Fortunate enough to study American history in college, some of the best classes I took (outside of WWII stuff) had to do with pre-colonial American history.  What Native American culture and societies were like before being wiped out.  It always amazed me how sophisticated and different they were.  There was nothing savage about them.  

The Haudenosaunee, or People of the Long House, those who now comprise the Six Nations (collectively the Iroquois Confederacy) in upstate New York (Mohawk, Onendoga, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida and Tuscarora) had a vast empire stretching all the way to Southern American.  It was a matriarchal society in which no one owned a thing and shared everything.  In essence their culture was the exact opposite of American society, and I’m inclined to think it may have been a better one.  

It’s no surprise that Europeans often thought of the native inhabitants of North and South America as low intellectual savages.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  A good book on this is 1491 by Charles Mann, in which he argues that American society before Europeans was just as technological; societies would remake the land as they saw fit, especially in the Amazon region.  A new article in the New Scientist touches upon these remarkable discoveries.  

The findings raise big questions, says Susanna Hecht of the University of California in Los Angeles.

For starters, it forces a rethink of the long-held assumption that these parts of the Amazon were virtually empty before colonisation. What’s more, it shows that the large populations that did inhabit the region transformed the landscape.

“What we find is that what we think of as the primitive Amazon forest is not so primitive after all,” Heckenberger told New Scientist. “European colonialism wasted huge numbers of native peoples and cleared them off the land, so that the forest returned.”

What, then, did the primitive Amazon look like? That is a mystery, says Heckenberger. It is clear, though, that these large urban clusters reordered the entire landscape.

Research published in January revealed that was has long been thought of as the “original” New England landscape was in fact created by British settlers in the 17th century.

There was plenty going on in North and South America before Columbus, the Conquistadors and other new world plunderers arrived.  I’ve often argued that high school history is inadequate and that students would actually be interested in what was really going on at the time.  Maybe that’s my idealism.  [via]

I love strawberry jam, either on toast and vanilla ice cream or listening to Animal Collective.  Still, there is nothing that bests the taste of fresh strawberry jam.  I’ve got a freezer full of it right now to last me through the winter.  Spending $30 to pick strawberries this summer and then turn it into jam is an excellent investment.

According to Science Daily, strawberry jam is more heavily regulated than cigarettes due largely to the US government’s strict requirements and stringent tests of consumer products.  Crazy.  The article goes on to argue that because tobacco kills more people each year and proposes a higher risk to people it should be regulated as strictly as strawberry jam.

“The establishment of regulation is a political process and occurs slowly. However, with the gradual but prolonged and massive epidemic of tobacco-related diseases, regulation of the industry’s products – specifically the constituents of tobacco smoke – has to begin now”, says author Dr. Nigel Gray, member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Tobacco Regulation Study Group.  Which, I’m sure it won’t.

For whatever reason most industries hate regulation.  They see it as meddling.  Whether it’s the auto makers who resisted raising CAFE standards, most industries should do a better job of policing themselves.  You think the companies in Detroit are wishing they made more gas efficient cars beginning five years ago now?  Regardless, cigarette companies should heed the advice and begin regulating their products now.

I say this, not as some liberal who is overstepping their boundaries, but as someone who sees the governments jihad against tobacco and the writing on the wall.  Look, if the government had it’s way cigarettes would all but disappear.  The best way to stave off being eliminated as a business is to make a safer, better product (however safe you can with cigarettes).

Look at the writing on the wall and adapt.

The Discovery Channel created a simulation for an asteroid impacting the Earth and someone synced it up to Pink Floyd.  It’s mesmerizing and also scary.  So please NASA get on the phone and get Billy Bob and The Affleck on standby.

Would there be any way to survive this?  What if it was a tiny asteroid, because the one in the video looks ginormous. Or would I have to throw on some Pink Floyd and let the cool cosmic vapors wash over me and turn me into Pompei 2.0?  [via]

I thought this was a story in The Onion at first because it seemed so unplausible that wildlife experts just happened to stumble upon 125,000 western lowland gorillas just chillin’ in a swamp in the Congo. The gorillas were discovered by hunters, of all people, and experts had no idea there were there.

It’s like looking underneath a couch cushion and finding $50 instead of 30 cents. “It’s pretty astonishing,” Hugo Rainey, one of the researchers who conducted the survey for the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told CNN Tuesday.

