Nano-technology and tiny submarines to attack Cancer

Tiny submarines 'can deliver cancer drugs straight to tumours'

Tiny submarines which can be injected into the blood to deliver cancer drugs straight to tumours have been developed by scientists.

Researchers hope that the machines could be used to treat patients within three years.

The news comes just weeks after a team of scientists announced that they had developed similar technology to carry out potentially life saving operations inside arteries.

The machines, part of a growing trend for so-called nano-technology, recall the plots of Hollywood science fiction movies, including 1987's Innerspace with Dennis Quaid, and the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch.

Sending drugs straight to cancer cells will mean that they do not damage other surrounding healthy tissue, researchers said.

The submarines are 100 times smaller than cells, according to Dr Dan Peer, head of nano medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel, who has already tested them in mice.

All the materials used to create the tiny machines occur naturally in the body, meaning they will not be attacked by the patient's immune system.

Dr Peer said: "We have tested this on mice and they were all fine and now we are ready to test it on people.

"The important thing is that we only use things that the body recognises, so its immune system won't attack them, as they do with other technologies."

He added: "We will probably start with blood cancers because the cells would be floating around and will be easier to find.

"But cancer is very clever and it will learn to avoid what we are doing and we will have to keep up - it is a war we are in.

"Although the film Fantastic Voyage was made before I was born, I have seen it is the kind of thing that I have dreamed of.

"Now I hope we on the verge of something similar."

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4527597/Tiny-submarines-can-deliver-cancer-drugs-straight-to-tumours.html)

British terrorists biggest threat to US

CIA warns Barack Obama that British terrorists are the biggest threat to the US

Barack Obama has been warned by the CIA that British Islamist extremists are the greatest threat to US homeland security. I came across this article in the Telegraph and thought my readers would be interested and I'll let them make their own opinions.

The CIA has told President Barack Obama that British terrorists are the biggest threat to the US

American spy chiefs have told the President that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain.

They believe that a British-born Pakistani extremist entering the US under the visa waiver programme is the most likely source of another terrorist spectacular on American soil.

Intelligence briefings for Mr Obama have detailed a dramatic escalation in American espionage in Britain, where the CIA has recruited record numbers of informants in the Pakistani community to monitor the 2,000 terrorist suspects identified by MI5, the British security service.

A British intelligence source revealed that a staggering four out of 10 CIA operations designed to thwart direct attacks on the US are now conducted against targets in Britain.

And a former CIA officer who has advised Mr Obama told The Sunday Telegraph that the CIA has stepped up its efforts in the last month after the Mumbai massacre laid bare the threat from Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group behind the attacks, which has an extensive web of supporters in the UK.

The CIA has already spent 18 months developing a network of agents in Britain to combat al-Qaeda, unprecedented in size within the borders of such a close ally, according to intelligence sources in both London and Washington.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who has advised Mr Obama, told The Sunday Telegraph: "The British Pakistani community is recognised as probably al-Qaeda's best mechanism for launching an attack against North America.

"The American security establishment believes that danger continues and there's very intimate cooperation between our security services to monitor that." Mr Riedel, who served three presidents as a Middle East expert on the White House National Security Council, added: "President Obama's national security team are well aware that this is a serious threat."

The British official said: "The Americans run their own assets in the Pakistani community; they get their own intelligence. There's close cooperation with MI5 but they don't tell us the names of all their sources.

"Around 40 per cent of CIA activity on homeland threats is now in the UK. This is quite unprecedented."

Explaining the increase in CIA activity over the past month, Mr Riedel added: "In the aftermath of the Mumbai attack the US and the UK intelligence services now have to regard Lashkar-e-Taiba as just as serious a threat to both of our countries as al-Qaeda. They have a much more extensive base among Pakistani Diaspora communities in the UK than al–Qaeda."

Information gleaned by CIA spies in Britain has already helped thwart several terrorist attacks in the UK and was instrumental in locating Rashid Rauf, a British-born al-Qaeda operative implicated in a plot to explode airliners over the Atlantic, who was tracked down and killed in a US missile strike in November.

