But the price of seriously engaging Syria and Iran will be enormously high. It may be viewed as necessary, but ultimately it will be extremely high. Hezbollah, according to recent intelligence estimates, receives some $200 million a year in combined revenue from Iran, Syria, and diasporas in West Africa and Latin America, particularly the Tri-Border Area. That is a significant amount of money that enables it to be a political force far beyond its natural constituency. It has shown its willingness to carry out terrorist attacks against the United States and against other countries at the behest of Iran (the Buenos Aires bombing in the mid 1990s). Giving Iran and Syria-and their allies in Lebanon-a favored seat at the negotiating table, and before negotiations have even begun, to give them the upper hand, is a dangerous proposition.

Läs mer: Douglas Farah

Addressing the opening session of the sixth review conference of the Convention on Biological Weapons (BWC), U.S. delegation head John C. Rood said those countries were of particular concern given their "support for terrorism". "We believe that Iran probably has an offensive biological weapons programme in violation of the BWC," Rood said. "We also believe North Korea has a biological weapons capability and may have developed, produced and weaponised for use. "Finally, we remain seriously concerned that Syria ... has conducted research and development for an offensive BW programme," he said.

Läs mer: Iran Focus-Iran probably has germ weapons, possibly N.Korea-US - Iran (General) - News

The index provides a snapshot of the current state of democracy for 165 independent states and two territories.
...
 Sweden, a near-perfect democracy, comes top, followed by a bevy of similarly virtuous northern European countries.

Läs mer: The World In 2007 | A pause in democracys march

"In this simple experiment, we removed part of the chick embryo's wing, activated Wnt signaling, and got the whole limb back - a beautiful and perfect wing," said the lead author, Juan Carlos Izpis�a Belmonte, Ph.D., a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory. "By changing the expression of a few genes, you can change the ability of a vertebrate to regenerate their limbs, rebuilding blood vessels, bone, muscles, and skin - everything that is needed."

Wnt heter signalsystemet man manipulerar, och man klarar inte av det än i människor, och det finns problem: Stimulerar man det för länge ger det cancer.

Läs mer: Scientist regrow chicken wing | Science Blog

The bottom line is that the bones are modern (i.e., not Neandertal), but they include features that are common in Neandertals. Almost all the other European bones of early Upper Paleolithic date also have Neandertal features. The number and frequency of such features in this earliest Upper Paleolithic sample are greater than in any later sample. In other words, they look like they have genes from Neandertals. And those genes declined in frequency or effect over time.

Läs mer: John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : 2006 11

Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein. But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.

Läs mer: U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer - New York Times

Ett bokmärke med javascript, en sk bookmarklet, kan snabba upp bloggandet avsevärt.

Tidigare när jag bloggat har ett antal steg, för många, behövts för att göra en bloggpost:

• Starta på sidan man vill blogga om
• Kopiera ut text som man vill citera, ur sidan
• Gå till sin blogg, skapa ny bloggpost
• Skriva titel på bloggposten
• Klistra in citat
• Gå tillbaka till sidan man bloggar om
• Kopiera url:en från url-fältet
• Gå tillbaka till bloggposten
• Göra en länkmed verktygen för editorn för bloggverktyget
• Spara
• Publicera

Nu går det lite snabbare:

• Starta på sidan man vill blogga om
• Markera en bit text
• Klicka på ett bokmärke, en dialogbox frågar efter titel
• Bloggposten dyker upp i nytt fönster i redigeringsläge, med titel och citat ifyllda. Dessutom inns en länk, "Läs mer", med titel, länkad till sidan man bloggar om
• Tryck spara
• publicera

De två sista stegen kan dessutom automatiseras bort, vilket ger 3 steg, när man väl är på sidan man vill blogga om, mot 10 steg innan!

Hur görs nu detta? Jo, hemligheten är en bookmarklet. En bookmarklet är ett bokmärke som istället för en webbadress innehåller en bit javascript. I mitt fall följande:

javascript:var titel= prompt('Svensk titel');var notes='';if(window.getSelection)notes=window.getSelection();else if(document.getSelection)notes=document.getSelection();else if(document.selection)notes=document.selection.createRange().text;if( notes.length>350)notes=notes.substring(0,349);location.href=' http://yourserver.domain/create_blog_entry?url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+'&snippet='+encodeURIComponent(notes)+'&titel='+encodeURIComponent(titel)

(använd och testad med Firefox än så länge)

Den är huvudsakligen snodd från en bookmarklet för digg.com (från diskussionen på sidan). Jag har lagt till dialogruta för svensk titel.

