Space Burials at $1,990 Give Aging Japan Cheaper Funeral Option -

Space Burials at $1,990 Give Aging Japan Cheaper Funeral Option - 



Burial options in Japan are expanding beyond the traditional Buddhist ceremony. You can now send a loved one’s ashes into space.
Closely held Elysium Space Inc. is offering a service in Japan to send a portion of a person’s cremated remains in a capsule that will circle the earth for several months for $1,990. Relatives and friends can track the spacecraft’s trajectory on a mobile phone app. Like a meteorite, the remains disintegrate upon entering the earth’s atmosphere, “blazing as a shooting star,” according to a company statement.
About one gram of a person’s remains are placed into an individual “space-grade” aluminum capsule, Benjamin Joffe, a spokesman for the company said in an e-mail. Missions will carry between 100 to 400 individual capsules, he said.
The service will give a new option for Japanese looking to reduce the size and expense of funerals as relatives become fewer and traditional ties weaken in one of the world’s fastest aging societies. The cost of a renting a burial plot and buying a tomb stone in Tokyo is about 2.7 million yen ($27,400), according to Japan Institute of Life Insurance.
The market for funeral services in Japan rose 0.7 percent to 1.3 trillion yen in the year ended March 2010 from a year earlier as the number of aged Japanese increased, according to the marketing and credit research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd. based in Tokyo.

Read more -

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-01/space-burials-at-1-990-give-aging-japan-cheaper-funeral-option.html

Could your smartphone detect earthquakes? Tiny sensors could be used to create a real-time map of seismic activity -

Could your smartphone detect earthquakes? Tiny sensors could be used to create a real-time map of seismic activity - 



Collecting accurate, real-time data on earthquakes has always been a problem for seismologists.
But a tiny sensor found in smartphones could help fill in the gaps by instantly turning your mobile phone into an earthquake sensor.
The chip, originally intended to change the orientation of the screen, can detect earthquakes greater than a magnitude of 5, according to a new study.

Known as a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometer, the sensors measures the rate of acceleration of ground motion and vibration of cars, buildings and installations. 

MEMS is also used in laptops to detect the motion of falling, and in computer games to sense movement and speed. 
Antonino D'Alessandro and Giuseppe D'Anna, both seismologists at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy, wanted to see whether the sensor could also reliably detect ground motion caused by earthquakes.

They tested the LIS331DLH MEMS accelerometer in an iPhone and compared it to the earthquake sensor EpiSensor ES-T force balance accelerometer.
The test showed that the MEMS accelerometers could detect moderate to strong earthquakes, greater than magnitude 5, when located near the epicentre. 
The researchers believe the technology will soon be advanced enough to detect quakes less than magnitude 5. 
The real advantage, they say, is the widespread use of mobile phones and laptops that include MEMS technology, making it possible to dramatically increase coverage when strong earthquakes occur.


Read more: - 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2438556/Could-iPhone-detect-earthquake-MEMS-sensors-create-real-time-seismic-activity-map.html

Nursing Home Patient Catches Fire - Left To Smolder Outside -

Nursing Home Patient Catches Fire - Left To Smolder Outside - 



A man smoking a cigarette catches on fire. What happens next has outraged his family.

CBS 2′s Dave Savini has video of the incident.

Lisa Couch says her brother, Michael Lewis, was nearing the end of his stay at Lake Shore HealthCare and Rehabilitation Centre when tragedy struck.

“He burned to death,” she says.  “He sustained burns like from mid-thigh up to the eyebrows.”

Security camera footage shows Lewis on the patio, a designated smoking area, when the lighter in his pocket suddenly catches his shirt on fire. Residents try, but fail, to put out the flames. Lewis then frantically pushes himself back inside to get help.

“The horror, to think my brother is on fire and no one is there?” Couch says.

The video shows frantic workers inside the building. Staff members spray Lewis with a fire extinguisher; then they roll him back outside, where his smoldering body covered in foam sits motionless.

“Doesn’t look like they were trying to take care of Michael,” his sister says.

State nursing home regulators say spraying Lewis directly with the extinguisher was against the rules.

Dr. Stanley Zydlo, an emergency response expert, watched the video and says there were numerous additional problems.


“There didn’t seem to be anybody in control as to who was to do what,” Zydlo says.

He also said a blanket should have been used to cover Lewis immediately. Someone should have been checking the victim’s airway, too, he says.

More than five minutes after the fire, a man in blue scrubs brings oxygen.

“We don’t see anybody evaluating him or doing CPR for him,” Zydlo notes.