But some US intelligence officers are irritated that valuable manpower and resources have been diverted to the UK. One former intelligence officer who does contract work for the CIA dismissed Britain as a "swamp" of jihadis.

Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, admitted in January that the Security Service alone does not have the resources to maintain surveillance on all its targets. "We don't have anything approaching comprehensive coverage," he said.

The dramatic escalation in CIA activity in the UK followed the exposure in August 2006 of Operation Overt, the alleged airline bomb plot.

The British intelligence official revealed that CIA chiefs sent more resources to the UK because they were not prepared to see American citizens die as a result of MI5's inability to keep tabs on all suspects, even though the Security Service successfully uncovered the plot.

MI5 manpower will have doubled to 4,100 by 2011 but many in the US intelligence community do not think that is enough.

For their part, some British officials are queasy that information obtained by the CIA from British Pakistanis was used to help target Mr Rauf, a British citizen, whom they would have preferred to capture and bring to trial.

Sensitivities over the intelligence arrangement formed a key part of briefings given to Mr Obama, since they are central to what is often called "the most special part of the special relationship" and could complicate his dealings with Gordon Brown.

Tensions in transatlantic intelligence relations which were laid bare last week during the High Court battle over Binyam Mohamed, the British resident held in Guanatanamo Bay. British judges wanted to publish details of the torture administered to Mr Mohamed, an Ethiopian national, in US custody. But key paragraphs were blacked out after American officials threatened it could damage intelligence sharing between the two countries.

Intelligence experts said that a trusting intelligence relationship, in which one country does not publish intelligence data obtained by the other, is vital to both countries' national security.

Patrick Mercer, chairman of the House of Commons counter-terrorism sub-committee, said: "The special relationship is a huge benefit to us. It clearly works to our advantage and helps keep the people of the UK and the US safe.

"There is no doubt that a great deal of valuable intelligence vital to British national security is procured by American agents from British sources."

Mr Riedel added: "The partnership between the two intelligence communities is dynamic; it is one of great intimacy. We overuse the term special relationship, but this is an extraordinarily special relationship.

"Since September 11 the philosophy on both sides has been to err on the side of telling each other more rather than less. It is in everyone's interests that that continues."

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4550144/CIA-warns-Barack-Obama-that-British-terrorists-are-the-biggest-threat-to-the-US.html)

World's virtual phone book

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It has been a busy week for Google

Can the all-seeing, all-knowing Google be trusted to rule the world?

February 6, 2009 (from TOL)

It started last weekend, when a Google employee typed a single backslash in the wrong place at the wrong time. This act resulted in the Google website marking every page on the internet as potentially harmful. The internet was no longer a safe place. Google, the web’s gatekeepers, said so.

The breakdown only lasted for around 40 minutes and the company spent the rest of this week trying to make it up to humanity. In just a few days, Google gave us the ability to virtually plunge the depths of the oceans and then track the every movement of friends and family using our mobile phones. It also found time to map Mars and helped set up a new university to prepare scientists for an age when machines are cleverer from man.

All of this frantic activity displays how pervasive and powerful Google has become. No government or organisation in history has held so much information about us. Through its search engine, Google knows our likes, dislikes, even our vices.

Through its email service, GMail, it holds the keys to the private correspondence of millions. Once you send a message to someone using the service, three parties can access it: you, the person you wrote to, and Google. We have to trust all three keep the conversation private. Whether you know it or not, you have a personal relationship with Google, sometimes one more intimate than with the closest of friends.

The signs are that Google will hold even more influence over us in the coming few years, with the company set to release an endless stream of products and projects. These include a plan to digitise and search through almost every book ever published. Another project will allow people to store health records with the site that can update with data coming from medical device. So as a heart rate monitor takes your pulse, for example, it will automatically appear in your Google account. Reportedly, Google even plans to do away with the need for a traditional PC altogether.

