Biometric Safes Offer Cutting Edge Gun Protection

When it comes to firearms, you can never be too safe. Despite all the precautions a gun owner might take, accidents still happen; the best way to prevent a tragedy is by making sure no one can gain access to your guns without your permission. Biometric gun safes are the best way to approach this; by linking the safe to your fingerprint or other unique form of idea, there is no chance that anyone else can open it. However, gun safes aren't only for protecting firearms.

Gun safes are valuable, well-organized storage areas that make it easier for gun enthusiasts to store and collect firearms. Many people who like to collect early model weapons know the value of such guns; rather than allow them to become the target of theft, storing a firearm in a gun safe is a great way to prevent anything from happening to it.

Keeping Cool

As the heat of summer continues to smolder brilliantly, your need to find cool relief will increase. While going for a swim in a pool or pond can be an exhilarating dose of refreshment, nothing will keep you as cool and comfortable as an air conditioning system.

The only downside is that the cost of keeping an air conditioner running can be quite high, depending on where you live. Move houseplants outside (if you have any). While not nearly as effective as the air conditioner, plants are known to produce a lot of moisture. To lower energy costs, a lot of manufactures continue to develop more energy efficient machines that utilize less electricity to cycle air.

Thermal Oxidizing At Your Business

Every company that works in manufacturing or food must remember the setup of their building is key to success. The company can find used thermal oxidizers here, but there are many more items that are needed to help the business function. A business must have a safe way of getting rid of the fumes they produce while also working with an installation firm on their heating and cooling systems.

Incinerating Fumes

A company that produces gaseous byproducts during the day needs to find a safe way to get rid of those fumes. The fumes should be funneled all into one place, and those fumes should be destroyed as soon as possible. A fume incinerator ignites the fumes inside a protective flume. The fumes disappear quickly, and the business does not have to worry about buildup inside their space.

Oldtimertreffen in Neumarkt, Bavaria

After taking our brunch this morning, me and hubby can't wait to go to the Oldtimertreffen in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz in Bavaria. This was already the third time that we witness this event. It started around 10:00 am. We arrived there almost noon time. You can see various oldtimer cars with different styles, colors, names and forms.

It was really very interesting seeing how technology evolved. I heard over the news that over 25,000 people went to the said event today. I am not quite sure how many oldtimer cars were there but I believed it is over a hundred. The sunny weather with cool breeze made it perfect today.

Here are some images of the oldtimer cars at the Oldtimertreffen in Neumarkt today.

Volkwagen Kaefer cabrio built in 1974 with 50 PS and 1,600 cylinder cm3 

Car Model: Autobianchi 

Type: Bianchina

Date Built: 1961

PS: 15

Engine/Cylinder capacity:  498 cm3

Waste Recycling

One thing I just admire in Germany is the waste recycling they have. Plastics, Papers and cartoons, trash and bottles have its own container for segregation. Some of these waste are converted to renewable energy. That is also the reason why Germany is clean. It is one of the cleanest country I found to be very clean. Have you heard about N-Viro International Corporation? If not, you can visit their site at http://www.nviro.com to have an idea of what this company is engage of. One of things that N-Viro is doing is converting waste to alternative energy. They process and convert waste to energy. Below is a short information about the company. Feel free to also watch this video below.

"N-Viro International Corporation develops and licenses its technology to municipalities and private companies. Their patented processes use lime and/or mineral-rich, combustion byproducts to treat, pasteurize, immobilize and convert wastewater sludge and other bio-organic wastes into biomineral agricultural and soil-enrichment products with real market value. The company has generated sales in excess of $40 million dollars, since its initial public offering in October of 1993, which was underwritten by Robertson Stephens, Raymond James, Oppenheimer & Co., and Paine Webber."

Genetic basis for some birth defects found

I guess, this is a good info for all women out there especially to all Mother!! keep reading to find it out!! have a great day!!

Genetic basis for some birth defects found
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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CLEVELAND (UPI) -- U.S. medical researchers report they have determined the genetic basis for some birth defects that affect the development of the heart and head.

A multidisciplinary team led by Case Western Reserve University Professor Gary Landreth discovered a common genetic pathway for a number of birth defects such as abnormal development of the jaw, palate and brain.

The researchers said they developed a mouse model of the disorders by removing a gene, ERK2, responsible for the pathway. The scientists, in collaboration with Dr. William Snider at the University of North Carolina, discovered the mice missing the gene for ERK2 in neural crest cells had developmental defects resembling those of human patients with a deletion that includes that gene.

