NMDHS Marauders

"Initial estimates pegged the number of dead waterfowl as high as 6,000, but Cooper said ministry staff were going to do an updated assessment on Monday. Tests were being done to determine the cause of the deaths, but previous such die-offs often were caused by the waterfowl eating botulism-laced fish, Cooper said."

"The problem is that a proposed ban might include thiomersal, a mercury compound used to prevent contamination and extend the shelf life of vaccines, many scientists say. It is used in about 300 million shots worldwide, against diseases including flu, tetanus, hepatitis B, diphtheria and meningitis. "Not being able to use mercury is not a viable option," said David Wood, a WHO vaccines expert."

"The latest study, carried out at the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, built on the previous discovery by testing 30 patients with CFS. Half were given two doses of Rituximab, a cancer drug which eliminates a type of white blood cell, while the other half were given a fake treatment. In those patients receiving the drug, 67% reported an improvement in a score of their fatigue levels. Just 13% showed any improvement in the sham group. "

"A new study on cellphone safety has found that carrying a phone in a shirt or pants pocket exceeds radiation exposure guidelines spelled out by the the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and that children absorb twice as much cellphone radiation as adults. The study published in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine criticizes the way phone manufacturers measure levels of microwave radiation, and calls for the industry standard to be scrapped."

"Fauja Singh, 100, finished Toronto's waterfront marathon Sunday evening, securing his place in Guinness World Records as the oldest person - and the first centenarian - to ever accomplish a run of that distance."

"Centenarian Fauja Singh secured the Guinness World Record Sunday by becoming the oldest person to ever run a marathon. The 100-year-old year old crossed the finish line in just over eight hours, a feat some 20-somethings would have a hard time pulling off. "

Plugging gadgets into a socket in the wall, or loading them with batteries - or maybe even unfurling a solar panel - is how most of us think of getting electricity. But what about plugging them into your body?

"Researchers failed to find evidence of so-called "supersymmetric" particles, which many physicists had hoped would plug holes in the current theory. Theorists working in the field have told BBC News that they may have to come up with a completely new idea. Data were presented at the Lepton Photon science meeting in Mumbai."

"Scirus is the most comprehensive scientific research tool on the web. With over 410 million scientific items indexed at last count, it allows researchers to search for not only journal content but also scientists' homepages, courseware, pre-print server material, patents and institutional repository and website information. "

"An ambitious solar energy project on a massive scale is about to get underway in the Arizona desert. EnviroMission is undergoing land acquisition and site-specific engineering to build its first full-scale solar tower - and when we say full-scale, we mean it! The mammoth 800-plus meter (2625 ft) tall tower will instantly become one of the world's tallest buildings. Its 200-megawatt power generation capacity will reliably feed the grid with enough power for 150,000 US homes, and once it's built, it can be expected to more or less sit there producing clean, renewable power with virtually no maintenance until it's more than 80 years old."

"Clifford Bedford, a researcher involved in the development of the new material, explained its advantages over existing weapons. "In the case of a steel missile you explosively launch it, it goes through the target and all the kinetic energy is dissipated into the target," he said. "With the reactive material missile, you have the same explosive launch - however, it disintegrates within the target and liberates chemical energy, and this chemical and kinetic energy combined gives you the enhanced effect.""

"The world is getting bigger. Larger waistlines are on the increase."

We are all well aware of plastic's "rap-sheet." It has been found guilty on many counts, including the way its production and disposal raises resource issues and lets loose extremely negative environmental impacts.

"Astronomers have spied a star's swan song as it is shredded by a black hole. Researchers suspect that the star wandered too close to the black hole and got sucked in by the huge gravitational forces. The star's final moments sent a flash of radiation hurtling towards Earth. "

"The new elements have temporary titles of ununquadium and ununhexium, but final names have yet to be settled on. The discovery of both elements has been credited to a collaborative team based at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, US."

"In a paper published online by the journal Nature Physics today, the ALPHA experiment at CERN1 reports that it has succeeded in trapping antimatter atoms for over 16 minutes: long enough to begin to study their properties in detail."

"Ever wonder how much energy is used by your different major appliances or electronics? Or how much energy all such appliances and electronics in the U.S. use? Here's some info on that for four big ones: TVs, computers, clothes dryers, and refrigerators."