The Scientist : Manna from hell

Balkan endemic nephropathy seems to be aristolochic acid nephropathy and is contracted when minute amounts of the plant Aristolochia clematitis. A chinese medicinal herb, Aristolochia fanghi is an ingredient in Chinese herbal medicines that have also been associated with kidney cancer.

The Scientist : Manna from hell

How a US-Croatian team confirmed that poisoned bread causes a kidney disease endemic to the Balkans - and verified that the same toxic ingredient was in herbal supplements used around the world.

Persistence pays off! These guys methodically put together a study drawing on Molecular Biology, Agro Ecology, Epidemiology. Toxicology. An intriguing international tale.

Hackzine

I like toys. These hacks are cool.

Gleaned on a Sunday

http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/index.html
Evolutionary Psychology

The Edge:
The world question center: What is your formula?

Cumaceans of the World!

Posed as a question: Why are scientists the last to think of GNU/Linux. Ironic.

This escellent site about Cumaceans gives access to a key to Cumacea using the IntKey software that is not useable except by Windoze:

Intkey Dataset

If you already have Intkey installed in your computer, click here to download the cumaceans of the world dataset (2.4MB ZIP). Click here to download Gynodiastylida species dataset (17.2MB ZIP).

To use these datasets, simply download the zip files and extract them to your hard drive. Open Intkey and point to the initiation file in the directory.

Downloading and using Intkey

To retrieve information, you need the program Intkey and data files. Download the program first. It is recommended that you install the current version of Intkey. You must have Windows 95/98/ME, NT, 2000 or XP. Using these platforms, Intkey can read the data files from the Internet, and afterwards save them on your hard disk.
Please use Internet Explorer only

All the Colors of the Rainbow, Now Only $18.99

This in an email offer. I've gotta think of something to write about this. Can't.

Life Logs: a future found object

I found this readable ramble by science fiction writer Charlie Stross, on the future, making "flogs"---"Life Logs, recording every nuance of a human's life in digital form. Surprizingly it didn't seem as threatening in his hands. Maybe that's the true threat.

Back to no electricity. I hear many on Saipan are now doing without, though not through personal choice.