Ukraine, Russia, and what the modern West calls “democracy”

Ukraine, Russia, and what the modern West calls “democracy”
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It has been the Western, pro-EU, pro-NATO camp that has trumpeted its supposed devotion to the defense of democracy when discussing the Euromaidan protests of late 2013 and their fallout. What made many skeptical of their claims of being champions of democracy from the beginning was their open support for the use of force to overthrow a democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych. It would seem that usurping Yanukovych’s power violated the Ukrainian constitution. What was Yanukovych’s crime in the eyes of the West? Choosing to seek closer economic ties for Ukraine with Russia instead of signing an Association Agreement with the EU.

In the West, those who spoke of the possible inconsistencies of the pro-Euromaidan side were mostly drowned out in major news outlets. Major publications like Time Magazine had been sounding anti-Vladimir Putin alarms long before Euromaidan even took place. The Euromaidan and Russia’s annexation of Crimea sent Western media into what appeared to be nearing full bore panic mode. Perhaps most memorable was The Economist magazine’s over-the-top “Putin’s Inferno” cover. Hackneyed clichés about Putin being a 21st century Adolf Hitler were being used widely. The fact that it was the anti-Russian side that used violent means to overthrow a democratically elected leader, or that the majority of Crimeans were in favor of a reunion with Russia, did not stop the vilification of Putin and his supporters.

More than a year has now passed since the Euromaidan. In addition to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, we’ve seen a bloody civil war break out in eastern Ukraine between the pro-Russian separatists of the east (where Yanukovych had gotten the majority of his electoral support) and the Ukrainian army, taking orders from the newly installed Kiev government. This new government is generally supported by the people of western Ukraine, or at least preferred to the previous government. New elections held in May made Petro Poroshenko the president.

While the Euromaidan, the annexation of Crimea, and the Ukrainian Civil War are all major news stories in their own right, they are also part of a bigger picture geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West that some worry could be as serious as setting the foundation of a third World War. While the anti-Russia, anti-Putin sentiment is still very strong in the West’s ruling class, some notable voices of dissent have been making themselves heard. In a December 20th article in the British newspaper The Daily Mail entitled “Forget ‘evil’ Putin–we are the bloodthirsty warmongers,” English journalist and author Peter Hitchens writes,

“Now I seem surrounded by people who actively want a war with Russia, a war we all might lose. They seem to believe that we are living in a real life Lord Of The Rings, in which Moscow is Mordor and Vladimir Putin is Sauron.”

He goes on to write, “Until a year ago, Ukraine remained non-aligned between the two great European powers. But the EU wanted its land, its 48 million people (such a reservoir of cheap labour!) its Black Sea coast, its coal and its wheat. So first, it spent £300 million (some of it yours) on anti-Russian ‘civil society’ groups in Ukraine. Then EU and Nato politicians broke all the rules of diplomacy and descended on Kiev to take sides with demonstrators who demanded that Ukraine align itself with the EU.”

It is voices like these that are challenging the West’s liberal elite’s claims to be the guardians of democracy. Recent news out of Sweden (an EU member since 1995) will be bound to raise even more questions about the intentions of pro-EU liberals. On Saturday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced the cancellation of the upcoming elections, in which the Sweden Democrats (a political party) were expected to make large gains. The cancellation came after the “center-left” and “center-right” parties came to a bargain on a budget, and is an obvious effort to isolate the up-and-coming Sweden Democrats. One cannot help but notice that many among the West’s liberal establishment only seem to support democracy when they agree with the voters’ decisions.

Opinion by Robert Inskip

Microscopic steam engines new world’s smallest

Microscopic steam engines new world's smallest
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How small are Dr. Pedro A. Quinto-Su’s steam engines? Smaller than red blood cells and most bacteria–between one and three millionths of a meter. The significantly strong pistons are powered by a combined process of optical manipulation which bypasses microfabrication and draws strength from simplicity, taking scientists one step closer to the “lab on a chip” miniaturization of everything.

“The piston–a microsphere–is powered by light, which also heats the sphere inducing the vapor microexplosions. Similar to an internal piston combustion engine,” Dr. Pedro Quinto-Su, physics professor at the Universidad Nacional in Mexico, told The Speaker.

“This is the first time that a steam engine has been miniaturized to a length scale of a micrometer,” Quinto-Su told us. “Also, the engine works in an environment dominated by fluctuations (Brownian), since it is immersed in liquid. In the context of optical micromanipulation the report shows that it is possible to have impulsive forces in an optical tweezer, which could extend even more the wide array of applications that use that technique.”

Quinto-Su placed the microscopic piston in historical context.

“In the past, the improved steam engine design of Watt started the industrial revolution and understanding the mechanism initiated modern thermodynamics. Steam engines were the foundation for all the engines that we have today.

“Now steam engines are mainly used for energy conversion in power plants, where steam turbines convert mechanical energy into electricity.”

There has been much interest in miniaturizing heat engines, Quinto-Su explained.

“In the last few decades there has been a trend in trying to miniaturize everything. In science this concept has been called “lab on a chip” and the idea is to have everything that is needed to make an experiment in a small chip. The interest in miniaturized versions of heat engines is that they could be used to do work in very localized volumes. For example, periodically displacing small objects including nanomaterials.”

Quinto-Su explained the challenges to miniaturization past the 1mm scale–the lower limit until the recent invention–and how his steam engine bypassed the previous obstacles.

“The main problem with tiny heat engines is that the efficiency is very poor. A few heat engines have been demonstrated at the micrometer scale with different working mechanisms. However, traditional heat engines that work with the expansion and compression of gas had not reached scales below 1mm, perhaps because most designs involved the assembly of microfabricated moving parts which made it more challenging–in addition to the expected poor efficiency.

