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Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Put down the phone, shut off the iPad
Why screen
time can disrupt sleep
Salk Institute
For most, the time spent staring at
screens -- on computers, phones, iPads -- constitutes many hours and can often
disrupt sleep. Now, Salk Institute researchers have pinpointed how certain cells in the eye process ambient light and reset our internal clocks, the daily cycles of physiological processes known as the circadian rhythm.
When these cells are exposed to artificial light late into the night, our internal clocks can get confused, resulting in a host of health issues.
The results, published November 27,
2018, in Cell Reports, may help lead to new treatments for
migraines, insomnia, jet lag and circadian rhythm disorders, which have been
tied to cognitive dysfunction, cancer, obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic
syndrome and more.
VIDEO: Heroism at the frontier of science
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkKrMsy6Iwg
What Trump Doesn’t Understand About Business Could Fill a Truck
His Reaction to the GM
Layoffs Shows He Doesn’t Get Automakers, Technology or His Own New Tax Law
It also reveals how
worthless his campaign promises to voters were.
“If I’m elected you won’t lose one
plant,” Trump declared on Oct. 21, 2016, in Warren,
Mich., just miles from a plant GM is shuttering. “You’ll have plants coming
into this country. You’re going to have jobs again. You won’t lose one plant, I
promise.”
Now America is losing
four GM plants, Canada one. We can reasonably expect other American factories
to close, too, including those that supply parts as the
long economic boom that began early in the Obama Administration runs out of
energy.
Just nine days before
the 2016 election, Trump promised voters that
“I will bring your jobs back. And I will keep companies from leaving Michigan,
firing the workers, opening plants in Mexico and other places.”
He said that if
Hillary Clinton won “you’re going to lose your car companies. And you’re going
to lose them. Believe me. You’re going to lose them.”
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Prime examples: WJAR Channel 10 and the Providence Journal
Free the Free Press from Wall Street Plunder
EDITOR’S
NOTE: This column was censured by Hightower’s distribution company who did not
want it distributed because it would offend the mega-corporations who now
control most of the nation’s media. For that reason, many independent outlets,
like Progressive Charlestown, are proud to run this commentary. Will Collette
A
two-panel cartoon I recently saw showed a character with a sign saying: “First
they came for the reporters.” In the next panel, his sign says: “We don’t know
what happened after that.”
It
was, of course, a retort to Donald Trump’s campaign to demonize the news media
as “the enemy of the people.” But when it comes to America’s once-proud
newspapers, their worst enemy isn’t Trump — nor is it the rising cost of
newsprint or the “free” digital news on websites.
Rather,
the demise of the real news reporting by our city and regional papers is a
product of their profiteering owners.
Sunday at the Worm Ladies of Charlestown
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Wonder how the octopi feel?
URI
engineering professor receives grant to develop first underwater EEG electrodes
to monitor octopuses
Olivia
Ross
Walter Besio, a professor in the
University of Rhode Island College of Engineering, recently received a $100,000
grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the first underwater
electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes and to build them into transparent
octopus housing.
The grant is part of a $16 million
initiative from the NSF that funds 18 cross-disciplinary projects for research
into neural and cognitive systems. The effort seeks to accelerate the
development of new neurotechnologies.
“The octopus offers an alternative
solution to complex brain design. Just as their eyes have come to resemble ours
through convergent evolution, we hope to discover shared cognitive, anatomical
and computational principles by investigating their ‘alien’ nervous system,”
the researchers said in a prepared statement.
Besio’s work is part of an overall
$300,000 proof-of-concept collaborative effort among researchers, each of whom
brings unique expertise to the project. Besio is in charge of the engineering
of the EEG electrodes; Peter Tse of Dartmouth College is in charge of imaging,
octopus care and psychophysics; and Gideon Caplovitz of the University of
Nevada Reno, is in charge of the advanced EEG data analysis.
“Octopus are complex and have half a
billion neurons, which is comparable to the number in a dog,” said Besio, a
professor of electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering.
