SDC BRTI-AMERICA RADIO

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Hollow Tree Was Ebola's Ground Zero: Scientists

Hollow Tree Was Ebola's Ground Zero: Scientists

Tuesday, 30 Dec 2014 07:12 AM


  Get Link |  
  • Insect-eating bats that inhabited a hollow tree in a remote village in Guinea may have been the source of the world's biggest Ebola epidemic, scientists said on Tuesday.
More than 20,000 cases of Ebola, with at least 7,800 deaths, have been recorded by the World Health Organization (WHO) since a two-year-old boy died in the village of Meliandou in December 2013.

Reporting in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, scientists led by Fabian Leendertz at Berlin's Robert Koch Institute delved into the circumstances surrounding this first fatality.
The finger of suspicion points at insectivorous free-tailed bats -- Mops condylurus in Latin -- that lived in a hollow tree 50 metres (yards) from the boy's home, they said.

"The close proximity of a large colony of free-tailed bats... provided opportunity for infection. Children regularly caught and played with bats in this tree," the team said after an exhaustive four-week probe carried out in April.

The Ebola virus holes up in a natural haven, also called a reservoir, among wild animals which are not affected by it.

The virus can infect humans who come into contact with this source directly, or indirectly through contact with animals that have fallen sick from it.

Highly contagious, the virus is then passed among humans through contact with body fluids.

A known reservoir is the fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi), a widespread tropical African species that in some countries is killed for food, offering a infection pathway to hunters and butchers of the mammal.

But the role of fruit bats in the current outbreak has never been confirmed, the scientists said.
In contrast, free-tailed bats, a cousin species, have been found in lab tests to be able to carry the virus but not fall sick with it.

That, too, would make them a "reservoir," but no evidence of this has ever been found in the wild.

The German team said evidence that this species helped unleash the present epidemic was strong but not 100 percent.

Local children not only played with the bats at the tree, they also hunted bats that roosted at village homes and grilled them for food, they found.

In addition, they saw no evidence of any local die-off among larger mammals, which would have been a secondary route of infection for humans.

On the other hand, no trace of Ebola virus was found in any of the bats the scientists captured and whose blood was analysed.


When the researchers came to Meliandou, they found the bat colony had fled, for most of the tree had burned and only the stump and branches remained.

Traces of DNA found in surrounding ash and soil pointed to the previous presence of the insect-eating bats. But again, there was no presence of Ebola virus.

"The virus must be very rare in the reservoir," Leendertz said in an email exchange with AFP.

"That is also obvious when you think about how many tonnes of bat meat is consumed every year.

"If more bats carried the virus, we would see outbreaks all the time. That's one of the challenges: the virus is rare and (in) a large multi-species reservoir."

The possibility that this species of bat could be an Ebola vector is a worry, said Leendertz.
Very little is known about how these bats live -- when they migrate and reproduce, where and why they cluster, their sources of food, and so on -- and only understanding this will quantify the risk for humans.

Africa's population explosion has destroyed more and more of the bats' habitat and brought more people into proximity with them.

Leendertz said an early priority should be to encourage co-existence between villagers and bats.

Culling the insect-eating animals could encourage the spread of insect-borne disease.
"It is no solution to start killing bats or disrupting their habitat. That may backfire very badly," he warned.

© AFP 2014

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The Interview online via YouTube, Xbox Video, and Google Play

Sony is now offering The Interview online via YouTube, Xbox Video, and Google Play (update)