“The implementation of the reported micrometer-sized piston steam engine is very simple and there is no need for microfabrication, only optical access is required. It needs an optical tweezer setup which is a widely available tool.”

Quinto-Su explained how the project began–as an attempt to combine two methods of microscopic manipulation to create the micro-piston.

“The project started by trying to combine two techniques of optical manipulation of microscopic objects immersed in liquids: optical tweezers and microscopic explosions (cavitation bubbles).”

Microscopic steam engines new world's smallest

Quinto-Su explained how small the steam engines were, and put in layman’s’ terms  how the various elements of the engines work.

“In the reported engine a spherical microparticle (1 or 3 micrometers in diameter, the largest dimension of a human red blood cell is about 10 micrometers) is periodically displaced by light and microscopic explosions.

“Optical tweezers use a focused laser beam that attracts transparent microscopic objects towards the focused spot. The objects are usually immersed in liquid and they are called colloids, usually these objects are microscopic spheres. Once the microparticles reach the focus of the laser beam they stay trapped in there. This technique exerts very small controlled forces (pico Newtons) in the microscopic objects.

“In contrast, microscopic vapor explosions in liquids exert large impulsive forces in the vicinity where the explosions are created. A vapor explosion creates a rapidly expanding bubble that later collapses (cavitation bubble). The bubble displaces the liquid at a very fast speed which also displaces the objects in the vicinity, exerting impulsive forces several orders of magnitude larger than those of optical tweezers.

“In the reported work, a spherical microparticle that is not completely transparent to the laser beam is placed in an optical tweezer. In this Microscopic steam engines new world's smallest way the sphere is attracted towards the focus of the beam, but at the same time it is heated because it is not transparent to the light. Once the sphere is close to the focus it is heated at a very fast rate and the liquid in contact with the microsphere explodes, pushing the sphere close to the starting position. Then the light forces take over and start attracting the sphere towards the focus repeating the cycle.

“Hence the combination of optical tweezers and vapor explosions resulted in a microparticle (piston) that is periodically attracted towards the focused laser and then is pushed away at a fast speed by microscopic vapor explosions. In a sense it is similar to an internal piston combustion engine.”

Quinto-Su noted that the the microexplosions are not initiated by a spark, but by a sudden temperature increase, similar to a diesel engine.

The power created by the pistons is significant, Quinto-Su explained.

“The average power is about 0.3 pico Watts and the power density is about two orders of magnitude less than that typical of car engines. However the effects at the microscopic scale are significant and could be used to pump small volumes of liquid or exert impulsive forces in nearby objects.”

The micro-pistons can be compared with the effect of transducers when driven at acoustic and ultrasound frequencies.

“Because transducers can be used to induce oscillations in liquid-gas boundaries which produce flow. In this case, the operation of the engine is periodic displacements of the piston and periodic explosions which also produce flow, similar to the effect of transducers.”

The report, “A microscopic steam engine implemented in an optical tweezer,” was authored by Pedro A. Quinto-Su and was published in Nature Communications

Three videos from Dr Pedro A. Quinto-Su’s research – 1-3 μm particle engines.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CovgaA20Mmc&list=PLkY-3tl_jYeCgAXAOU74h3p1uoxba7ofc”][su_video url=”http://physics.aps.org/assets/0306a6a4-533e-4249-afbf-b6e49aaa6004/video-v1.mp4″ loop=”yes”][/su_youtube]

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6gRqpHU4iY&index=2&list=PLkY-3tl_jYeCgAXAOU74h3p1uoxba7ofc”][su_video url=”http://physics.aps.org/assets/0306a6a4-533e-4249-afbf-b6e49aaa6004/video-v1.mp4″ loop=”yes”][/su_youtube]

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TisxDL5dP_g&index=3&list=PLkY-3tl_jYeCgAXAOU74h3p1uoxba7ofc”][su_video url=”http://physics.aps.org/assets/0306a6a4-533e-4249-afbf-b6e49aaa6004/video-v1.mp4″ loop=”yes”][/su_youtube]

No schooling come 5th January in Kenya

No schooling come 5th January in Kenya
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Education is a key factor in the development of any nation and so is it in Kenya too. However, despite the fact that Education is key in developing any state, the plight of teachers remains unattended to for now over a decade. In a recent move, The Kenya National Union of Teachers has called upon students and pupils to remain at home come Jan. 5. The Union has called for a nationwide strike come January if the Government does not honor its agreements.

The Union has warned the government to ensure the enumerations are enhanced and have issued a seven day notification to the government. At the Unions’ headquarters, Secretary General Mr. Wilson Sossion insisted that payment allowances have to be honored. Indeed, over the years, teachers’ boardroom meetings with the government have bore no fruits in having them well remunerated. The union has accused the Salaries and Renumeration Commission of being an impediment to their remuneration discussion. The commission has over the recent days increased the salaries of legislators and cabinet secretaries while the teachers’ wages have remained unattended to.

The teachers have held that they will hear nothing from the government and the Teachers Service Commission until the government gives

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion speaking
Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion speaking

in to their demand. They have reiterated their words to play hard ball with demands for their payment hikes. The government is under pressure to put a more favorable deal before the teachers so as to avert the strike. The chairperson of the Union has held that the 7-day strike ultimatum takes effect on Dec. 29 and so the strike will begin on Jan. 5, the day that schools are expected to reopen for yet another term. The strike has however been said to be stoppable if only the teachers’ demands are met.