“The octopus is very different, so trying to understand how they developed and evolved to have such high computing power could help us to understand how to make better computers or advance artificial intelligence.”
“The octopus is very different, so trying to understand how they developed and evolved to have such high computing power could help us to understand how to make better computers or advance artificial intelligence.”
One of the experiments will involve
having a virtual crab walk into the octopuses’ line of vision to see if the
octopus will watch the crab. Once the crab goes behind a rock, researchers will
examine if the octopus is still looking for the crab.
This will help give better insight into the cognition and awareness of octopuses and how they understand.
This will help give better insight into the cognition and awareness of octopuses and how they understand.
For his portion of the research,
Besio is tasked with developing corrosion-resistant underwater EEG electrodes
to build into a shelter for the octopus. Inside a big saltwater tank, the
octopus will have a small, clear cylinder shelter where they feel safer than in
the open water.
The risk comes from trying to record brain signals from the octopuses in their natural environment without putting the electrodes on them. Besio admits that trying to get the electrodes to work in salt water without touching them or putting them on the animal will be challenging, but it is a task he looks forward to conquering.
The risk comes from trying to record brain signals from the octopuses in their natural environment without putting the electrodes on them. Besio admits that trying to get the electrodes to work in salt water without touching them or putting them on the animal will be challenging, but it is a task he looks forward to conquering.
Olivia Ross, an intern in the
Marketing and Communications Department at URI and public relations major,
wrote this press release.
Asian invader starts to spread in New England
Non-Native,
Exotic Tick Found In New England For First Time
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) today announced
that the longhorned tick, an exotic pest from Asia, has been found for the
first time in New England.
Working in cooperation with the Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), DEM is asking livestock producers and wildlife rehabilitators to observe animals for the presence of the tick.
Working in cooperation with the Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), DEM is asking livestock producers and wildlife rehabilitators to observe animals for the presence of the tick.
The
longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) poses a risk to New England
livestock because it can attach itself to various warm-blooded animals to feed.
If too many ticks attach to one animal, the loss of blood can kill the animal. The ticks also can affect wildlife, hunters, and their dogs, and spread a variety of diseases.
Dark brown in color, the adult longhorned tick grows to the size of a pea when it is engorged with blood. The other life stages of the tick, such as larva and nymph, are very small and difficult to see with the naked eye.
If too many ticks attach to one animal, the loss of blood can kill the animal. The ticks also can affect wildlife, hunters, and their dogs, and spread a variety of diseases.
Dark brown in color, the adult longhorned tick grows to the size of a pea when it is engorged with blood. The other life stages of the tick, such as larva and nymph, are very small and difficult to see with the naked eye.
Bromances are over?
Reality show star and alleged
president Donald J. Trump looks so sad watching his ex-boyfriend across the
prom hall, doesn’t he?
“Mission accomplished! None of that
silly human rights stuff holding us back anymore.”
The death of George H. W. Bush is
giving an embattled Trump cover to cancel press events and avoid
questions about Russian collusion, but Vladimir Putin’s spokesman is talking
freely — and showing the receipts.
Working alongside Putin at the G20
meeting in Buenos Aires, Dmitry Peskov “has displayed what he says are two
emails from President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer asking for help
getting the Trump Tower Moscow project off the ground,” according to the AP. But:
“We told them that the presidential administration isn’t involved in construction projects, and if they are interested in making investments we will be glad to see them at St. Petersburg’s economic forum.”
Peskov said they never heard from
Cohen again.
Facts are facts: Trump’s former
personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty this week to an indictment by
Robert Mueller’s special counsel, implicating his former boss in a scheme to do
business with a sanctioned Russian bank in pursuit of a Trump Tower Moscow
through the summer of 2016. Mueller has receipts.
Monday, December 3, 2018
Another nail in Invenergy's coffin
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission has denied a request by the developer of the proposed Burrillville,
R.I., power plant to preserve a key power-purchase contract.