Google will do all this for us, and not charge consumers a penny. They even, through their chartiable arm Google.org, have ambitious plans to find alternative energy sources that will replace fossil fuels. Yes, it is trying to save the world.

Google’s products have become essential to many of our lives. How will the company continue to impact on us in the next few years? Its motto is: “Don’t be evil”. At the moment, the world seems to take them at their word. The question is: should we?

It must be remembered that Google can do all of this because of the masses of money it makes from the information we give it - 99 per cent of Google’s revenue is from advertising connected to its search engine.

Its search business is lucrative because it's so good at targeting the right adverts to the right person. Type in “pizza” and adverts for pizza chains come up. It is cost effective for the advertiser, as they pay Google only if someone clicks on the advert. And because Google controls over 80 per cent of the world’s internet searches, according to market reserachers Net Applications, people do click on these ads - in abundance. Thanks to our searches, a company which started life as a project between two Stanford university students little over ten years ago is now worth more than $107 billion (£72 billion).

So what will Google do with its gargantuan piles of cash?

One thing could be to fundamentally change the way we use computers, and as rumour would have it, just get rid of the PC altogether. Technology circles are abuzz with talk of Google’s most ambitious project yet: the GDrive - a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection. The company itself has refused to say anything about it but there is growing speculation that it will release the GDrive sometime this year, fuelled by the leak to a blog of some Google code referring to a GDrive as an “online file backup and storage” device.

(http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5678595.ece)

Hamster a murder suspect ?

Hamster labeled a murder suspect. A funny report for my readers...

Suspect ... the blunder that saw a hamster linked to a murder

A BLUNDER in a television news report has seen a hamster labelled as a murder suspect.

WFSB TV in Hartford, Connecticut was reporting on police interviewing a suspect in the 2000 disappearance of teenager Molly Bish.

The anchor told viewers a man being held in a Florida prison on suspicion of murder had been linked to kidnapping the 16-year-old.

But instead of showing a picture of the man, Rodney Stanger, the television station showed a picture of a hamster.

"The possible suspect Rodney Stanger seen here ... well this is not Rodney Stanger obviously," the newsreader said.

"Well we're going to get his picture. He's currently in a Florida jail accused of murdering his girlfriend."

Mr Stanger is awaiting trial in the slaying of his longtime girlfriend Chrystal A. Morrison, 50, last year, the Worcester Telegram reports.
Bonnie M. Kiernan, Ms Morrison’s sister, said days before her death Ms Morrison called and dropped cryptic hints that her boyfriend may have killed Molly.

Molly went missing while on lifeguard duty at Comins Pond in Massachusetts in June, 2000.
(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25006273-13762,00.html)

Is this "Saintly" figure spooky or what......

'Saintly' figure appears in fishy family photo

Another story from downunder. Is this spooky or what...

February 05, 2009. By Nikolaos Stavrou. NEWS.com.au

Saintly spectre ... a close-up of the photo shows a ghostly image

• Photo shows grandad with "saintly" figure
• Men told the figure is St Teresa of Avila
• Mary and Jesus apppear in lava lamp

IT’S an intriguing story likely to confirm whether you’re a true believer or a true sceptic.

Twin brothers Phil and Mick Cahalane, 45, possess a family photo they claim shows their great-grandfather with the image of a “saintly” figure.

The photo, which was allegedly taken more than 100 years ago in Scotland, was first sighted by the Sydney pair as children when their mother produced it at a family gathering, The Mount Druitt Standard reports.

“What I heard was that he had gone on a boat trip out in the ocean somewhere and a really bad storm came through as he was fishing,” Phil, who lives in Quakers Hill, said.

“He started praying because he thought he was going to die. The storm passed and because he thought it was safe, he kept fishing, and that’s when he caught most of his fish.
“When he got to land he took a photo with all the fish he caught and this image showed up in the photo.”