Indeed, teachers in the country, have faced an uphill task in fighting for their rights. Records put it straight that teachers always have to fight to have their rights issued to them. The streets speak better for them to have the government issue them with their rights. It is indeed noticeable and agreeable to each Kenyan citizen that the teachers always fight hard to get their benefits and possibility that the government listens well to the message of the streets. The constitution gives priority for people to engage in strikes.knut

The Kenya National Union of Teachers Chairperson, Mr. Nzili, has maintained that teachers have to be protected from the economic distress they are passing through. In a news interview with the Nation Television Network, he said that, “As patriotic Kenyans who support the nation and Govrnmebt, teachers have to be given the hearing and the consideration they require.” He holds the fact that they are prepared to be out of classrooms for as long as it takes for the government to meet their demands. He said that some of the Teachers demands are:

1. To have the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed by the government in accordance with the court order
2. To have their salaries increased; a salary component within the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Analysis by Morris Cerullo

 

 

Thailand’s LRCT: “No amnesty” for corruption cases

Thailand's LRCT No amnesty for corruption cases
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Mr. Kanit Na Nakorn, the chief of the Law Reform Commission of Thailand (LRCT), who is also in charge of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), pointed out there will be no amnesty for corruption cases and that the junta should pass this bill to the parliament for approval.

Kanit stated his intention in a press conference Thursday to affirm the important basic rights and equality guarantees as stated in the old constitution and that he would like to add or edit important issues–particularly rules and regulations. Moreover, punishment will be imposed on violators, he added. Nonetheless, human rights, freedom and human equality should be respected, as written in the 2007 constitution.

Reform in political structure needs to follow the procedures laid out in the 2007 constitution. “Only important issues need to be addressed,” he reasserted, with the intention to formulate the country’s major policies, not the government’s or political parties’. However, such policies should be implemented, he added.

He explained further that reconciliation should be established on the ground of truth with consideration for the root cause of a particular problem as a move towards reconciliation. Whereas there should be clear and important conditions applied to the provision of amnesty, and it should not be bestowed upon those guilty of corruption charges, serious criminals, and upon whoever offends the monarch, which could disrupt national peace and order, Kanit asserted.

For the cabinet however, it was the view of the LRCT that the formation of the cabinet should remain unchanged in order to elect the prime minister in favor of the House of Representatives.

As for the judicial sector, the Supreme Court should judge on special legal matters, Kanit said. In addition, the Labour Court should be separated from the Court of Justice while the Military Court would be authorized to pass verdict on militaristic criminal cases only.

Hereby, the commission also stated that the martial law should be exercised only when it deems necessary and be proposed to parliament for approval.

By Panthep Pande

Zimbabwe has too many elephants – exporting some to China, other nations to take care of

Zimbabwe has too many elephants - exporting some to China, other nations to take care of
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The southern African nation of Zimbabwe has too many elephants to deal with, and has announced plans to begin exporting the overflow to other countries that may be better able to provide for the animals.

The first batch of exported elephants has already been discussed. China bought the largest number of elephants at 27. France is taking between 15 and 20 and the United Arab Emirates 15.

“We have 80,000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 42,000 and this is not sustainable in the long run,” Jerry Gotora, chairman of the Zimbabwe parks and wildlife authority, said of the sales, as reported by AFP. “The exports are carefully controlled by CITES. All those making noise about it are people who do not want Zimbabwe to benefit from its resources.”

Due to the costs associated with protecting elephants from poachers, the government of Zimbabwe relies partially on charities and private companies, but even this help has not prevented hundreds of animals from dying at the hands of poachers.

In 2013, between 90 and 300 elephants in Hwange national park were poisoned with cyanide by poachers in one notable killing, which was called the worst single massacre in 25 years of southern African history.

Zimbabwe is home to one of Africa’s biggest elephant populations since formerly-large Eastern and Central African populations have been decimated by poaching.

Conservationists have warned that African elephants could die out completely within 50 years if current trends of poaching and habitat loss continue.

The illegal trade in ivory is international. Poachers move across borders with near impunity, associated with government and organized crime.

Ivory sales were banned in 1989 by the international body CITES, but since that time, according to the organization, the ban has been continually weakened, and is today considered to sit at roughly the pre-1989 level.

Earlier this year, a joint report by conservation group Born Free USA and conflict analysis no-profit C4ADS found African poaching was becoming professionalized and militarized.

The report found that Zimbabwean poaching was tied to corruption, which is a different problem from the causes of poaching in less stable areas of Africa where there was not sufficient infrastructure to combat poaching.

By Sid Douglas

One of Nairobi’s flashiest bishops’ political woes

One of Nairobi's flashiest bishops' political woes
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Known for her ministry The Glory is Here, Hon. Margaret Wanjiru, one of the flashiest preachers in Kenya, is indeed experiencing an uphill task in her political career. The bishop has in the last five years served as a member of parliament and a cabinet minister. The former housing cabinet minister has since decamped from the Orange Democratic Movement party to The National Alliance Party, in which already she is experiencing lots of troubles. Barely two weeks ago, after joining the TNA alliance, we can now report that she is not at peace with her move.

TNA party members have expressed discontent with her and claimed that she is just there to reap from where she did not plant. Indeed the honeymoon period could be over, and she will have to battle it out to be relevant in the party “things.” The Nairobian flashy preacher, upon joining the TNA party, walked to several media stations accusing the ODM of being undemocratic. Funny enough, the party she claims is undemocratic gave her son a nomination ticket and campaigned for him until that son won the parliamentary seat. Margaret Wanjiru has since opened claims into the issue that the ODM party of which she was part during the 2013 elections, refused to sponsor and support her gubernatorial seat, which she lost to the current Nairobi Governor, Dr. Evans Kidero of ODM party.

