Category: Science and Tech

Privacy Issues Brought Into Focus with New Roadside Cameras

A new technology is sweeping the country which privacy advocates are beginning to become more wary of: license plate readers. These readers are high-tech cameras mounted along roads and highways which can read the license plates of close to 2,000 cars every minute, giving police the ability to identify and track criminals faster than ever before.

This technology has long been used in Europe, but in the United States it is only recently infiltrating into the public sphere. It is now in all of the 50 states and it is especially useful at the U.S. – Mexican border, helping to stem the tide of drugs, illegal money, and weapons smuggling across the border. A contract was awarded in October by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency worth about $350 million to increase the use of these cameras along the border, where, at the moment, thousands of license plates are already being processed by this system each day.


Critics argue that innocent people can become easy targets for tracking. “It’s like being forced to walk around with a bar code that a scanner can pick up — except that it’s your car,” said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which advocates for consumer and privacy rights. “This is one of those privacy places where the rubber really meets the road.”

Anaplasty Gives Teenage Girl New Found Beauty

When Elise Lutz was a toddler in China she suffered a severe burn which seriously disfigured her right ear with a molten lump which she tried tirelessly to hide from the view of friends and strangers alike. When Elise became a teenager she wanted what many of her friends had; pierced ears. And thus began her search for a new ear and the feeling of wholeness which she had missed throughout her childhood.

For Elise the perfect answer was not plastic surgery or a glue-on prosthesis which could easily be knocked off, especially since she is an ardent swimmer. The answer for Elise came from anaplasty, the field in which medical artists create ‘Hollywood-esque’ special effects that mimic the look of real-life, including shimmering in the sun like real skin.

“People who have implant-retained ears or noses or whatever usually think of them really as their own body,” says Jerry Schoendorf, who, with his colleague at The Anaplastology Clinic in Durham, N.C., — and surgeons at nearby Duke University Medical Center — created Elise’s ear.

“It’s the Rolls Royce of what we can offer,” adds fellow anaplastologist Jay McClennen.

What is the Winter Solstice?

The winter solstice occurs when the Earth’s axial tilt is farthest from the sun, at its maximum of 23? 26’. The winter solstice lasts only a moment, but the term is often associated with midwinter or the first day of winter, as well.

World interpretation of the event is varied, depending on the culture. The majority, however, recognize the event as one of rebirth, and celebrate it with holidays, festivals, gathering, banquets and rituals during the time. In ancient Rome, a great, month-long festival was held, ending on December 25th, which at the time was believed to be the date of the winter solstice. The Festival was called Brumalia, from the Latin word Bruma, meaning “shortest day” or “winter solstice.” Many other cultures had similar traditions.


The solstice itself may have been significant even during Neolithic times. Many astronomical events controlled various actions, indicating the proper time to mate animals, sow crops and utilize stores of crops during the winter. The importance of the winter solstice can be learned from archeological sites such as Newgrange in Ireland and Stonehenge in Britain. Both of these monuments appear to have been carefully positioned so that their axes pointed to the winter solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and sunset (Stonehenge).

Donor’s Family and Face-Transplant Recpient Meet For First Time

Due to the generosity and kindness of the family of Anna Kasper, Connie Culp became the world’s first recipient of an almost total face transplant in 2008. Today, 2 years after the history-making surgery, the family of Anna, who died suddenly of a heart attack in December of 2008, met with Connie.

The meeting was an emotional, private event, with laughing, crying and talking.

“It was kind of awkward at first, because we didn’t know what to say,” Connie said Sunday, back at her home in rural southeastern Ohio, in the small town of  Unionport.

“But it was great. They’re just really nice people. It’s awesome, how much we have in common.”

In 2004 Connie was shot in the face, disfiguring her so entirely that children would run from her, calling her a monster. She was missing an eye, her nose, both of her lower eyelids, her upper lip and her top teeth. She had almost no vision and she was forced to eat through a tube and breathe through a hole in her throat.

On December 10, 2008 all that changed. Connie is now 47 and has been thanking her donor as soon as she began publicly appearing, but without knowing the name of the donor she could never thank her by name. Now Connie, with a new lease on life is thanking Anna Kasper at every opportunity.

Why Green Tea?

The Chinese have known of the health benefits of green tea for over 4,000 years, using it to treat anything from headaches to depression. Today, scientific research has proven that the tea is in fact incredibly healthy for the body, both inside and out.

The secret of green tea is that it is rich in catechin polyphenols, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in particular. The ECGC is a powerful anti-oxidant. This substance inhibits the growth of cancer cells, as well as destroys such cells that have already been formed without harming the surrounding healthy tissue. The ECGC is also known to be effective in lowering ‘negative’ LDL cholesterol levels, and discouraging the formation of blood clots. For this reason, green tea is considered an effective way to avoid heart attacks and strokes.


The effects of ECGC are similar to those of resveratrol, a polyphenol found in red wines, which limits the effects of smoking and a fatty diet. In 1997, researchers concluded that ECGC is twice as powerful as resveratrol, which could possibly explain why heart diseases are uncommon in Asians despite the fact that 75% of them smoke. It is also believed that green tea helps to prevent tooth decay, by eliminating the bacteria that causes dental plaque. The anti-bacterial properties of the tea may also help prevent food poisoning. Many skin care products containing green tea are beginning to appear on the market, as well.

Do Prairie Dogs Talk the Talk?

Scientists are studying prairie dogs to see if they can find some answers to the most intriguing questions of language and communication among animals. Prairie dogs are genetically related to squirrels and are of similar stature. They dig deep burrows underground to live in and live in small family groups in North America. A family unit consists of one dominant male, a few adult females, and their children. Their burrows include all the comforts of life, safety exits, storage rooms, sleeping areas and toilet rooms.

Dr. Con Slobodchikoff has been studying prairie dogs intensely for the past 20 years. He has been leading research at the Northern Arizona University and has come to some fascinating conclusions. Based on video and audio tapes he has taken of the animals responding to new stimuli in their own environment Dr. Slobodchikoff has come to believe that prairie dogs are in possession of a rich and complex vocabulary, including parts of speech such as nouns, verbs and adjectives.

In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star from January 2006, Dr. Slobodchikoff explains that,

“Within these calls, they [prairie dogs] can describe the physical features of the predator. They can describe the size and shape of an individual human and the color of clothes that he or she is wearing. They can describe the coat color and the size and shape of a domestic dog. . . . Our studies are showing that prairie dogs have the most sophisticated natural animal language that has been decoded to date.”

These studies are just the beginning. Perhaps other members of the animal kingdom are also capable of such advanced abilities at communication. More research is needed to find out if man’s use of language is really as unique as we think.