brain activation while engaging in cognitive activities change," Lipton said. "That is at least a first step toward gaining insight into the mechanisms that might allow cognitive engagement to influence brain function."

But, Small said, beware how you use the Internet. "You can exercise your mind by using the Internet, but it depends on how it's used," he explained. "If you get hooked on gambling or eBay shopping, that may not be positive."
...Read More>>>