Even as she claims so, the truth that has been established is that the bishop never had the required papers to become governor. She wasn’t a qualified candidate. It is indeed very funny that the bishop lies with impunity. After the elections she joined St Pauls University, from which one and half year later she graduated with a degree. She, therefore, meets the IEBC threshold to qualify for a governors’ post suppose elections are held today. However, does it mean that education will remain compromised so as to have people and personalities meet their goals and selfish ambitions?

The Jesus is Alive Ministries pastor and bishop has to date not met the president, a month after joining the TNA party despite making several appointments. The several appointments have indeed turned to disappointments and political followers are left to see what comes naato play the next time. The flashy Nairobi bishop has since maintained that she will battle it out with other aspirants for Nairobi gubernatorial candidate come 2017. Among her opponents will be the flamboyant Nairobi senator, Hon. Mike Sonko and Nairobi businessman Jimnah Mbaru, who have both vowed to ensure she sinks into political oblivion. Indeed someone could be signing her political oblivion certificate by herself.

Despite declaring interest to battle it out in 2017 with the political heavyweights for the gubernatorial party candidate, political pundits and supporters are left to see if the Glory will be there for the bishop. Even so, the already lit fire could be seen burning for the next few years or it could be extinguished. Hon. Margaret has however held that the fire has to continue burning.

Analysis by Morris Cerullo

Memories are stored in neurons, not synapses, and therefore can be restored, shows new research

Memories are stored in nuclei, not synapses, and therefore can be restored, shows new research (2)
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Does the entire library of memories stored throughout our lifetime remain dormant within our minds, and can these memories be restored? New research has led UCLA neurobiologists to conclude that the storage mechanism for memories is actually independent of synaptic change–the mechanism that mediates the expression of memories. Rather, memories are stored in persistent epigenetic changes within the nuclei of neurons, and therefore memories are extremely stable over time and could be restored.

“The idea, long believed by most neuroscientists, that memories are stored in synapses may be incorrect. This implies that the apparent loss of a memory due to synaptic elimination might be reversible. Memories that appear to be lost forever may, in fact, be able to be fully restored,” Dr. David Glanzman, professor of integrative biology, physiology and neurobiology at UCLA and lead author of the study, told The Speaker.

So if the memories remain stored intact, why can’t we access them? The synapses that complete the circuit to the memories are destroyed or eliminated, Glanzman suspects. Glanzman qualified that the problem of memory storage was extremely complex and that he did not possess a complete answer, but he explained how his conception of memory formation was changed by the research.

“At present I believe that memories are formed in the brain by a combination of posttranslational changes—protein phosphorylation, protein dephosphorylation, etc.—gene transcription, protein synthesis and structural changes in neurons.  Pretty much everyone in the field of learning and memory also believes this.

Memories are stored in nuclei, not synapses, and therefore can be restored, shows new research (2)
Confocal fluorescence micrographs illustrating the structural effects of 5X5HT training, reconsolidation blockade, and chelerythrine treatment

“Where I differ is that I now believe that the storage mechanism for long-term memories is independent from the mechanism that mediates the expression of the memories, which is synaptic change,” Glanzman continued. “The storage mechanism, I believe, is persistent epigenetic changes within the nuclei of neurons.  Given this, I think that long-term memories are actually extremely stable; as long as the cell bodies of the neuronal circuit that contains the memory are intact, the memory will persist.  The memory can appear to be disrupted, however, by destroying or eliminating the synapses among the neurons in the neuronal circuit that retains the memory.  But the apparent elimination of a memory due to synaptic elimination can be reversed and the memory restored.  The data in our eLife study support this idea, although they do not explain how this is actually accomplished.”

In their research, the UCLA team studied Aplysia, a marine snail–particularly the way Aplysia learns to fear a memorable source of harm.

The team trained the snail to defend itself by withdrawing to protect its gills from the harm of mild electric shocks. The snail retained the withdrawal response for several days, indicating long term memory of the stimulus.

The team found that the shock caused serotonin to be released in Aplysia’s central nervous system. New synaptic connections grow as a result of the serotonin, according to the team. The formation of memories can be disrupted by interfering with the synthesis of the proteins that contribute to the new synapses.

When a snail was trained on a task but its ability to immediately produce the proteins was inhibited, the animal would not remember the training 24 hours later, the researchers found, but if an animal was trained and protein synthesis was inhibited later–after 24 hours–the animal would retain the memory. Memories once formed last in long-term memory, the team found.

They also performed experiments with neurons in a Petri dish, and found the same results.

Then the team tested memory loss. Again in a Petri dish, they manipulated synaptic growth with a protein synthesis inhibitor and with serotonin. They found that when they stimulated synaptic growth some time after creating a memory, new synapses grew–not the old ones that would have been stimulated if prevailing theories of memory formation were accurate.

The researchers found that the nervous system appears to be able to regenerate lost synaptic connections–reconnecting memories with new synapses.

Does that meant that the entire library of a life’s memories could be dormant and could be restored? Possibly, but not in all cases, according to the study. Glanzman used an example to explain what his research had suggested.

“That is a fascinating question,” said Glanzman.”For example, what about the phenomenon of infantile amnesia, that is, the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of 2–4 years?  Can those episodic memories from our earliest years be restored?  I frankly don’t know, but I suspect that they can be.  It is possible that the explanation for infantile amnesia is similar to that of the phenomenon we examined in our study, reconsolidation blockade.  There, we found that the apparent elimination of the memory was the result of the reversal of the synaptic growth and, perhaps, of some of the epigenetic changes, such as histone acetylation, that mediated the expression of the memory.

“Notice that some epigenetic changes are intrinsically more stable than others.