In fact, there’s no evidence on the security camera video of anyone performing life-saving CPR on Lewis until after Chicago EMS crews arrive on the scene. By then, crucial minutes had already passed.

Rescue crews find Lewis lifeless in cardiac arrest. Ten minutes after the fire started, CPR was finally administered.

Zydlo says someone should have put damp sheets on Lewis.

“The burn process is progressive unless you cool it down,” says Zydlo. “It will continue.”

Facility representatives refused to talk on-camera about Michael Lewis’s death. They sent a statement saying they cannot comment due to privacy laws.

The home was cited for failing to train staff in emergency procedures.

“There was no one there to help him,” Couch says.

She says her brother was getting ready to leave the facility and return home. She has filed a lawsuit against Lakeshore HealthCare and Rehabilitation Centre.

Read more - 

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/09/30/2-investigators-nursing-home-patient-catches-fire-left-to-smolder-outside/

Cassini probe sees plastic ingredient on Titan moon Titan - has detected propene or propylene -

Cassini probe sees plastic ingredient on Titan moon Titan - has detected propene or propylene - 



The Cassini probe has detected propene, or propylene, on Saturn's moon Titan.

On Earth, this molecule, which comprises three carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms, is a constituent of many plastics.

It is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than our home world, says the US space agency (Nasa).

The discovery, made by Cassini's infrared spectrometer, is reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene," said Conor Nixon, a Nasa planetary scientist from the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center. A classic example would be the plastic boxes used to store food in kitchens worldwide.

Titan is dominated by hydrocarbons - principally methane, which after nitrogen is the most common component of the atmosphere.

Sunlight drives reactions that break apart the methane, allowing the fragments to join up and form even bigger molecules.

Other common species seen at the moon as a result are propane, which on Earth is used in portable cooking equipment, and ethane, which is the raw material for another ubiquitous plastic - polyethylene.

But the likes of methane, propene, propane and ethane are dwarfed by some truly colossal hydrocarbons that have been detected in Titan's atmosphere.

When the effects of ultraviolet light are combined with the bombardment from particles driven in Saturn's magnetic field, it becomes possible to cook up some very exotic chemistry.

Cassini's plasma spectrometer has seen evidence for hydrocarbons with an atomic mass thousands of times heavier than a single hydrogen atom.

Read more - 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24348667

RESEARCH: People who constantly text message 'experience more stress in friendships'... -

RESEARCH: People who constantly text message 'experience more stress in friendships'... - 



Many people claim they couldn't live without their phone, but this addiction could be doing them more harm than good, experts warn.
New research suggests that excessive texting can cause a whole host of sleep problems.
U.S. researchers found that people who send the most texts experience the most sleep problems.

They believe this could be because these people feel pressurised to respond to messages immediately regardless of the time, and that some people sleep with their phone next to their bed meaning they are woken up by incoming texts during the night.
Karla Murdock at Washington Lee University found that first year students who text a lot sleep less well, regardless of their level of stress.
She asked students to answer questions that assessed their emotional well-being and sleep problems.

She also asked them to estimate how many text messages they sent and received on an average day.
To assess the students' sleep quality, Dr Murdock used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. 
This is a widely-used instrument that measures multiple aspects of sleep quality such as sleep duration, the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, the amount of time actually spent sleeping while in bed, night time disturbances, and daytime sleepiness.

The study also found that frequent text messaging is associated with more friendship-related stress because texts are unable to convey subtle nuances in conversation
The key finding was that a higher number of daily texts was associated with more sleep problems. 
Dr Murdock notes that this finding reinforces previous evidence pointing to a direct association between mobile phone use and poor sleep in adolescents and young adults.
The study also found that frequent text messaging is associated with more friendship-related stress.
Dr Murdock wrote: ‘These correlational findings provide an initial indication that heavy text messaging could be problematic during times of stress. 
‘Although speculative, it could be argued that text messaging is a uniquely unsuitable mode of communication for coping with interpersonal stress in close relationships.’
For instance, Dr Murdock suggested the abbreviated language that is common in texting lacks the ability to provide the kind of nuance that is important in discussing sensitive issues. 
In addition, texting fails to offer critical non-verbal cues that would be part of a face-to-face conversation.
‘Text messaging may carry a high risk of producing or maintaining misunderstandings and/or unproductive interactions during periods of stress,’ she wrote. 
‘When interpersonal stress involves conflict, the conditions required for productive communication may be particularly difficult to achieve through texting.’


Read more: -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2438811/The-texts-send-worse-sleep-People-spend-day-tapping-away-experience-stress-friendships.html

Tablets, smartphones fuel epidemic of 'iPosture'... -

Tablets, smartphones fuel epidemic of 'iPosture'...