$6 for a rental, $15 to own

Update: It's official — Sony will release The Interview online at 1PM ET today through YouTube, Xbox Video, and others. It'll be $5.99 to rent and $14.99 to own.
Not only will The Interview be available in select theaters this Christmas, it'll also be available for everyone online. First reported by CNN's Brian Stelter and now corroborated by multiple outlets, YouTube has "tentatively agreed" to make it available as a rental. Sony is additionally in talks with other streaming outlets, so it wouldn't be exclusive (according to Recode, that list includes Google Play store and Sony's own website).
On Tuesday, the Alamo Drafthouse revealed that Sony Pictures would now allow the film to be played in select theaters. As the day progressed, the number of theaters playingThe Interview grew into the hundreds. Notably, however, no major US theater has joined the list.
Last Friday, President Barack Obama told the world that he thought it was a "mistake" for Sony to cancel the release of The Interview. Later that same day, the movie studio's CEO, Michael Lynton, defended the company's decision, saying it had no choice but to cancel the film's Christmas release date after all major US theater chains refused to screen the film. He also reiterated in a televised interview that "we have always had every desire to have the American public to see this movie."
"WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD EVERY DESIRE TO HAVE THE AMERICAN PUBLIC TO SEE THIS MOVIE."
The question, until today, was how Sony would get the movie in front of the public's eyes. In that very same CNN interview on Friday, Lynton said that "there has not been one major VOD distributor [or] one major e-commerce site that has stepped forward and said they're willing to distribute this movie for us." He added, "we don’t have that direct interface with the American public so we need to go through an intermediate." That statement suggested that Lynton had entirely overlooked Sony's very own Crackle streaming video service, which is home to a number of Sony Pictures films.
The FBI has linked North Korea to the massive cyberattack that's crippled Sony Pictures since November 24th. The hacking group, which calls themselves the Guardians of Peace, has released massive amounts of internal Sony data and demanded that the company halt the release of The Interview. During Friday's press conference, Obama said the US "will respond" to the North Korean attack on Sony but didn't clarify beyond saying it would be "proportional."
Following threats of physical violence, all major theaters dropped the movie and Sony later canceled the premiere altogether. According to CNN, the hacking group last emailed Sony on Friday, threatening to release more data unless it (somehow) removes all signs that The Interview ever existed. The film's official Facebook and Twitter pages, along with the clips from Sony Pictures' YouTube channel, did in fact disappear for a few days. Everything returned on Tuesday, however, when independent theaters started announcing Christmas Day showtimes.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Megayacht designed by Eduard Gray is sleek, futuristic and expensive at $25M

Xhibitionist is the Batmobile of the high seas

Megayacht designed by Eduard Gray is sleek, futuristic and expensive at $25M

Xhibitionist
The Xhibitionist looks like the Batmobile at first glance. Photo from Gray Design
At first glance, one might surmise that the above photo is the latest Batmobile that Ben Affleck will be chasing the bad guys in during the next “Batman” movie.
Sleek, futuristic, fast.
It is indeed sleek, futuristic and fast (or at least it looks fast), but it is not a car. Rather, it is a very expensive yacht, one that we could actually envision James Bond tooling around in.
The Xhibitionist is a $25 million, 246-foot megayacht designed by Sweden-based Eduard Gray that Gray Design describes as “Batmobile-esque.” Some are calling it the Batmobile of the high seas, though it’s definitely 007-ish, too.
“A common first reaction, it has to be said, is just that…‘it looks like a car,’” the Gray Design website says. “Indeed, Batman has been mentioned a few times, too.”
Xhibitionist
The Xhibitionist can be yours for $25 million. Photo from Gray Design
The Xhibitionist features a helipad that can accommodate three helicopters or serve as a stage for a concert. It has a viewing window “Jacques Cousteau himself would have approved.” It has eight rooms, a showroom space, and Jacuzzis. It has a matching, swanky vehicle for onshore driving.
And don’t forget the Steinway piano in the lounge.
Xhibitionist
The yacht has been described as Batmobile-esque. Photo from Gray Design
“The Xhibitionist is partly inspired by traditions as old as seafaring itself,” the website says. “The desire to rekindle some of those traditions in an ultra-modern setting has resulted in, not only, the creation of a jaw-dropping superyacht, but the creation of a veritable entity that has almost developed a personality of its own.
“As much thought has gone into the conception of this vessel in terms of its viability as has gone into the actual structural design itself. It is, quite simply, a masterful blend of style, purpose and efficiency.”
Yeah, all of that. And much more.
So, any buyers out there for the Xhibitionist?
Xhibitionist
The yacht has a helipad that also acts as a stage. Photo from Gray Design
helipad
The Xhibitionist has a helipad that can accommodate three helicopters. Photo from Gray Design
Xhibitionist
It looks like a swanky hotel lobby inside. Photo from Gray Design
car showroom
One can turn the Xhibitionist into a showroom of cars if one desires. Photo from Gray Design
vehicle
The ship comes with a matching vehicle. Photo from Gray Design
More from GrindTV

Sunday, August 31, 2014

We don’t know what the Denisovan looked like

The Other Neanderthal

A girl looks through the replica of a neanderthal skull displayed in the new Neanderthal Museum in the northern town of Krapina.