“What if infantile amnesia is also a consequence of synaptic loss and reversible epigenetic changes, but that the memory persists as persistent epigenetic changes?  Then, just as we were able to restore memory in the snail following its disappearance due to reconsolidation blockade, we might be able to reverse infantile amnesia.  Similarly, some memories lost in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease due to the synaptic destruction might be restorable.  However, once the cell bodies of the neurons that make up the memory circuit die, I believe the memory is lost forever.”

Before the recent research, memory was believed to be stored in synapses. Glanzman explained the traditional belief and the remaining challenges to the new theory.

“First, until my work is confirmed by others, it is not fair to say that neuroscientists are mistaken in their belief that long-term memory is stored at synapses.  The idea that memory is not stored at synapses is going to be met with a great deal of skepticism, as any radical new scientific idea should be.

“Having said that, the idea that memory is stored at synapses grew out of the pioneering work of the Spanish neuroanatomist Ramon y Cajal (who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906).  Cajal was one of the first to propose that learning and memory involves the growth of new synaptic connections among neurons in the brain.  This idea is now overwhelmingly accepted by neuroscientists.  I certainly believe—and scientific research on Aplysia and other animals confirms—that when an animal learns, synapses in its brain (or nervous system, in the case of the snail) physically change; in some instances the result is synaptic growth, whereas in others it is synaptic retraction.  (The specific pattern of synaptic change depends on the specific type of learning and the particular part of the brain that mediates the learning.)

“Given this, it is natural to think that new memories will be stored, at least in part, as persistent molecular or structural changes in the synapses that grew as the memories formed. It is this part of the synaptic hypothesis of long-term memory that I disagree with.”

The research is expected to hold new hope for sufferers of Alzheimers. Because in the early stages of the disease, synapses are destroyed–not neurons–those memories still exist and could be regained, Glanzman suspects.

The report, “Reinstatement of long-term memory following erasure of its behavioral and synaptic expression in Aplysia,” was completed by Shanping Chen, Diancai Cai, Kaycey Pearce, Philip Y W Sun, Adam C Roberts, and David L Glanzman, and was publied in eLife.

Photos: Christelle Nahas/UCLA

What causes cell division? Neither of the prevailing theories, but rather an extraordinarily simple quantitative principle of cell-size control, according to UC San Diego scientists

adder cell division
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How do cells control their size? What causes them to divide? Contrary to what many biologists have expected, evidence supporting an answer to one of the most fundamental and longstanding problems of biology has been accomplished by UC San Diego researchers. The study surprised even the researchers: a simple quantitative principle explains the phenomena without regard for either of the currently prevailing theories.

“Life is very robust and ‘plastic,’ much more than what biology textbooks tell us. Bacteria probably do not care when they should start replicating their genomes or dividing,” Dr. Suckjoon Jun, assistant professor of physics and molecular biology at the University of California, San Diego and one of the lead authors of the study, told The Speaker.

adder cell division
Dr. Suckjoon Jun

“Simple mathematical principles help us understand fundamental biology, just like in physics.”

How do cells control their size? What causes them to divide?

Biologists had previously posited two possible solutions: either a cell reaches a certain size, at which it divides into two smaller cells; or after a certain time has passed, the cell divides. The two theories have been known as “sizer” and “timer.”

The results surprised the researchers as well: “adder.”

“The results were completely unexpected,” Jun told us.

Rather than either sizer or timer paradigms, cells were found to add a constant volume each generation, regardless of their newborn size.

“This ‘adder’ principle quantitatively explains experimental data at both the population and single-cell levels, including the origin and the hierarchy of variability in the size-control mechanisms and how cells maintain size homeostasis,” the researchers concluded, whereas in past research based on “sizer” and “timer” theories led to difficult-to-verify assumptions or population-averaged data and varied interpretations.

Time and size, while variable in some organisms, do not even factor into the existence of “perfect adders” in the newly found and “extraordinarily simple” quantitative principle of cell-size control.

“It seems most bacteria we have studied so far, and more data is coming out of other labs, appear to be perfect adder,” said Jun. “Some higher organisms, such as yeast, do care about size more than bacteria do. For example, small-born yeast cells add more mass than large-adder cell divisionborn cells to reach division. That is, how much mass they add since birth is sensitive to how big the baby cell was. Nevertheless, the way they reach the target size, generation after generation, works exactly same as the perfect adders such as bacteria, which is quite nice and surprising.”

The growth of cells follow the growth law, the researchers found, and grow exponentially at a constant rate.

Jun explained the challenge that had stood in the way of understanding this aspect of cell division in the past: “Two biggest obstacles have been (one) dogmas that cells somehow must actively sense space or time to control cell size, and (two) technology that did not exist until recently, which now allows monitoring the growth and division patterns of tens of thousands of individual cells under tightly controlled environment.”

The research team developed a tiny device that isolates individual genetic materials.

The tool allowed the researchers to observe thousands of individual bacterial cells–Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive B. subtilis–over hundreds of generations. The researchers manipulated the conditions in which the cells lived. A wide range of tightly controlled steady-state growth conditions were experimented with.

According to the researchers, the new method allowed them to produce statistical samples about a thousand times better than had previosly been available.

“We looked at the growth patterns of the cells very very carefully, and realized that there is something really special about the way the cells control their size,” explained Jun.

“No one has been able to answer this question,” Jun said in their press release, noting that this was even the case for the E. coli bacterium, possibly the most extensively studied organism to date.

The research holds the promise of better informing the fight against cancer, since one of the most important problems in the fight is the process of runaway cell division.

The reports, “Cell-size maintenance: universal strategy revealed” and “‘Cell-size control and homeostasis in bacteria” were completed by Suckjoon Jun, Massimp Vergassola and Sattar Taheri-Araghi, and were published in the journal Current Biology .