It sounds like the latest gadget from Apple. But ‘iPosture’ is being blamed for an alarming level of  back pain among 18 to 24-year-olds.
The term is being used to describe the stooped body shape adopted by those texting, emailing or playing games on their iPad or smartphone.
Some 84 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 admitted to having suffered back pain in the past year, in a survey by the healthcare provider Simplyhealth.

Dr Brian Hammond, chairman of BackCare, the national back pain charity, said: ‘The vast majority of people experience back pain in the lower back.
‘Over half the population experience pain in the neck or lower back every year.

‘This survey shows that 18 to 24-year-olds are more likely to experience pain in the upper back and neck.
‘It is likely that slumping and hunching over computers and hand-held devices is a contributory factor in the different types of back pain reported by different generations.
‘Younger people are far more likely to be hunched over a device on a sofa, and would benefit from paying close attention to the basics of good posture.’
The results also show that almost all age groups spend as much time in front of a computer, laptop or tablet screen in total as they do asleep in bed, some even more so.
Excluding time spent watching the ‘traditional’ TV, the typical young adult spends 8.83 hours a day in front of a screen. The total is 6.64 hours for the older generation.
The 18 to 24-year-olds are also much more likely to either slouch or hunch in front of their PC or other devices.
Part of that could be down to a lack of old-fashioned advice, because it appears that being told to sit up straight seems to be on the decline.


Read more: -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2439365/Do-suffer-iPosture-Tablets-smartphones-causing-epidemic-pain-people-hunch-devices.html

Half Of US Population Accounts For Only 2.9% Of Healthcare Spending; 1% Responsible For 21.4% Of Expenditures -

Half Of US Population Accounts For Only 2.9% Of Healthcare Spending; 1% Responsible For 21.4% Of Expenditures - 



With the topic of peak class polarization once again permeating the airwaves and clogging up NSA servers, and terms like 1% this or that being thrown around for political punchlines and other talking points, one aspect where social inequality has gotten less prominence, yet where the spread between the "1%" and everyone else is perhaps most substantial is in realm of healthcare spending: perhaps the biggest threat to the long-term sustainability of the US debt picture and economy in general. The numbers are stunning.

According to the latest data compiled by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in 2010, just 1% of the population accounted for a whopping 21.4% of total health care expenditures with an annual mean expenditure of $87,570. Just below them, 5% of the population accounted for nearly 50% of all healthcare spending. Just as stunning is the "other" side: the lower 50 percent of the population ranked by their expenditures accounted for only 2.8% of the total for 2009 and 2010 respectively. Perhaps in addition to bashing the "1%" of wealth holders, a relatively straightforward and justified exercise in the current political climate, it is time for public attention to also turn to the chronic 1% (and 5%)-ers who are the primary issue when it comes to the debt-funding needed to preserve the US welfare state.

More of the report's findings:

In 2009, 1 percent of the population accounted for 21.8 percent of total health care expenditures and 20.5 percent of the population in the top 1 percent retained this ranking in 2009. The bottom half of the expenditure distribution accounted for 2.9 percent of spending in 2009; about three out of four individuals in the bottom 50 percent retained this ranking in 2010.
Those who were in the top decile of spenders in both 2009 and 2010 differed by age, race/ethnicity, sex, health status, and insurance coverage (for those under 65) from those who were in the lower half in both years.
Those in bottom half of health care spenders were more likely to report excellent health status, while those in the top decile of spenders were more likely to be in fair or poor health relative to the overall population.
While 15 percent of persons under age 65 were uninsured for all of 2010, the full year uninsured comprised 26.1 percent of those in the bottom half of spenders for both 2009 and 2010. Only 3.4 percent of those under age 65 who remained in the top decile of spenders in both years were uninsured for all of 2010.
Relative to the overall population, those who remained in the top decile of spenders were more likely to be in fair or poor health, elderly, female, non-Hispanic whites and those with public only coverage. Those who remained in the bottom half of spenders were more likely to be in excellent health, children and young adults, men, Hispanics, and the uninsured.

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-30/half-us-population-only-accounts-29-healthcare-spending-1-responsible-214-all-expend

Art Exhibition Closes After 3 Patrons Suffer Apparent Seizures -

Art Exhibition Closes After 3 Patrons Suffer Apparent Seizures - 



Authorities have temporarily shut down a room-sized art installation with blinking lights in Pittsburgh, Pa. after three visitors reported seizure-like symptoms.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports the work titled “Zee” by Austrian artist Kurt Hentschlager opened Friday in downtown Pittsburgh.