The boys were told the figure was St Teresa of Avila . For the full story and more pictures go to The Mount Druitt Standard.
(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25011557-13762,00.html)

Sporting Gadgets to keep you on track..fit and healthy

The best sporting gadgets to keep you on track

February 02, 2009. By Stephen Fenech, The Daily Telegraph. A friend sent me this article from Australia and I thought many of my readers would be interested. Check it out.

IF exercising more was your New Year's resolution, these gadgets may help keep you on track.

Nike + iPod Sport Kit
Price: $48
From: Nike or Apple, 13 36 22
Web: nike.com.au

NOW there's a way for iPod runners to keep track of their performance. The Nike + iPod Sport Kit consists of a small receiver that connects to Apple's iPod Nano, and a small sensor that can be placed inside a range of specially designed Nike running shoes.

During your run, the sensor sends data to the Nano to record the time, distance travelled, pace and calories burned. Users can set open-ended runs or select a workout with specific goals. And because it's connected to the iPod, Nano runners can also listen to their favourite tunes and even program a power song for motivation.

Once a workout is completed, runners can dock their iPod to a PC to upload the data to nikeplus.com, where the information can be viewed in chart form for analysis and comparison.

Sony B Series NWZB133FR Walkman
Price: $49
From: Sony, 1300 720 071
Web: sony.com.au

IT'S not always ideal lugging a large music player with you when you go to the gym or out for a run.

Sony's new B Series has 1GB of memory, which is plenty of room to store hundreds of tunes before setting out. And because it weighs only 29g, it can easily be stored in a pocket or, thanks to its elongated shape, held comfortably in your hand.

It also has a rapid charger so three minutes of power can provide up to 90 minutes of playback.

Also on board is a bass booster and an FM radio, so users can hear live radio and even record their favourite songs to the device.

Casio Riseman G9200
Price: $399
From: Shriro Australia, 1300 768 112
Web: www.shriro.com.au

SWIMMERS who like to keep track of their laps in the pool or the length of their ocean swim can rely on Casio's Riseman to keep time, even at a depth of up to 200m.

But the Riseman is just as much at home out of the water with an altimeter that can measure time along with differences in altitude – a function that can be useful for sports such as rock climbing, mountain biking and skiing.

The Riseman also comes with a thermometer, barometer, solar power and an electroluminescent backlight with automatic illumination.

It tells the time, not just where you are but across 33 different time zones – a handy feature for frequent travellers.

The Riseman incorporates atomic timekeeping, which means it is calibrated with signals from atomic clocks in the US, Germany, England, Japan and China.

Wii Fit
Price: $129
From: Nintendo, 9730 9822
Web: nintendo.com.au

CAN a gaming console get you fit? Well, in the case of Nintendo's Wii Fit the answer is a definite yes.

The Wii has been a runaway success with its widespread appeal to gamers of all ages and skill levels, thanks to its movement-sensitive controllers and imaginative application into the games.

Wii Fit introduced a balance board that gives the user an all-new way to interact with the console by reading your body movements.

Players can get up off the couch and into shape and have fun at the same time. There are games to develop your sense of balance, along with yoga, strength training and aerobics.

It's like having your own digital personal trainer and it keeps track of your progress on your way to achieving your fitness goals.

The more you train, the more Fit Credits go into your Wii Fit Bank. As your Fit Credits increase, they can be used to unlock more games and activities.

Casio Pro Trek
Price: $629
From: Shriro Australia, 1300 768 112
Web: www.shriro.com.au

SAYING the latest watches can tell the time is like hearing the latest mobiles also make phone calls – we already know that.

It's the extra features that really make these products stand apart and that is definitely the case with Casio's Pro Trek watch. It's an ideal companion – with 200m water resistance and solar power for gym junkies or those people who just enjoy the great outdoors.

Pro Trek provides moon phases, tide graphs and a timer for yacht racing, which will go down well with swimmers and sailors alike.

There is also an altimeter, barometer, thermometer and digital compass so you can have the latest information, whether you're mountain biking, mountain climbing, bushwalking or relaxing on the beach.

(http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24995664-5014239,00.html)