Images: the work of the researchers

136th self immolation in Tibet is third in one week

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A Tibetan monk self immolated near a police station Tuesday in Tawu, Kham, Tibet, calling for the return of the Dalai Lama, who is considered a criminal separatist in Tibet, and for Tibet to be free of Chinese rule.

Kalsang Yeshe, a man in his late 20s or early 30s, was a monk practicing at Nyitso monastery in the town of Tawu. Prior to the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Nyitso had been a large monastery of around 2,000 monks, but currently only 200 monks practice at the monastery.

The police station near which Kalsang self immolated was recently built near the monastery. Repression of monks and other Tibetans has been particularly severe near Nyitso in recent years, according to Save Tibet.

Reports of the self immolation come by way of exiled Tibetans in India, many of whom cannot return to Tibet for fear of charges under Chinese law for their support of Tibetan autonomy and the Dalai Lama. Communications from within Tibet are rare because such communications are illegal and are severely punished by Chinese authorities.

Read more: 134th Tibetan self immolates

The self immolation was the third within one week. It is the 136th self immolation within Tibet, and the 142nd known self immolation for the cause of Tibetan freedom.

After the self immolation, armed police removed the body. Locals called for the body to be returned to them in order to preform traditional religious ceremonies.

Kalsang was described by one source who knew him at a monastery in exile as a very hard worker in the cause to protect and preserve Tibetan cultural language and identity.

Recently, China passed new laws increasing restrictions on and control over Tibetan religious institutions. Last month, China conducted the first expulsion of 26 nuns under on of the new laws, which limits the number of adherents that can practice at a given monastery.

Small farmers produce 80% percent of the world’s food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world’s farmland – study

Small farmers produce 80 % percent of the world's food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world's farmland - study
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The share of farmland tended by small farmers is shrinking. The land is changing hands. Although small farms are more productive than large farms and tend to grow food products–they produce 80 percent of the world’s food–they are being swallowed up by large corporate farms that grow high-profit crops for export markets. The land left to the largely food-producing small farms is currently only 24 percent of fertile land, and that number is declining sharply.

“Over the past decades, small farmers have been losing access to land at an incredible speed,” Henk Hobbelink, coordinator of GRAIN, told The Speaker. “If we don’t reverse this trend we will not only have more hungry farmers in the future, but the world as a whole will lose the capacity to feed itself.”

Small farmers produce 80 % percent of the world's food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world's farmland - studyGRAIN investigated land use data worldwide to understand the global and specific trends currently taking place with regard to farmland.

“What became very clear from our research is that increasingly fertile farmland is being taken over by huge industrial operations that produce commodities for the global market, not food for people,” Hobbelink told us. “Small farmers, who continue to produce most of the food in the world, are being pushed into an ever diminishing share of the world’s farmland.

“This trend has to be reversed if we want to be able to feed a growing population,” he said.

However, many governments and international organizations are offering grossly incorrect or misleading figures, according to GRAIN, such as those announced by representative’s of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) recent “State of Food and Agriculture“–which was dedicated to family farming.

At this year’s inauguration of the International Year of Family Farming, UN FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva stated that 70 percent of the world’s farmland was managed by families, echoing previous conclusions by the UN and other world organizations.

The percentage of farm land currently in the hands of small farms (an average of 2.2 hectares) is, according to GRAIN, actually less than 25 percent. Excluding China and India–where about half of all small farms are located–the ratio is less than one-fifth.

Small farmers produce 80 % percent of the world's food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world's farmland - studySimilar findings were in evidence for every region of the world.

For example, in Belarus small farmers produced over 80 percent of fruits, vegetables, potatoes and vegetables with only 17 percent of the land. In Botswana, small farmers produced at least 90 percent of millet, maize and groundnuts with less than eight percent of the land.

“Because rural peoples’ access to land is under attack everywhere. From Honduras to Kenya and from Palestine to the Philippines, people are being dislodged from their farms and villages,” GRAIN found. “Those who resist are being jailed or killed. Widespread agrarian strikes in Colombia, protests by community leaders in Madagascar, nationwide marches by landless folk in India, occupations in Andalusia–the list of actions and struggles goes on and on.”

Small farmers produce 80 % percent of the world's food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world's farmland - studyEighty percent is also the figure given for the percentage of the world’s hungry people who live in rural areas. Many of these people are farmers or farmworkers.

Hobbelink explained this finding to us by saying that it was the result of small farmers simply not having enough land to produce food, and losing access to land at a rapid rate.

There were six general findings GRAIN found to be most compelling.

First, most of the world’s farms are shrinking. Second, the total of these farms account for less than 25 percent of the world’s farmland. Third, big farms are getting bigger, and small farms and farmers are losing to them. Fourth, despite this, small farms continue to be the world’s biggest food producers. Fifth, overall, small farms are more productive than big farms. Sixth, most small farmers are women.

Particularly surprising to the researchers was that land was becoming increasingly concentrated, despite extensive global agrarian reforms.

A “kind of reverse agrarian reform” is taking place in many countries, according to GRAIN. Most of this is happening through corporate land grabbing in Africa and foreign investment and massive farm expansion in Latin America and Asia.

Besides land concentration, among the forces causing small farms to collapse are population pressure and lack of access to land.

Even in India and Asia farms have been shrinking. In India, the size of the average farm is 50 percent of what it was in the 1970s, and in China farm sizes shrunk 25 percent between 1985 and 2000.

Small farmers produce 80 % percent of the world's food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world's farmland - studyIn Africa, where no official statistics for farmland concentration were available to GRAIN, researchers based their conclusions on research papers that indicated small farms were shrinking there as well.