Astonishing indeed. Diane Fossey would weep tears of blood at this news. You know, if she were alive and all that. Details, details. The discovery is a boon. The last population survey of these gorillas was conducted in the mid-eighties and at that time there were only 100,000 or so gorillas. Since then, wildlife experts have assumed the population numbers have decreased to the ballpark of 50,000.

So this discovery essentially tripled their population. Though their estimates are based on the number of gorilla nests present at the site and not an actual hard count. Despite the discovery, the western lowland gorilla will remain on the critical endangered list.

“Separately, a report released today finds that 48 percent of the world’s primates — a group of humankind’s closest relatives that includes chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs — face extinction.

Shit, not cool.

Well, we still think he’s pretty special around here. A recent study by Microsoft, of their messenger services, found that all people are separated by only 6.6 human connections. So, whether it’s Kevin Bacon, Rush Limbaugh, Manny Ramirez, or the homeless guy whom you pass with disdain you’re only 6.6 people away from them!

So yay for that

The study was conducted in 2006 when Microsoft controlled almost half the world’s instant messaging traffic. They combed through 30 billion records from among 180 million people.

“To me, it was pretty shocking. What we’re seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity,” said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who conducted the study with colleague Jure Leskovec. “People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.”

Thankfully no one’s tax dollars were wasted here. Science at work and what not.  Now someone just needs to pull Kevin Bacon from ledge, seeing as how his legacy is tainted. It’s not just him, it’s everyone everywhere. [The Washington Post]

Back in college a buddy and me were having one of those 3 a.m. drunken conversations while listening to music and watching really bad infomercials staring the OxiClean Guy. For whatever reason, the conversation turned to the moment when you’re driving down the highway and you fall into line with another car and for a good stretch of the highway you’re riding in perfect harmony for no apparent reason.

The two cars are swiftly moving in and out of traffic, blocking during lane changes, allowing smooth passes, that sort of stuff. In a moment of Eureka, my buddy and I thought, holy shit we should study Traffic Psychology!

And that in turn developed our fascination with amateur traffic dynamics: the reason why traffic slows to a crawl at car crashes on the opposite side of the road and why it crawls to a halt for bottlenecks, the science of traffic patterns, and driver psychology, etc.

Seriously, there is an entire subculture of people obsessed with this stuff. I’m not alone.  MORE »

It was only about a month ago when a research team at MIT announced they had discovered a method of light filtration to absorb more energy from the sun.  Essentially, they turned regular old windows into power generating pains of glass and existing solar cells into ones on steroids.  Awesome!  Now another research team has figured out how to efficiently store solar energy to use day and night.  They draw inspiration from plants and have essentially mimed the process of photosynthesis.  Professor Daniel Nocera has figured out how to maximize solar energy and believes every house will generate their own electricity.  No more wires running from a central generator.  Outstanding.

It seems like they’ve been here forever, but with the Russian launch of Sputnik in 1957, American scientists stepped up their game and then responded to JFK’s challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of the 60’s. They responded in kind with some of science’s most advanced developments over the past 50 years. It’s not been with their ups and downs, however, we will always have the Hubble Telescope, Tang, Space Camp and freeze dried ice cream you can buy at science museum gift shops. Hopefully, we can return to the glories of NASA, or at least return them to importance by making science research and education a priority in this country. Wired has an appreciation of the space agency.

It’s tough to eat locally grown produce when you live in the city.  Sure there are farmers markets to stroll through or fancy produce places, but to really eat fresh fruit or veggies - those succulent vine ripened tomatoes, crisp green beans, mouth-watering strawberries - you’ll have to drive or pay a hefty price.

It’s unfortunate.  Because once you’ve grown your own (highly recommended I’ve got peppers, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, various herbs and raspberries in my backyard) there is truly no going back.  One technique for urban dwellers is to grow vertically instead of laterally.

Years from now, urban dwellers might laugh at the notion of not being able to buy locally grown produce, especially if Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, has his way.  He envisions a “vertical farm,” which is essentially a skyscraper with a farm in it, rather than an office.

Despommier estimates that it would cost $20 million to $30 million to make a prototype of a vertical farm, but hundreds of millions to build one of the 30-story towers that he suggests could feed 50,000 people. “I’m viewed as kind of an outlier because it’s kind of a crazy idea,” Despommier, 68, said with a chuckle. “You’d think these are mythological creatures.”