Landreth, with Case Western Associate Professor Michiko Watanabe, found the mouse hearts had characteristic defects resembling those seen in the patients with ERK2 deletions.

"Given Dr. Watanabe's findings, we determined that we had in fact developed animal models that mimicked the human deletion syndrome," said Landreth. "This work sheds light on how these developmental errors occur."

The research that included Dr. Sulagna Saitta at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Online Shop for LED Lights!!

Are you looking for special lamps like led lamps?? This website can be the place to go, http://www.supashop.ch/led-lampen-test. They have a wide variety of lamps that you are looking for. It is a young shop but they already developed high technologically products specializing in lamps and lights. Lamp products ranging from LED Spotlights, LED Lights, LED headlights and a lot more. Take a look at their shop now at http://www.supashop.ch/led-shop/ and start searching what you need!! happy shopping!!

Malaysian medicine cuts chemo resistance

MONTREAL (UPI) -- A Canadian, U.S. and Austrian study has discovered a Malaysian folk medication reduces resistance to cancer chemotherapy treatments.

McGill University researchers said the study focused on a class of natural products known as cyclopenta benzofuran flavaglines, or CBFs. Working with mice genetically modified to mimic human leukemias, they found the CBF compound silvestrol can make tumors susceptible to the killing effects of anticancer drugs.

Silvestrol is a natural compound derived from a large genus of trees and shrubs found in Malaysia, South China and some Pacific islands, the scientists said. It's been used in Malaysian folk medicine for generations, but never as a cancer therapy.

The researchers cautioned trials in humans and possible treatments are still many years away.

The results of the study that included Boston University, the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the University of Vienna and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute are published in the June issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Scientists ID new Alzheimer's disease gene

MANHASSET, N.Y. (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have identified a gene that puts people at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

Philippe Marambaud of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Fabien Campagne of the Weill Medical College at Cornell University said the calcium channel modulator gene holds promise as a potentially new way to treat or even prevent Alzheimer's disease.

They said they found the risk gene called CALHM1 strongly expressed in the hippocampus -- a brain region necessary for learning and memory. The researchers said CALHM1 leads to a partial loss of function, which means less calcium gets into a cell, thereby weakening signals normally regulated by calcium. They determined one of those signals controls the levels of amyloid peptides, the building blocks of the characteristic disease plaques.

Using DNA from deceased U.S. Alzheimer's victims and age-matched controls, along with DNA samples from patients in France, Italy and the United Kingdom, the researchers ran tests on 3,404 samples. They discovered people having the genetic variant had 1.5 times higher risk of developing Alzheimer's.

The study that included French researcher Jean Charles Lambert is detailed in the journal Cell.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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U.S. tomato warning expanded nationwide

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Many U.S. restaurants have removed dishes containing raw tomatoes from their menus in the wake of a nationwide federal warning.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration during the weekend expanded its warning that a salmonellosis outbreak has been linked with consumption of certain uncooked red plum, red Roma and red round tomatoes, as well as products containing such tomatoes.

The FDA said consumers can continue to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, or tomatoes grown at home.

"Since mid-April, there have been 145 reported cases of salmonellosis caused by Salmonella Saintpaul nationwide, including at least 23 hospitalizations," the FDA said in a statement. "States reporting illnesses linked to the outbreak include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin."

Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Scientists find 'nervous wreck' gene

Scientists find 'nervous wreck' gene
MADISON, Wis. (UPI) -- U.S. scientists announced the discovery of a gene they call "nervous wreck" that is essential to the proper development of nerve cells in the fruit fly.

The gene governs the size of a synapse -- the junction between nerve cell endings. University of Wisconsin scientists said the gene prevents synapses from overgrowing by damping the effects of a pro-growth signal. Mutations in a human version of the "nervous wreck" gene have been linked to a severe genetic developmental disability

The 100 billion nerve cells in the human make trillions of synaptic connections to neurons, muscle cells and other cell types. Malfunctions at synapses are believed to be among the many factors leading to various neurological disorders.

Kate O'Connor-Giles, a postdoctoral fellow who led the study, said, "We really need to have a deep understanding of how all the factors involved are working together to develop rational treatments for neurological disorders associated with aberrant synaptic growth."

The researchers say their findings might speed the development of treatments for neurological disorders.

