In the News
Spina Bifida Association: About Spina Bifida
Information about spina bifida, "a neural tube defect that happens in the first month of pregnancy when the spinal column doesn't close completely. ... Each year, about 3,000 pregnancies are affected by these birth defects."Provides a FAQ, website links, and fact sheets on topics such as genetics, folic acid, hip function, and educational issues. From the Spina Bifida Association, which promotes the prevention of the defect and provides resources for those affected by it. Marijuana Withdrawal Reported By Teens Seeking Treatment
By 12th grade, about 21 percent of high school students regularly use marijuana. A new study in today's edition of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence shows that teens that use marijuana frequently also may face the same withdrawal symptoms that have been found to challenge adult marijuana users trying to quit. A sweet little fairy story
The fairies at the bottom of my garden have been digging up the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A spokesdog for the Society of Wolves tells me that Canis Lupus is no longer dining on geriatric homeowners nor juvenile females in crimson headgear. Oh, and there is no link between [...] UC Joins Google Library Project
Ignoring pending copyright litigation that could undermine everything, the University of California agrees to open all its academic libraries to Google's book-scanning project. Publishers are not happy. Dangerous Parasite Gains New Attention In Battles Against AIDS, Bioter
Montana State University researchers and their collaborators are gaining widespread attention for discoveries involving a common parasite that can threaten everyone from babies to AIDS patients. Toxoplasmosis is normally associated with medical advice that pregnant women avoid changing cat litter, but it's gaining new attention because of the AIDS epidemic and bioterrorism, the researchers said. Severe toxoplasmosis can cause AIDS patients to go into a deep dementia and become unconscious of their surroundings. Antioxidant-rich Pecans Can Protect Against Unhealthy Oxidation
A new research study from Loma Linda University shows that adding just a handful of pecans to your diet each day may inhibit unwanted oxidation of blood lipids, thus helping reduce the risk of heart disease. ZIP Codes And Property Values Predict Obesity Rates
Neighborhood property values predict local obesity rates better than education or incomes, according to a new study. Researchers found six-fold differences in obesity rates between the richest and poorest ZIP codes. Area prosperity can also be a good predictor of access to healthy foods, or opportunities for exercise. Antibodies From Plants Protect Against Anthrax
Scientists have produced, in tobacco plants, human antibodies that could be used to treat anthrax exposure. They report their findings at the 2005 American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Research Meeting. Academic rebellion
 Science is revolting! A revolution is underway and the battles are taking place on the Microsoft Office frontline. Science, the journal of the America Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is ditching support for Microsoft format office documents. In its notice to authorsit advises that:
“Because of changes Microsoft has made in its recent Word release that are incompatible with our internal workflow, which was built around previous versions of the software, Science cannot at present accept any files in the new .docx format produced through Microsoft Word 2007, either for initial submission or for revision. Users of this release of Word should convert these files to a format compatible with Word 2003 or Word for Macintosh 2004 (or, for initial submission, to a PDF file) before submitting to Science.” There is also a warning that Microsoft Word 2007 is no longer acceptable in revision documents because of problems with incompatibilities with Equation Editor. But, it is not just hefty Science magazine, Naturehas also weighed into the battle: “We currently cannot accept files saved in Microsoft Office 2007 formats. Equations and special characters (for example, Greek letters) cannot be edited and are incompatible with Nature’s own editing and typesetting programs.” Thanks to An Antic Dispositionfor bringing the S and N issues to our attention. But, is this the only evidence of a rebellion? Certainly not. While Science and Nature are ditching the various Microsoft proprietary formats for technical reasons but staff and studentsat Imperial College London are truly up in arms over the imposition their institution makes on them to use Microsoft products. The Software Freedom for Imperial College is hoping to persuade IC to implement a college-wide policy that ensures students are not coerced into purchasing M$ products in order to complete their studies. At present, many tutors and professors ask for Word format files, Powerpoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets. All of which are infinitely more expensive than the Open Source equivalents of these Office products which are widely available and widely accepted in many quarters. The movement also hopes to discourage the use of Microsoft products for email attachments and to preclude Microsoft’s awful winmail.dat (workaround here). They want IC to ensure that all web services are standards-compliant and fully functional in all major web browsers, not just the dreaded IE. And finally, they want to see the use of free and open source software for services when high quality and reliable alternatives exist. Several top universities have already made the move to OS and ditched Microsoft either completely or partially. In fact, IC is the only one of the Top 20 academic centres of excellence around the world that still uses a proprietary web server that is not 100% standards compliant. This resulted, according to the site in 313 errors during testing compared to University of Cambridge: 0, University of Oxford: 0, MIT: 0, and Yale University: 1 error. SFIC hopes to negotiate with IC to rectify the problems. The main issue is probably inertia, even within academic science, Word, Powerpoint, Internet Explorer, Outlook, are all considered pretty much standard the world over. There are viable and better, free alternatives to almost all Microsoft products, such as Thunderbird email, Firefox, Safari, and Opera web browsers, OpenOffice etc etc as well as countless non-proprietary server systems. Slavonic Web
This site is for the Slavonic Cultural Center, which traces its roots back to "the Slavonic Mutual and Benevolent Society [which] was founded in San Francisco in 1857 by Slavic immigrants, primarily from the region of present day Croatia."The site features a virtual museum of historical photos and paintings, selections from oral histories, and audio clips of Slavonic music (such as music played on the tamburitza).
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