An analysis of “real-world” clinical data indicates that vitamin E, and drugs that reduce generalized inflammation, may slow the decline of mental and physical abilities in people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) over the long term.
Vitamin E May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease
Devices Could Help Children With Autism to Speak
Imagine feeling ill and being unable to tell anyone what hurts. Or longing for pizza on your eighth birthday but ending up with Chinese takeout because you couldn’t explain what you wanted. These are the kinds of frustrations, experts say, that are faced by the more than 1 in 150 children in the United States who have a diagnosis of autism.
The solution to some of those problems could be the push of a button away.
Iraq Commits $30 Million for Children
The government of Iraq has committed $30 million to projects this year that will assist children in rural areas of the Marshlands region, an area with some of the worst development indicators in the country. The allocation marks the first government investment focused exclusively on improving the lives of Iraqi children.
“This is a major achievement by the government as it’s the first-of-its-kind investment targeting children not only in Iraq but also globally,” stated Sikander Khan, UNICEF Iraq Representative. “This sets the standard and will be the beginning of a series of child-friendly investments that will help realize the long-deprived rights of all Iraqi children, specifically improving their prospects for survival and to fully develop their capacities.”
Angola Puts Faith in Farming
Angola’s farming sector could finally resolve what its oil and diamond exports have for years failed to do: lift millions of Angolans out of poverty.
Thousands of kilometres of roads have been rebuilt after a civil war that ended in 2002, enabling farmers from banana plantations in the south to coffee producers in the north to bring their products to market on time and at affordable prices.
Buddhist Leader Promotes Secular Ethics as MIT Opens the Dalai Lama Center
On the campus of the country’s premier scientific university, the world’s best-known Buddhist leader Thursday called on educators to teach ethics and compassion without a basis in religious belief.
Hundreds gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Dalai Lama, speaking from the seated, cross-legged position of a sage, officially opened MIT’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values.
“The majority of the 6 billion people on earth, I think, we can categorize as non-believers,” the Dalai Lama said. “So we must find a way to promote ethics and values with these nonbelievers.”
(READ the full story from BeliefNet News)
Teachers of the Year Honored at the White House
President Obama last week honored a retired New York police captain, special education teacher Anthony Mullen, as the nation’s top teacher.
Teaching is not just about a paycheck — it’s a passion and it’s a calling,” Obama said. “Now, nobody, I think, exhibits that more than our honoree today.”
Watch the president celebrate all the regional Teachers of the Year in his first Rose Garden ceremony as president.
(Read more about Anthony Mullen via MSNBC)
National & State Teachers of the Year from White House.
Thousands of Dolphins Block Somali Pirates
Thousands of dolphins blocked suspected Somali pirate ships as they approached Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.
Chinese merchant ships under escort in the Gulf of Aden received some help from thousands of dolphins. Suddenly they leaped out of the water creating a barrier between suspected pirate ships and the merchants. The suspected pirates turned back.
Nuns on the Run in London (Video)
Hundreds of runners dressed as nuns sprinted through the streets of London. ‘The Nun Run’ raises money for charity.
Watch the video.
Bush-era Endangered Species Rule Revoked
The Obama administration last week revoked a rule enacted toward the end of the Bush administration that it said undermined protections under the Endangered Species Act.
Federal agencies must “once again consult with federal wildlife experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the two agencies that administer the ESA — before taking any action that may affect threatened or endangered species,” the Interior and Commerce departments said in a statement.
Quirky Sports Win at Inner City School
“Why are you so good?”
The kids like the sound of this question. Here’s a stranger with a notepad, wanting to know how a bunch of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders became one of the greatest Seattle sports stories nobody knows.
But they struggle to explain. We practice three times a day, suggests one. We can run like nobody else, says another.
Yonatan Tadesse, 10, raises his hand. Like most of the others, he’s a refugee in America, arriving from Ethiopia in 2005.
“It’s Mr. Jamshid,” he says. “He makes us play all kinds of sports that aren’t, like, normal.”
(Continue Reading at the Seattle Times)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Scientists Document Dancing Birds (w/ Video)
Previously, it was thought that only humans had the ability to groove.
But, some birds have a remarkable talent for dancing, two studies published in Current Biology suggest.