The study appears in the journal Neuron.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Study: Oregano oil works as an insecticide

ALGIERS, Algeria (UPI) -- Algerian scientists say they've found oregano oil works as well as synthetic insecticides to combat infestation by a common beetle found in stored cereals.

The researchers say not only does oregano oil work well in fighting infestations of the beetle Rhizoppertha dominica, but it has none of the associated side effects of synthetic insecticides on the environment.

Oregano, a member of the Lamiaceae family of plants, has been known to be a natural insecticide by apparently inhibiting egg laying and larval development. But the researchers said their study marks the first time oregano oil has been looked at as a viable alternative to synthetic insecticides.

Chahrazed Boutekedjiret and colleagues from Algeria's National Polytechnic School identified 18 components in oregano oil that combat pests and found the greater the concentration of the oil used, the more effective it was.

"It is feasible that, in the near future, these natural insecticides will replace synthetic insecticides and add considerably to more environmentally friendly insecticides on a large scale," said Boutekedjiret.

The findings are reported in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Global warming may increase kidney stones

Global warming may increase kidney stones
DALLAS (UPI) -- U.S. urologists say rising global temperatures might lead to an increase in kidney stones.

The study, presented Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., during the 103rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association, shows kidney stone disease, already linked with dehydration in warmer climates, will be exacerbated by global warning.

As a result, scientists said the prevalence of kidney stone disease will increase, along with the costs of treating the condition.

The southern United States is considered "the stone belt" because it has higher incidences of kidney stones. The researchers said rising global temperatures could expand that region with the fraction of the U.S. population living in high-risk stone zones predicted to grow from 40 percent in 2000 to 50 percent by 2050. That could lead to an increase of one to two million lifetime cases of stone disease.

The cost associated with treating kidney stone disease could climb as high as one $1 billion annually by 2050, representing a 10 percent to 20 percent increase over present-day estimates, the researchers said.

The study, led by Dr. Margaret Pearl of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, was reported in the April issue of the Journal of Urology.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Change needed in end-of-life dementia care

MILTON KEYNES, England (UPI) -- British researchers say many improvements are needed in the care provided to people in the final stages of dementia.

Open University Professor Jan Draper and Clinical Nurse Specialist Deborah Birch reached that conclusion after reviewing 29 published studies conducted in nine nations during the past 10 years.

"We must act now to stop people with dementia from suffering from protracted, potentially uncomfortable and undignified deaths" said Draper. "Our review has reinforced the importance of providing appropriate palliative care to individuals suffering from end-stage dementia and clearly identified some of the barriers to extending such provision."

The recommendations include: communicating the diagnosis of dementia in a sensitive way; acknowledging the potential influence on treatment decisions on the beliefs and values of members of the healthcare team; and reconsidering aggressive medical treatments that have limited benefits and might cause further discomfort to dying patients.

The review appears in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Compound might stop cancer progression

OKLAHOMA CITY (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have discovered a compound that, in laboratory tests, has shown success in preventing cancer.

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center researchers said the compound, which still faces several rounds of clinical trials, successfully stopped normal cells from turning into cancer cells and inhibited the ability of tumors to grow and form blood vessels.

If successful tests continue, researchers eventually hope to create a daily pill that would be taken as a cancer preventive.

"This compound was effective against the 12 types of cancers that it was tested on," said Doris Benbrook, the study's principle investigator. "Even more promising for health care is that it prevents the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells and is therefore now being developed by the National Cancer Institute as a cancer prevention drug."

The synthetic compound directly targets abnormalities in cancer cell components without damaging normal cells, researchers said. The disruption causes cancer cells to die and keeps tumors from forming.

Benbrook and her team have patented the discovery and hope to start clinical trials for the compound within 5 years.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Drug may shrink breast cancers

HOUSTON (UPI) -- A drug that targets cell surface receptors may shrink breast cancer tumors in six weeks, a U.S. scientist reports.

Dr. Angel Rodriguez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston says the drug -- a tyrosine kinase inhibitor known as lapatinib -- could decrease tumor-causing breast cancer stem cells in women receiving treatment given before primary surgery. Rodriguez and colleagues studied 45 patients with locally advanced breast cancer in which the gene HER-2 was over-expressed.

The patients received lapatinib for six weeks, followed by a combination of weekly trastuzumab and thrice-weekly docetaxel, given over 12 weeks, before primary surgery. Biopsies were performed at the time of diagnosis and also after six weeks of lapatinib and cells from the tumors were obtained and analyzed.