Why small farms produce so much, and why they are losing to big corporate farms, was explained by GRAIN in their report: small farms tend to focus on food production, which is then bought from local markets and eaten. Large farms focus on return on investment, and tend to grow more export commodities such as animal feed, biofuels, and wood products. Thus, big farms, with maximized profits, are able to buy more land to produce high-profit commodities.

“Corporate farms a backed by big money, often from the finance industry, investment firms, etc.,” Hobbelink told us. “They are also able to access and influence political decisions at high level, and in this way often get handed over huge swaths of land at incredible low prices or for free. In the meanwhile, small farmers don’t have access to credit, and are up against agricultural policies that discriminate against them.”

Besides that, however, small farms tend to be more productive than large farms anyway, according to GRAIN. This phenomenon, which has been termed “the productivity paradox” because it seems contrary to what many people are told, is evinced in statistics. In nine EU countries, small farms have at least double the productivity of large farms, and the other countries show only slightly higher productivity for large farms. According to their findings, GRAIN calculated that if large farms in some Central American and African nations were as productive as small farms, national agricultural production would double.

Small farmers produce 80 % percent of the world's food, and the do it with less than 25% of the world's farmland - studyIn its findings, GRAIN also pointed out that big farms are less productive even with more resource consumption, the best land, most of the irrigation water, and better credit and technical assistance.

Much of the disparity is also due to differences in labor, GRAIN concluded. Big farms cut labor to maximize profits, and this labor is needed for better production.

“There are multiple factors at play,” Hobbelink told us. “In countries with big population growth, farmers without access to more land are forced to divide their land amongst their children. Expansion of urban areas into farmland, the same for mining, tourism, etc. But perhaps the most important factor is the global expansion of industrial plantation farming encroaching upon areas where small farmers and indigenous peoples live.

“The reason why small farmers still produce the majority of the world’s food is twofold. On one hand–as we show in our report–they are simply more efficient, more productive, than the large industrial plantations. And on the other hand they prioritize their land use towards producing food, while industrial plantations mostly produce commodities that no one can eat, or that need a lot of processing before they end up in our food: soybean, oilpalm, sugarcane, rapeseed, etc.”

“The bottom line is that land is becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of the rich and powerful, not that small farmers are doing well,” GRAIN concluded.

“Today, small farmers feed the world and we need them to continue to do so,” said Hobbelink. “If we don’t reverse the current trend of the corporate takeover of the worlds farmland to produce industrial commodities, they will not be able to do so and we will all lose out.”

Photos: all belong to the work of GRAIN

The CORD coalition to petition the implementation of the draconian laws

The CORD coalition to petition the implementation of the draconian laws
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Following the passing of draconian security laws in Kenya, the opposition has taken things a step further to get to the courts.

The Coalition of Reforms and Democracy (CORD) will this morning be presenting a petition against the parliament’s move to pass draconian laws. The draconian laws in regard to security were passed by the legislative house amidst chaos and brawl. In the petition that was drafted by lawyers allied to the coalition and human rights groups, the coalition is pleading with the judicature to bar and stall the execution of the law citing the fact that it impinges on the rights and exaptation of the citizens.

The opposition’s legal team, which comprises of over thirty qualified lawyers and advocates led by senior counsel Hon. Senator James Orengo, will today get to the Milimani court at 9:00 a.m. Kenyan time. The law indeed wasn’t acted upon in good faith and is possibly a tool which the ruling Jubilee coalition can use to kill political dissent in the country. The bill that president Uhuru signed into law last week has issued more powers to the National Intelligence Service that could possibly bring back the horrific Moi era, which witnessed the abuse of power by the intelligence agency. In all likelihood, the laws could bring to the fore the application of impunity to prevail on the opposition.

The amendment, which was hastily passed in a disorderly parliamentary session as well, imparts the executive much power to manipulate what the media puts out. The media proprietors have as well come strongly to contradict the legal philosophy which they say will obstruct the freedom of the press.

In a deep rejoinder to the topic at hand, the US State Department in its affirmation stated its disappointment in the way the bill was covered. The department said that, “We are disappointed, yet, by the very restricted time permitted for debate and audience on the 2014 Security Laws Amendment Bill anterior to its enactment and passage into law.” The Department as well held that they are worried about the very many provisions in the security law legislation, which include those that feature to restrict the freedom of communication and media, and access to asylum seekers and refugees.”

Nevertheless, in a quick response, the PSCU said in their assertion, “The law is of great importance to Kenya and Kenyans. The State House Communication Unit went ahead to hold that the law is of great importance to Kenyans. The PSCU stated that the Security law is similar to the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act which have helped Americans.”

Despite the opposition’s move to get to the court, Kenyans have cast uncertainty on the success of the petition in the courts. Many Kenyans think that the tribunals may not practice their independence as required but instead will follow orders from the Statehouse. The opposition’s move is also viewed in terms of a fierce legal battles between the ruling coalition and itself. The former prime minister, who is also the coalition’s chief principal, has sent a warning message to the President and told him to be ready for a fierce battle in regards to the draconian bill. The move is anticipated to dwarf the chaotic scenes that decorated the passing of the bill. Hon Raila Odinga as well stated that the opposition will not be intimidated until they save Kenyans from the wrath of the new law.

Analysis by Morris Cerullo

Does violence justify more violence?

Does violence justify more violence?
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An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Even in 2014, no one is really safe anywhere.

Does violence have to beget more violence? Are we as progressive humans regressing into creatures that do not comprehend pain and indulge in shock value to keep ourselves prominent? These questions, I believe, need to be answered at the earliest before it is too late to undo any wrongdoings against mankind.