We don’t know what the Denisovan looked like. We don’t know how it lived, what tools it used, how tall it was, what it ate, or if it buried its dead.
But from only two teeth and a piece of finger bone smaller than a penny, we’ve been able to extract the rich history of a species that split off from Homo sapiens approximately 600,000 years ago. We know they’re more closely related to Neanderthals than humans—though still distantly. We know they made their way to Southeast Asian islands, interbreeding with indigenous modern human groups in New Guinea and Australia. We know their interspecies mingling with modern humans in mainland Asia was brief, but enough to impart a few genes. And we know  Denisovan genes reveal evidence of interbreeding with Neanderthals and an even more archaic hominid species.
It’s the first human cousin species identified with more than fossil records. Instead, scientists used the DNA it left behind. There’s now a mystery on our hands: Who were the Denisovans, and where did they go?
* * *
“We still don’t know what the Denisovans look like morphologically,” says David Reich, a Harvard University geneticist. “We have two teeth right now and a finger bone, all of which have [Denisovan] DNA. But we don’t have anything else that we can firmly connect to the Denisovans.”
The Denisovan gets its name from the Denisova Cave, tucked away in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, near where the borders of Russia, Mongolia, and China intersect. The Denisovan pinky bone was found in 2008. (The teeth were found eight years before that but weren’t initially identified.) Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of Novosibirsk stumbled upon these fragments as they searched for Neanderthal tools. Despite the presence of tools from the mid-Stone Age Mousterian Neanderthal culture, the finger bone found in Denisova showed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) different from Neanderthals or humans. M itochondrial DNA is exclusively derived matrilineally—that is, tracing descent through the mother’s genetic line—with no informationabout any admixture deriving from males anywhere along the line. Further analysis of the nuclear genome showed Denisovans are more closely tied to Neanderthals, splitting off some 400,000 years ago.
“The mDNA is only one line of descent; it’s only one part of one’s ancestry, so It’s not a reflection of all your ancestors,” Reich, who worked on the Denisova project, says. “It’s your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother and you have many ancestors. And your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother could have lived in a very different population or had a very different history than your mother’s father’s father’s mother’s mother’s mother.”
In other words, mtDNA is only part of the story.
Reich had previously worked with Denisovan project lead Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute tracing the DNA of Neanderthals. Pääbo and his team knew there was something different about the original mtDNA extracted, which showed 1 million years separation from Neanderthals and modern humans. Reich found more clues in the nuclear genome.
The genome is extracted from the nucleus of the gene rather than the mitochondria organelles, and shows traits inherited from male ancestors—a process that provides a more complete genetic picture of our distant cousin species. As researchers zeroed in on this genome, a picture began to emerge of a separate human lineage. With that, we had a new hominid cousin species hiding in plain sight in East Asia.
“Denisovans are an example of—in my mind—how mitochondrial DNA can lead you wrong, and only the nuclear genome tells the full story,” Pääbo said. “The mtDNA of the Denisovans diverge before modern human and Neandertal mtDNA [break off] from each other, yet the nuclear genome shows that they share a common ancestor with Neandertals, but far back in time. Perhaps they even got the mtDNA by gene flow from some other hominid in Asia.”
So the mother’s mother’s mother (ad infinitum) of the Denisovan showed a more ancient lineage than the nuclear genome, which revealed a hominid with a more recent branch of evolution with Neanderthals. The Denisovans split off from the lineage of Neanderthals 200,000 years after humans had already had their split from the species.
The team found a DNA match for the mysterious human cousin in the islands of Southeast Asia, thousands of years removed from the Siberian Population. It wasn’t through fossil records; but through the DNA of their human descendants.
Denisovan DNA was compared with modern human populations, matching with the Melanesian people of Papua New Guinea and the Aborigines of Australia. Some—but not all—indigenous populations in the Philippines show evidence of Denisovan ancestry. Melanesians and Aborigines share 5 percent of their DNA with the Denisovan hominid; Filipino indigenous groups like the Mamanwa and the Manobo share as much, if not more. Comparatively, European humans share only between 1 percent and 4 percent of DNA with the Neanderthals. The genetic evidence showed the Siberian Denisovan was distantly related to the Denisovan group that interbred with the island populations of Southeast Asia. The lines between the two Denisovans diverged 280,000 to 400,000 years ago.
The concentration was less in continental Asia. Mainland Asia shows just a fraction—around one-twenty-fifth—of Denisovan ancestry compared to islanders. While the Siberian Denisovan populations lived near the border of modern day China and Mongolia, their genetics didn’t hang around for long. Around the time the Siberian Denisovan was alive 40,000 years ago, the species had already dispersed far and wide, and already interbred with human populations. The Siberian Denisovan first identified in 2010 was a distant relative to her cousins in Southeast Asia.
“What’s quite clear is that 40,000 years ago, Southeast Asia was already a patchwork of peoples with and without Denisovan ancestry,” Reich said. The limited interbreeding that took place on the main Asian continent still shows up in populations there today as a small piece of the Denisovan hominid puzzle.