That contract, known as a capacity
supply obligation (CSO), was withdrawn by ISO New England, operator of the
regional power grid, because of delays in the approval process.
In its cancellation letter to Invenergy Thermal Development, ISO New England said the Chicago-based developer repeatedly missed construction benchmarks. ISO New England no longer wanted Invenergy to profit from selling its CSO to a third party.
In its cancellation letter to Invenergy Thermal Development, ISO New England said the Chicago-based developer repeatedly missed construction benchmarks. ISO New England no longer wanted Invenergy to profit from selling its CSO to a third party.
On Sept. 20, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) opened the power-purchase cancellation case.
Invenergy lobbied to keep it in place, arguing that the proposed Clear River
Energy Center would improve the regional power grid and alleviate natural-gas
demand.
In FERC filings, Invenergy blamed
the delays on “a small number of very vocal, well-funded opponents intent, from
day one, on simply causing the clock to run out on Clear River by requiring it
to swat back seemingly any conceivable argument that, while possibly creative,
almost invariably was shown to be legally infirm.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: One true statement by Invenergy is to note the role of community resistance in causing their project to die. They are wrong about the resistance being "small" and "well-funded." And of course, they don't admit this is a BAD project. Will Collette
EDITOR'S NOTE: One true statement by Invenergy is to note the role of community resistance in causing their project to die. They are wrong about the resistance being "small" and "well-funded." And of course, they don't admit this is a BAD project. Will Collette
PrepareRI Internship Applications Now Available
Current
High School Juniors Can Apply for Paid Summer Internships with Rhode Island's
Top Employers
Applications for the second year of the Prepare Rhode Island (PrepareRI)
Internship Program are now available and will be accepted through February 1,
2019. Launched in the summer of 2018, the PrepareRI Internship Program provides paid summer internships to rising high school seniors, who also have the opportunity to earn up to six college credits at no cost.
In
its first year, 162 students participated, working at 46 partner companies and
organizations statewide. PrepareRI Internship employers represent a diverse
array of industries, from health care and finance to technology and public
policy, including some of the state’s leading businesses, such as Amgen, Bank
of America, CVS, Citizen’s Bank, FM Global, Hasbro, and Lifespan.
“Legal” does not equal safe
Chemicals on our food: When “safe” may not really be
safe
Weed killers in wheat
crackers and cereals, insecticides in apple juice and a mix of multiple
pesticides in spinach, string beans and other veggies – all are part of the
daily diets of many Americans.
For decades, federal officials have declared tiny traces of these contaminants to be safe. But a new wave of scientific scrutiny is challenging those assertions.
For decades, federal officials have declared tiny traces of these contaminants to be safe. But a new wave of scientific scrutiny is challenging those assertions.
Though many consumers
might not be aware of it, every year, government scientists document how
hundreds of chemicals used by farmers on their fields and crops leave residues
in widely consumed foods.
More than 75 percent of fruits and more than 50 percent of vegetables sampled carried pesticides residues in the latest sampling reported by the Food and Drug Administration.
Even residues of the tightly restricted bug-killing chemical DDT are found in food, along with a range of other pesticides known by scientists to be linked to a range of illnesses and disease.
The pesticide endosulfan, banned worldwide because of evidence that it can cause neurological and reproductive problems, was also found in food samples, the FDA report said.
More than 75 percent of fruits and more than 50 percent of vegetables sampled carried pesticides residues in the latest sampling reported by the Food and Drug Administration.
Even residues of the tightly restricted bug-killing chemical DDT are found in food, along with a range of other pesticides known by scientists to be linked to a range of illnesses and disease.
The pesticide endosulfan, banned worldwide because of evidence that it can cause neurological and reproductive problems, was also found in food samples, the FDA report said.
U.S. regulators and the
companies that sell the chemicals to farmers insist that the pesticide residues
pose no threat to human health. Most residue levels found in food fall within
legal "tolerance" levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), regulators say.
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