An 18-year-old woman was treated at the scene Sunday afternoon after reporting seizure-like symptoms. District EMS chief Paul Sabol said she was the third person to report ill effects.

Before entering, patrons must sign a waiver that describes the exhibit as "intense stroboscopic light in combination with thick artificial fog, resulting in a loss of spatial orientation." People with photosensitive epilepsy, breathing or heart problems, migraines, claustrophobia or anxiety are warned not to go inside.

Sabol said changes could be made before the exhibit reopens. Hentschlager couldn't be reached for comment.

This isn’t the first time “Zee” has been blamed for seizures. Pittsburgh Cultural Trust spokeswoman Shaunda Miles tells the Tribune-Review that past exhibitions in 2008 and 2009 had similar seizure-like issues.

Read more - 

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Art-Exhibit-Seizures-Zee-225776061.html

Flour Made From Insects Will Feed Underfed Populations - The product is called Power Flour -

Flour Made From Insects Will Feed Underfed Populations - The product is called Power Flour - 



Chew on this.

A team of MBA students were the recipients of the 2013 Hult Prize earlier this week, providing them with $1 million in seed money to produce an insect-based, protein-rich flour for feeding malnourished populations in other countries. The product is called Power Flour.

"It's a huge deal because we had a very ambitious but highly executable five-year plan in place," said team captain Mohammed Ashour, whose team hails from McGill University in Montreal. "So winning this prize is a great step in that direction."

Ashour, along with teammates Shobhita Soor, Jesse Pearlstein, Zev Thompson and Gabe Mott, will be immediately working with an advisory board to recruit farmers and workers in Mexico, where a population of roughly 4 million live in slum conditions with widespread malnutrition.

"We will be starting with grasshoppers," Ashour said.

He noted that the insect is already familiar to the local diet and currently sells at a premium because of a three-month harvesting season and because grasshoppers are typically hand-picked. But farmers have already expressed interest in raising grasshoppers on a mass level, according to Ashour.

While for Americans the idea of eating bugs remains mostly a novelty, in other areas of the world they are a common form of protein. The kinds of insects people consume from country to country varies, with the people of Ghana preferring palm weevils and in Botswana, caterpillars. The Power Flour product will vary ingredients according to those habits, adjusting production to the breeding cycles and nutritional profile of each culture.

In order to research their business plan, the members of the McGill Hult team have all consumed "kilos" of insects themselves, Ashour said.

"Shobhita was recently researching in Thailand and tried everything from worms to water beetles," he said.

Even Gabe Mott, who identifies as a vegetarian, has consumed his fair share of basil-flavored palm weevil.

"He's a vegetarian for ethical and ecological reasons, and when he looked at insects, for him it was really not an issue as far as being a source of protein that is ecologically balanced," said Ashour.

Read more - 

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/flour-made-insects-feed-underfed-populations/story?id=20402024

'TomTato': Potato-tomato hybrid unveiled... - and were not genetically modified -

'TomTato': Potato-tomato hybrid unveiled... - and were not genetically modified - 



A plant that produces both tomatoes and potatoes, called the TomTato, has been developed for the UK market.

Ipswich-based horticultural firm Thompson and Morgan said the hybrid plants were not genetically modified.

Similar plants have been created in the UK, but the firm said it was thought to be the first time they had been produced on a commercial scale.

Guy Barter, of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), said it was looking at the plant with "real interest".

Mr Barter said many of these plants - created by a technique known as grafting - had been created before but taste had previously been a problem.

"We're looking at it with real interest because Thompson and Morgan are a really reputable firm with a lot to lose, but I wouldn't rule out that it could be a very valuable plant to them," said Mr Barter, who is a contributor to BBC Gardener's World.

"In the past we've never had any faith in the plants - they've not been very good - but grafting has come on leaps and bounds in recent years.

"Many people don't have that much space in their gardens and I imagine this sort of product would appeal to them."

Thompson and Morgan director Paul Hansord claimed the tomatoes were tastier than most shop-bought tomatoes and said the plant had taken a decade of work.

"It has been very difficult to achieve because the tomato stem and the potato stem have to be the same thickness for the graft to work," he said.

"It is a very highly skilled operation. We have seen similar products. However, on closer inspection the potato is planted in a pot with a tomato planted in the same pot - our plant is one plant and produces no potato foliage."

The firm said the plants last for one season and by the time the tomatoes are ready for picking, the potatoes can be dug up.

It added both ends of the plant had been tested for alpha-solanine - a poison that can be produced in both crops depending on growing and storage conditions - and it had been certified as safe.

A similar product, dubbed the "Potato Tom", was launched in garden centres in New Zealand this week.

Read more - 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24281192