* * *
In tracing the steps of the Denisovan, we find evidence that the species migrated to Southeast Asia in a concentrated enough amount to impart a high degree of hybridization with groups in the region. From the location of the Denisova Cave, we can trace a path from modern day Russia into Southeast Asia and Australia.
What’s perhaps more surprising is that there is a low rate of interbreeding in China, Mongolia, Nepal and other countries on the main continent. If the Denisovans were in the area for long, they certainly didn’t interact with Homo sapiens in quite the same way as they did in Southeast Asia. But the fractions of a percent of shared DNA seen in modern Asian populations have imparted beneficial adaptations to some groups there—even if it’s just from a great-to-an-unknown-power grandfather. And all this adds up to more clues, however small, explaining the migration of the Denisovan.
DNA mixture in mainland Asia isn’t entirely absent. Some groups still have the markers of Denisovans, however small. For native Tibetans, ancient hominid interbreeding—however small a portion of their overall genome—may have impacted their ability to live in climates and altitudes hostile to other groups.  Rasmus Nielsen, a faculty member of the Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics, previously worked on tracing how Tibetans can withstand the effects of hypoxia in low-oxygen environments. In 2010, his team published a paper indicating the EPAS1 gene as the culprit behind this beneficial mutation. The gene regulates the body’s reaction to low oxygen environments., allowing Tibetans to produce fewer red blood cells and less hemoglobin.
When comparing Tibetan DNA to other human groups, no one could find where the EPAS1 gene might have arisen. It didn’t show up in other Homo Sapien populations. It would seem that it came from another species entirely. So Nielsen went looking for the other Hominid.
“The difference between the DNA sequence in Tibetans and all other human human populations was simply too large,” Nielsen said. “Our models of natural selection, and mutation just couldn’t explain that. So we started to look for other explanations, and we compared first to the Neanderthal sequence, and we can show that there’s no match to the Neanderthal sequence.”  So on a longshot bet, Nielsen compared the recently uncovered Denisovan genome to the Tibetans. The Denisovan ancestry was fractional, but the EPAS1 was an exact match between the two populations.
Prior to dispersing to the islands, the Denisovans hung around just long enough to give Tibetans the gene they needed to survive the Himalayas.
* * *
With scant fossil evidence, it’s hard to know what to look for when it comes to learning more about the Denisovan.
It would take a DNA match in a fossil to positively identify any fossil found as Denisovan. The low temperatures of the Denisova Cave helped preserve much of the DNA in the scant fossil record, but the same can’t be said of a number of human species whose lineage has to be resolved based on physical fossil evidence because DNA is too far decayed to prove useful.
There are a few suspicions on Denisovan fossil matches, however.
“There’s a very enigmatic fossil record in China that contains possible candidates for Denisovans, and that’s sort of a very interesting place to look aside from Southeast Asia,” Reich said, specifically referring to the Dali and Maba Man, two enigmatic fossils found in two different areas of China. Pääbo also sequenced DNA from a 400,000 year old femur bone found in a cave in Spain. While Neanderthals were known to dominate Europe prior to the arrival of humans, mtDNA in the femur was a closer match to Denisovans, complicating the existing picture of migration. In the absence of nuclear DNA, though, it’s hard to determine the extent of a match.
There may also be existing specimens not yet tested. “So you have a large amount of potential candidates from museum collections that you could investigate to see if there’s some match to the Denisovan DNA,” Nielsen said.
Even if the mystery of the Denisovan is solved, there are plenty more unknowns. In the DNA of the Siberian Denisovan there were the markers of a third species. Where there was interbreeding between Neanderthals and Denisovans, there was also gene flow from another unidentified species more ancient than either Neanderthals and Denisovans, meaning a very old species likely lived alongside and at the same time as both.
“The gene flow from Denisovans was from another archaic population that was extremely distantly related to the Denisovan from the Denisova Cave,” Reich said. In other words, whatever the mystery species was, it shared a common ancestor that wasn’t Denisovan.  “What becomes clear is that there were at least three highly divergent archaic populations. And who knows, there could have been more in Eurasia at that time.”
Until a fossil is identified, we won’t conclusively know what the Denisovan looks like. But the quest to learn more is starting to generate even more questions. In tracking the Denisovan, scientists have found evidence of other archaic groups, predating humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans.
They’ve found evidence of a species with a wide migration pattern, one that may have brought it—or a distant ancestor—into the European continent. There’s evidence through the Denisovans Aborigine descendants that it may have crossed the Wallace Line, the geographic boundary between placental mammals and primitive forms like monotremes and marsupials on the Australian continent. But did the Denisovans cross that line, or were the Aborigines the first explorers?
We’ve known of the Neanderthal for 150 years.  We’ve known of the Denisovan for four.
What else might our mysterious cousin reveal? That’s something scientists will continue to explore in the coming years, and it will take more than a molar and a pinky. Until then, the Denisovan will remain a ghost, hiding from its human cousins and children, known only by the DNA it left behind.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Aaltje Van Denburg