När jag klickar på bookmarkleten så frågar den efter en titel och sedan anropar den min server som skapar en bloggpost baserad på originaltitel, url, markerat textstycke och den svenska titel jag slog in i dialogrutan.

Nästa steg är att göra en variant som automatpublicerar och -klassificerar, det senare mha kunskap om vilka sajter som innehåller vilken typ av info.

Nu bloggar jag i Plone, där det är väldigt enkelt att lägga till nya kodobjekt. För ditt system (som förmodligen är någon PHP-variant), måste också en bit kod finnas som tar emot URL-strängen och skapar bloggposten.

I de fall jag snabbloggar, dvs inte lägger till någonting til den automatskapade bloggposten, så har jag valt att automatiskt ha ordet "Länk" först i titeln, och att inte anmäla inläggen till intressant.se, eftersom snabbloggar ju närmast är att betrakta bara som glorifierade bokmärken.

En del av vår genetiska kod innehåller sekvenser som är virus som permanent har tagit sig in i vår arvsmassa. Ett sådant virus har man nu tagit baklänges, dvs plockat ut ur arvsmassan och gett liv som egen fri agent. Var det så bra?

Others worry that the study sets a dangerous precedent. Although it was approved by the French research ministry's Genetic Engineering Committee, Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, says any study that creates new viruses or activates old ones should be subject to a special review at the national or international level. What's more, he says, because the researchers couldn't be absolutely sure about Phoenix's infectivity, the study should have been carried out under Biosafety level 4 conditions--the best-protected labs available--instead of the level 3 conditions utilized.

Läs mer: Viral Fossil Brought Back to Life -- Enserink 2006 (1101): 4 -- ScienceNOW

Om man sover efter en emotionellt hemsk upplevelse så  graveras uplevelsen starkare in i minnet.  Om man hindrar människor att sova efter en traumatisk upplevelse så sätter sig upplevelsen mindre starkt. (Och i vardagen, bör man nog åtminstone inte se skräckfilmer innan man går och lägger sig.)

 
From a clinical perspective, our results suggest the use of sleep deprivation in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events as a possible therapeutic measure to prevent a long-term engravement of these events in memory, thereby at least partly counteracting the development of PTSD as a disease thought to reflect overconsolidated emotional memories.

Läs mer: Mind Hacks: Keeping trauma victims awake may prevent PTSD

Förutom att vi ärver egenskaper rent genetiskt, så verkar det mer och mer som om andra faktorer som påverkar oss, har konsekvenser som kan kan forplanta sig över generationer.

Jag har tidigare skrivit om miljögifter. Nu finns det studier som kan tyda på att en dålig tidig barndom kan ge låga serotoninnivåer vilket i sin tur kan göra det svårare att ge en bra barndom för sin egen avkomma, som i så fall får låga serotoninnivåer, vilket gör det svårt för dem att ge en bra barndom till sin avkomma, osv. Försöken har inte utförts på människor, utan på Rhesusapor.

.
A research team found that when baby rhesus monkeys endured high rates of maternal rejection and mild abuse in their first month of life, their brains often produced less serotonin, a chemical that transmits impulses in the brain. Low levels of serotonin are associated with anxiety and depression and impulsive aggression in both humans and monkeys. Abused females who became abusive mothers in adulthood had lower serotonin in their brains than abused females who did not become abusive parents, the research showed.

Läs mer: Low serotonin may perpetuate child abuse across generations | Science Blog

Jag har också tidigare bloggat om:

Maskrosbarn, genetik och vad som är skadligt

--A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities." kbrThe contract -- announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR -- calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when.

Läs mer: Pacific News Service > News > Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps

Klotformade kolmolekyler med 80 (istället för normalt 60) kolatomer i :

A Virginia-based startup called Luna nanoWorks is nearing commercialization of a novel version of buckyballs--soccerball-shaped carbon molecules--that the company says could improve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and lead to high-efficiency solar cells. Each buckyball is made of 80 carbon atoms with metal-nitride clusters trapped inside, creating a nanomaterial with novel electronic, optical, and magnetic properties.

Läs mer: Technology Review: Buckyballs with a Surprise

As Al Jazeera marks its 10-year anniversary today, that scene to me encapsulates Al Jazeera's success in bringing "Arab CNN" not only to the big cities and capitals of the Arab world, but also to small, rural towns where it is watched through pirated satellite dishes. Al Jazeera is not short of enemies - it is villified by several Arab and Western governments

Läs mer: Happy Birthday, Al Jazeera | FP Passport

The findings are the first to demonstrate that resveratrol, an activator of a family of enzymes called sirtuins, could affect the health and survival of mammals. The findings build upon previous research on resveratrol, a small molecule produced by certain plants in response to stress. Studies over the last few years have found that resveratrol can extend lifespan in yeast, worms, flies and fish.