Footage revealed that some parrots have a near-perfect sense of rhythm; swaying their bodies, bobbing their heads and tapping their feet in time to a beat.
(Continue Reading and watch video at BBC)
Shelter In A Box Reaches Quake Victims in Italy
ShelterBox tents were erected in the village of Assergi earlier this month, 20kms from the town of L’Aquila, Italy where an earthquake displaced many.
“The old part of the village was badly damaged and last night 200 people had to sleep out in the open,” said ShelterBox Response Team member John Diksa (France) the day ShelterBox erected the first tent. ShelterBox began working in Italy with local Rotarians and the Civil Protection Agency.
Senators Want to Expel Junk Food Vending Machines in U.S. Schools
U.S. schools with vending machines that sell candy and soda to students could soon find the government requiring healthier options to combat childhood obesity under a bill introduced on Thursday by two senators. While school meals must comply with U.S. dietary guidelines, there are no such rules on snacks sold outside of school lunchrooms.
Blue Laser Could Lead to Autism Cure
Lasers could one day cure, or at least aid in the search for drugs that treat diseases ranging from autism to schizophrenia, according to two new studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and published in the online issue of the journal Nature.
A blue laser shined into a live mouse brain triggered gamma waves, which are a kind of brain wave necessary for concentration and cognition that people with autism and schizophrenia often lack.
The World’s Weirdest Festivals
From rolling cheese in Gloucestershire to wife-carrying in Scandinavia, the world is full of quirky, colourful – and downright bizarre – events. They may not be to everyone’s taste, but here is a selection of some of the unusual festivals you can find around the world this year.
(Watch the Slideshow at the UK Telegraph)
Students Raise Money to Free 120 Enslaved People
When Eric Ensey traveled to India this year, he shook the hand of a man who was freed from bonded labor by the money his teenage students had raised in Sammamish.
“If you hadn’t helped us,” the Indian millworker told the American middle-school teacher, “we would have died in the rice mill.”
Fundraisers for charity are a staple of school life, but Ensey and his students have taken that work in an unusual direction by raising tens of thousands of dollars to help free enslaved people, many living half a world away.
(Continue Reading in Seattle Times)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Scientists See Swine Flu Strain as Relatively Mild
Scientists studying the recent swine flue virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
(Continue Reading in LA Times)
Disney Joins Forces with The Nature Conservancy to Plant 2.7 Million Trees
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has arranged with The Nature Conservancy to plant 2.7 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered rainforests. The studio had volunteered to plant a tree in honor of every moviegoer who saw the film EARTH, during its first week of release. The motion picture grossed an impressive $16.1 million at the box office during week one and broke an opening day record as well as an opening weekend record for a nature documentary. The film also garnered the highest praise from critics and moviegoers alike.
Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios said, “We’re proud to be working with The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s most effective conservation organizations, in planting trees in the endangered Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Through the Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, we have an opportunity to honor those who supported ‘EARTH’ by making a tangible and lasting contribution to conserving globally-significant wildlife habitat. Our goal with Disneynature is to entertain and inform moviegoers about the wonders of our planet, and encourage them to learn more about what they can do to conserve nature.”
Oil Companies Suspend Seismic Activities to Protect Gray Whales
A major oil and gas consortium has agreed to suspend planned seismic testing off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, a crucial feeding area for the critically endangered Western Gray whale.
The Western Gray is one of the world’s most endangered whales, with only 25 known breeding females remaining.
During an April 24 meeting of international whaling experts and Russian government officials, Sakhalin Energy – a partnership between Shell, Gasprom and others – agreed to cancel its proposed 2009 seismic activities, despite having already put plans in place for the work.
After Tornado, Town Reinvents Itself as Green Model
Two years ago, a devastating tornado wiped out most of Greensburg, Kansas, including the City Administrator’s home and everything he owned. But Steve Hewitt believes the tornado had a silver lining, for it gave this town of 1,400 people a clean slate from which to reinvent itself.
Today the town is rebuilding as a model green community. City leaders are using solar and wind technology to harness power and geothermal to heat. A new nonprofit is building 12 houses with energy-efficient features.
(Read the inspiring story in CNN)
Thanks to Aaron Fein for sending in the link!