Despommier, whose name in French means “of the apple trees,” has been spreading the seeds of his radical idea in lectures and through his Web site. He says his ideas are supported by hydroponic vegetable research done by NASA and are made more feasible by the potential to use sun, wind and wastewater as energy sources. Several observers have said Despommier’s sky-high dreams need to be brought down to earth.

Sure, there will always be critics, but isn’t this the type of thinking we need in this country? America has always been about ingenuity.  Possibly, the mythical American Dream has always been, not the white picket fence and two car garage, but rather the nebulous idea that America will create solutions to problems that don’t exist yet, that we’ll dream bigger than anyone and achieve the impossible.

This is that type of dream.  Imagine if every major city had four of five of these vertical farms and transportation cost were negligible and tasty, healthy food was available to all urban citizens at a reasonable price?  Isn’t that something that America should aspire too?

If this does become a reality, then I’m requesting that instead of garden gnomes we should use garden zombies.

Wired has a look at what could be a possible tool in the fight against HIV.  Some humans have a mutation that makes them resistant to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Viruses enter cells and take them over, but to get inside, they need a handhold. HIV pulls itself in by grabbing onto a protein called CCR5, which decorates the surface of T-cells, which are one of the two major types of white blood cells and play an important role in helping the body fight infections. Back in the 1990’s, researchers took interest in a handful of promiscuous gay men who were able to engage in sexual relations with their HIV-positive partners with impunity. Most of them had a mutation that kept their cells from producing normal CCR5 protein.

Armed with that knowledge, scientists have developed several tactics to block the production of CCR5 or perturb its shape so that the HIV virus can’t grab onto it during the first step of its hijacking attempt. The strategy is much akin to cutting your hair before a wrestling match: It gives your opponent one less thing to grab onto.

In the latest version of this defense, Carl June and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania used a highly engineered protein, called a zinc finger nuclease, to clip the CCR5 gene out of some T-cells. Left without the recipe for that protein, the cells are nearly impenetrable. His report appeared on the Nature Biotechnology website yesterday.

The tests were done on mice and there is, at this time, no indication that this technique would work on humans, but scientists are positing that doctors could remove T-cells from infected humans and manipulate the genome, return it to the patient.  Now, already infected patients won’t get rid of HIV/AIDS, but the manipulated T-cells would allow the infected person to raise their white blood cell count and allow them to fight off secondary diseases, which is the downfall for many infected people.

No, this isn’t a cure, but it is another weapon to help eradicate this virus.  Not sure if this technique, which sound costly, would at all be available in African - the one place that needs all the help it can get in their fight against HIV/AIDS.

Yesterday, I went and volunteered for the Livestrong Bike Ride in Portland. I basically manned the water and Gatorade station. A highly pivotal role. It felt good to contribute something while these guys went out and rode 40, 70, or 100 miles to raise money for cancer research and pay their respects for the cancer survivors or the ones they lost.

At the station I was volunteering for there was a group of pirate entertainers, who weren’t so entertaining. Actually, their schtick was funny at first but then it got old.  Quickly.

Towards the end of the day, several volunteers realized that one of the pirates may have inadvertently sexually harassed one of the riders and then there was a cringe worthy exchange.

A rider came to the rest stop on back of his jersey were three names whom he was riding “In Memory” of.  One pirate saw the names and offered to do a pirate cheer in their honor.  Sounds great.  They do the cheer, except the cheers ends with “Who’s better than us?  No one’s better than us, because everyone else is dead!”  Which is probably not the best way to end a salute in honor of people who have died from cancer.  Just sayin’.

The whole point of this is that it was a big weekend for cancer.  MORE »

I don’t drink milk, really haven’t had much since I was about 15 or 16. Occasionally, I’ll have some yogurt or cheese, but dairy products just wreck my stomach. Which is why this report by The Boston Channel sort of scared me.

Mike Stone and his brother Doug have always been healthy active boys. Their mom, Marla made sure they ate right, and drank their milk. But, at 14, after Stone complained of back pain, X-rays revealed a shocking discovery.

“He put it up to the light and you could essentially see right through the bones,” said Stone.

Stone had a vitamin D deficiency. His bones were only 50 percent the density of a normal child his age. They could break at any moment. His younger brother, Doug, was also diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency, but to a lesser degree.

Vitamin D is produced by your skin in sunshine and controls the amount of calcium absorbed from your diet, which in turns produces strong and healthy bones and teeth. A Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risks for arthritis, diabetes, and possibly cancer.