In the last week alone, the world has seen indescribable pain and terror in three isolated incidents. Pakistan, Nigeria and Australia have all been struck by terror. Islamist jihadists whether it is the Taliban, the Boko Haram or the lone radical Man Haron Monis, have wreaked havoc in a way most of us can’t process. Since the attacks, I want to take a look at what reparative measures are being taken to protect the innocent and bring accused to justice.

Let me start by clarifying that no amount of writing about my empathy for the situation can justify the pain the mothers, fathers, siblings, extended family and friends are going through.

Who will be responsible for our security? Photo Flickr/ cricrich
Who will be responsible for our security? Photo Flickr/ cricrich

 

For Pakistan’s latest tragedy comparable to America’s 9/11, #Peshawarkillings is more than just a trending topic on Twitter. Summed up in a # and two words are the lives of 140 children. Children, who are the future of Pakistan. Innocents, who have done nothing to deserve the gory, ignominious death while at school. Apart from home, a child in any part of the world feels safe in a school, and for the 140 a military run school will have been the safest.

Vigils and prayers marked the event, but Pakistan was quick to act. A rather Biblical punishment on those languishing in prison, will be meted out by Pakistan’s top brass. Without any signs of haste, the deadly attack spurred Pakistan to rescind the four-year moratorium on the death penalty. Reports of Pakistan’s plan to execute 55 death row inmates, who have no connection to the Peshawar killings, are now making headlines. On Monday, four prisoners accused of attempting to assassinate ex-President Pervez Musharraf in 2003 and a failed attack on the military in 2009 have already been executed.

Does this justify what happened to the children in Peshawar? I agree, that the inmates have committed crimes, but should they pay for crimes other than those they stand accused of. In an ideal world, that would be a no-no. This decision to execute the 55 inmates on death row is meant to appease a population that is in grief.

Tensions between my motherland and Pakistan are instantly forgotten in the face of this terrorising nightmare. But we’re more than neighbours aren’t we? Shouldn’t a brother guide you when you go astray? The Taliban is threatening to carry out more of these attacks, – on innocents – stage jailbreaks and free more prisoners if Pakistan lived up to its promise. A barter shouldn’t even be entertained here, but in light of what may happen in the future, it is best to keep the ones already captured in prison and concentrate the nation’s resources to finding who is responsible for this heinous crime.

Intensifying the countermilitancy campaign in the trial belt by the Pakistani military is a tactical move, but will only prod the Taliban into retaliating andgiven Pakistan’s history with collateral damage, will either push the surviving into the Taliban or turn to vigilantes.

Helplessness in the face of a survivor. Where are the #girls though? Photo Flickr/European Commission DG ECHO
Helplessness in the face of a survivor. Where are the #girls though? Photo Flickr/European Commission DG ECHO

 

Since vigilantes came up, this turns my focus to Nigeria. Since 2009, school children, women, the elderly and any non-Muslim in sight has been kidnapped, tortured, raped, burned, and lynched. “Western education is sin,” according to Abubakar Shekau, a proponent of the Shariah law and leader of the Boko Haram, terrorists who kidnapped 200 Christian school girls, none of whom we have heard of since they became #bringourgirlsback on Twitter. Celebrities held up placards with these words, nations had meetings, help poured in but as is evident from the reports in Nigeria, the youth and incapacitated military have had to help themselves. With nothing but sticks, stones and makeshift weapons, the civilian Joint Task Force and women in particular have braved their way through recent tragedies.

The latest report from Nigeria is the mindless assassination of elderly men and others branded “infidels,” at a school in Bama near Gwoza, Nigeria. Why a school, much less the elderly are important questions to ponder on? Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this horror? Vigils and prayers are pouring in but as a nation in pain, nothing is being done in terms of alleviating that sorrow. Yes, there are efforts from vigilantes that can be justified as acts of self-defence, but does more killing reduce that?

violence
Is this enough for the martyrs for who have given up their lives for us? Photo Flickr/Peter Hindmarsh

Sydney is lucky compared to the two third world countries put together. Justice was served in good measure, when the lone gunman was shot, not before he took down two innocents. Again vigils and prayers filled Martin Place, but the unprecedented coverage the siege received shows that terror big or small affects us in ways we cannot imagine. Protective measures are warranted, but Australia has resources that Nigeria and Pakistan lack, so it is understandable for the land Down Under to carry out corrective measures that are politically correct.

My focus on Sydney’s terror siege is lesser than what I’ve gleaned from Pakistan and Nigeria, simply because as a third world country citizen I come from situations that are more real to me than Sydney’s. I see the helplessness we have been reduced to and wonder if more can or should be done to help us. It is now time for help from the first world countries who once reigned us, took our possessions and sought to bring order in our supposed primitive and chaotic world to actually step up their game now.

What saddens me further is the negativity surrounding Islam. The religion that bears a striking resemblance to Christianity and shares its roots with Judaism, is a religion that advocates peace. A few disorientated and disillusioned members of the faith, have misinterpreted the Prophet’s teachings making the few who imbibe the essence of the faith, victims of ignorant Islamophobia in the face of these attacks.

I have only touched on a few salient points in this piece, and believe that most of us are thinking about the same things I do. As citizen journalists, I believe that as news makers we have to raise our voices for and against things that happen to the very people who make the news. I hope to use the platform of the written word to discuss what we can and must do to protect ourselves from descending into the darkeness we have taken so long to ascend from.

Violence does not have to beget violence. It must lead us to question why these senseless acts of violence are justified and push those in power to act on behalf of the helpless. For no matter what, an eye for an eye can never be justified.

Opinion by Rathan Harshavardan

Sources:
BBC
The Daily Mail
The Guardian
Images courtesy Flickr