Aaltje Van Denburg was born on October 23, 1919, in SyracuseNew York to parents with Dutch ancestry. She received a B.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1942 with a major in Illustration. In 1952, she received her M.S. in Crafts from the University of Tennessee. Van Denburg's stay at Knoxville is what persuaded her to BECOME a resident of Tennessee, hoping that West Tennessee would be similar to East. When she graduated in 1952, she decided to stay and accept a position at the University of Tennessee Martin Branch. At that time UTM was a small school that only offered students bachelor's DEGREE PROGRAMS in agriculture and home economics. Van Denburg's professional affiliations include: American and Tennessee Home Economics Associations; Southern Highland Handicraft Guild; Tennessee COLLEGES ART Commission: Martin Art Commission: and the American Craftsman's Council. She also had numerous profession Activities that included: private painting classes; folk records; programs of folk song; art, craft lectures for various civic clubs and schools; and consultative services for interior design She served on various university committees while at UTM including: Administrative (Public Occasions); Faculty Senate (Student Honors); and the School of Home Economics.



Folk Songs For Children Young and Old (Record Only)
MURPHY FUNERAL HOME & FLORIST, INC., MARTIN, TN

Aaltje Vandenburg
(October 23, 1919 - September 11, 2007)
Age: 87Visitation will be held from 4:00 -6:00 P.M. Friday, September 14, 2007. At 6:00 P.M. a Prayer Service will be held at Murphy Funeral Home.
Preceded in death by parents Carroll Henry and Louise Wilson Vandenburg
Preceded in death by brother, Caroll Henry Vndenburg, Jr.
Miss Vandenburg was retired professor of the University of Tennessee of Martin.

Jacob's Ladder



Monday, July 21, 2014

Karen Andrea Parker "On The Road" in New Zealand


NEW ZEALAND (IFS) -- The globe trekker extraordinaire, Karen Andrea Parker, demonstrates that the original Olympic Games by the athletes, men and women were primarily clothed in nothing more then their skin and/or small loin cloths.

Parker was in New Zealand to promote her "Student Athletes" program showing how students with just average athletic skills can get scholarships to get schools.  Parker's concept was designed on her earlier program called "The Counselor and the Dad" for Student Athletics, which expanded its scope to include parents of student athletes.

 A binocular’s view across the gulf from Auckland, the Coromandel is everything that a big city isn’t. Cloaked in native rainforest with dazzling white sand beaches, it is rustic, unspoiled and relaxed.

Activities and attractions are plentiful, from fishing and diving to hiking and cycling. You might choose skydiving in Whitianga or a guided sea kayak tour around the coast. For the more adventurous there's Sleeping God Canyon, a 300m vertical descent down a set of waterfalls.

You could wander among the coolness of the pristine bush; the Coromandel is a walker’s paradise. Explore the relics from the area's gold mining heritage, follow the Karangahake Gorge and Coromandel coastal walkway, hike the Pinnacles, or hop on your bike and cycle the Hauraki Rail Trail. Or simply sit and relax in a warm bubbling pool at Hot Water Beach where you can dig your own spa two hours either side of low tide. Don't miss the spectacular Cathedral Cove, the jewel of a protected marine reserve.

The Coromandel is the home of many artists and craftspeople. Pop into their studios – you’re welcome to visit – and pick up a unique piece of art or pottery to take home with you. It’s also the home of many events and concerts that draw locals and visitors alike to this remarkable place.

Staying in the Coromandel is easy. Most of the accommodation providers have found themselves spectacular locations so whether your tastes are for the upmarket or the simple, you’ll find a room – or tent site – with an amazing view. It's just over an hour from Auckland airport, Rotorua and Hobbiton, and can be reached by road, air, or ferry.