"We saw significant tumor regression after six weeks of single-agent lapatinib," Rodriguez said in a statement. "Bi-dimensional tumor measurements showed a median decrease of minus 60.8 percent." The findings are being presented at the sixth European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Possible genetic link to obesity found

LONDON (UPI) -- British and other scientists say they've discovered a gene sequence that is linked with weight gain and a tendency to develop type 2 diabetes. The researchers say their findings also show the gene sequence is significantly more common in those with Asian Indian rather than European ancestry.

The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, could lead to better ways of treating obesity, researchers said. Scientists from Imperial College London and other international institutions discovered the sequence is associated with a nearly 1-inch expansion in waist circumference, a 4-pound gain in weight, along with a tendency to become resistant to insulin, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.

The sequence is found in 50 percent of the U.K. population. "Until now, we have understood remarkably little about the genetic component of common problems linked with obesity, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes," said Imperial College London Professor Jaspal Kooner, the paper's senior author.

"Finding such a close association between a genetic sequence and significant physical effects is very important, especially when the sequence is found in half the population.? The study is detailed in the journal Nature Genetics.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Bees Learn Thievery

Even the pinhead-sized brains of insects can learn new skills from their comrades - including theft.

It seems bumblebees can discover how to "rob" flowers of nectar, scientists now reveal.

Normally bumblebees crawl into flowers to get a nectar. In return for this sweet treat, blossoms coat the insects in pollen, which contains plant sperm. When these bees rendezvous with other flowers, they serve as couriers of this pollen, helping the plants breed.

However, bees can bite through the base of a flower to suck up nectar instead, avoiding the pollen altogether. Since they get something for nothing this way - drinking nectar without helping the flowers mate - such behavior can be seen as theft. The bees may commit such an act to get nectar from blossoms they could not fit into, or just to get more nectar than possible by normal means.

Now it appears that bumblebees can quickly learn how to rob flowers if they visit blossoms that others have already burglarized. The bees could learn how to commit such theft by themselves, but this was rare. But, after one bee learned how to rob nectar by watching its comrades, the skill rapidly spread to other bees.

It was long known that bees could learn simple facts from each other - such as where food is, for instance - but the discovery that insects can learn skills from others is a first.

"It was actually first suggested in one of Darwin's journals. He saw bumblebees robbing flowers in a garden one day, and saw honeybees doing something similar afterward," said researcher Ellouise Leadbeater, a behavioral ecologist at Queen Mary, University of London. "That led us to our work."

The brains of bumblebees are a little larger than 1 cubic millimeter in size, or nearly one-millionth the size of a human brain.

"It's interesting to see what you can do with a small brain," Leadbeater told LiveScience. "But then again, it may be that you just don't need to be very clever to learn a simple technique like this."

In the future, research could see if bumblebees could teach other species of bees how to rob nectar. Other insects that could learn skills from within or outside their species might include ants, Leadbeater speculated.

Leadbeater and her colleague Lars Chittka detailed their findings online April 23 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

news: yahoo.com

Ice Age relic at risk from warmer temps

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- U.S. conservationists said they're studying musk ox to determine how the relics of the Ice Age may be affected by climate change.

The Wildlife Conservation Society -- working with the National Park Service, U. S. Geological Survey and Alaska Fish and Game -- has equipped six musk ox with GPS collars as part of a four-year study to determine the extent to which weather, disease and predation may be driving populations, the WCS said Friday in a release.

"Musk ox are a throwback to our Pleistocene heritage and once shared the landscape with mammoths, wild horses and sabered cats," study leader Joel Berger, a professor at the University of Montana, said in a statement. "They may also help scientists understand how arctic species can or cannot adapt to climate change."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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Viruses may be linked to lung cancer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (UPI) -- U.S. and Israeli researchers suggest viruses may have a role in the development of lung cancer.

The researchers all agree smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer, but Dr. Arash Resazadeh and colleagues from the University of Louisville, Ky., found five out of 22 non-small-cell lung cancer samples tested positive for human papilloma virus.

"We think HPV has a role as a co-carcinogen which increases the risk of cancer in a smoking population," Resasadeh said in a statement.

In another study, Samuel Ariad from Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel, and colleagues found more than half of the 65 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer had evidence of measles virus in tissue samples taken from their cancer.

In his study, Ariad found the "measles virus is a ubiquitous human virus that may be involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. Most likely, it acts in modifying the effect of other carcinogens and not as a causative factor by itself."

Both studies have been presented at the First European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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