Läs mer: Fat old mice do well on red wine extract resveratrol | Science Blog

The questions they were asked by Lebrot's team after receiving the letter focused on their religious practices, one of their lawyers said. "They were asked how often they go to mosque, whether they had been to Mecca and whether they know any imams," the lawyer, Eric Moutet, said in a telephone interview. "We have not seen any objective evidence against our clients. The only common denominator we see today is that they are all Muslim." Lebrot, who has not made available any evidence against the men on the grounds that this would compromise intelligence sources, insists that the decision to bar some airport employees has nothing to do with their religion. "Monsieur or Madame X who goes to pray in the mosque and travels to Mecca for the pilgrimage is not a problem for us," he said. His office, he added, had authorized 57,532 airport access badges in the first nine months of 2006. "When people accuse us of targeting Muslims," he said, "they only talk about those who received the letter, never about the tens of thousands who didn't."

Läs mer: Paris fears extremists may work at airport - Europe - International Herald Tribune

En bok finns online om fågelinfluensan, också med teorier om att vi skapat grogrund för mer virusspridning djur -> människa

Läs mer: Bird Flu - “Humanity has but three great enemies: fever, famine and war; of these by far the greatest, by far the most terrible, is fever.”

• http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hs=B4b&hl =en&q=tiananmen+square&btnG=Search [google.com] VS:
•  http://images.google.cn/images?svnum=10&hl=zh-CN&lr=&q=tiananmen+square&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2 [google.cn]

Läs mer: Slashdot | China - We Don't Censor the Internet

Publishing their work in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, the researches showed that microwave application prior to frying resulted in a marked reduction of the acrylamide level in the surface region. When the potato strips were subjected to frying after a microwave pre-cooking step, acrylamide content in the whole potato strip was reduced by 36%, 41% and 60% for frying at 150, 170 and 190oC respectively.

Läs mer: Microwaving French fries cuts cancer chemicals | Science Blog

Om man tjänar mer än den svartarbetande kan det egentligen ur skattemoralisk synvinkel vara bättre att anlita svartjobb än vitt(!)

Antag att Andersson anlitar Petersson för svartjobb. Petersson ska göra något som underlättar Anderssons liv, som ger henne mer tid till att arbeta. Andersson tjänar bra, men det gör inte Petersson ,vare sig med vitt jobb eller svart jobb. Petersson utför ett jobb som frigör Andersson att arbeta mer, och betala skatt på de extra timmar hon arbetar,

Jag är inte helt insatt i skattetariffer men anta att 60% av de extra timmarna sticker i skatt i form av statlig skatt, kommunal skatt, landstingsskatt, arbetsgivaravgift och moms, osv. De pengarna går in till det allmänna.

Om Andersson istället valt att betala Petersson vitt, hade hon fått mindre utfört, eller vilket gud förbjude, istället valt att göra arbetet själv. I båda fallen hade hon inte kunnat jobba lika många timmar.

För dig som anlitar svart arbetskraft kan det ju vara värt att göra en kalkyl för att se vilken sida om det moraliska skranket du hamnar. Räkna ut hur många extra timmar du jobbar för utförd tjänst X, jämfört med om du:

A) Hade betalt den vitt, dvs fått den utförd i mindre grad

B) Hade gjort jobbet självt, vare sig det nu är att snickra, passa barn eller vad det kan vara.

Kolla sedan hur mycket du skule betalat i skatt för de extra timmarna du jobbar.

Danne Nordling skriver om samhällsmoral i en intressant bloggpost, med en intressant diskussion till.

De som tar steget att anlita svart arbetskraft ser knappast detta i första hand som att de undandrar skatteintäkter från staten. Alternativet är ju att jobba mindre, göra jobbet själv och därmed bidra med ännu mindre skatt till staten.

• Läs mer: Skattepolitik och samhällsfilosofi: Finns det en samhällsmoral?
• Se även bloggen Utkast om skattekilar.

Terrorist groups whose attacks on civilian targets outnumber attacks on military targets do not tend to achieve their policy objectives, regardless of their nature. Contrary to the prevailing view that terrorism is an effective means of political coercion, the universe of cases suggests that, first, contemporary terrorist groups rarely achieve their policy objectives and, second, the poor success rate is inherent to the tactic of terrorism itself.

Läs mer: Why Terrorism Does Not Work | Science Blog