Self indulgence

As the title suggests today I feel like bringing you into my world.

As a keen cyclist and human (yes I'm quite keen on acting like one to) I have decided to take a few more risks, which may result in some pain. However it is not the pain that stops me, it is the fear of falling or more acutely the sharp stop at the bottom accompanied by dentures and metal pins through your arm. This is what fear is, thinking what might happen instead of what will happen - it will probably be alright. One guy who certainly has learnt to control this is Danny Macaskill. Imagine jumping down 2 large sets of stairs on a bike, whilst spinning on a bike.
The adjectives for this video include but are not exclusive to:
Crazy, insane, amazing, scary, stupid, talented and scottish



A few weird and quirky stories now.

Invisibility may be closer than we think, and much better than the invisibility on James Bond's Aston Martin in Die Another Day. Scientists have developed a cloak that is invisible to infra-red light. Now for those who studied science you'll be asking 'why does this make invisibility closer as infra-red light is not part of the visible spectrum?' Well this new technology doesn't absorb any light so there is no shadowing or loss of light creating an imperfect cloak and it can be scaled down to small sizes with the hope that this technology can be transfered to visble light wavelengths so one day we can pretend to be this guy.

Also in this sex obsessed world, where procreation is a by product and sometimes unwelcome one. A spider species aptly named Harpactea sadistica, have been found to inject their sperm through holes they make in the females abdomen. Now I didn't know this but usually males will leave their sperm on the spider web and the female will come along and pick it up using pedipalps where the sperm enters an rests between the ovary and the ovipore in an area called the spermetheca.

The Harpactea sadistica have an advantage over normal spider species as the last spider to inseminate the female will father the offspring. Whereas the Harpactea sadistica injects its sperm directly into the ovary. And we thought Max Mosely was bad?

Today I think I'm going to deviate away from science. Now I here a sigh, even if you don't admit it, there is one, writhing in your soul as you quest for more knowledge. But never fear, when I feel like this a quick trip to newscientist usually works, although some of it is a bit complex and I do find my brain working overtime. Although I think I'm gonna help to shed a bit of light on the outbreak of swine flu, how it occurred, if you are going to get and how you can protect yourself or be cured.

Despite this being the most dangerous flu pandemic of the past century with a mortality rate of 10%, this H1N1 strain is far more dangerous than any other like the Asian influenza (H2N2) in 1957 and Hong Kong flu (H3N2) in 1968. The outlook is gloomy as some of the deaths in Mexico have come in healthy young adults who influenza does not usual effect. Also the modern world has a lot to be blamed for as the advert of cheap air travel has meant the disease can quickly spread all over the world even if you haven't been to Mexico.

However this doom and gloom is hardly the fighting spirit. The outbreak began in Mexico which is not renowned for its health and the only death in the USA was a 23 month old baby. Although this is a major assumption and extrapolation of one point this proposes that the pandemic is not as dangerous as 10%, but we shall see.

Now it is curable but you cannot be immunised, and at any point could the strain change and then it would require different treatments to combat it. But if you want to here a qualified experts view on go to here.

2nd thoughts I'll save the personal revelations for another day.
But I have come across a band that I already knew were good and had thoughtfuly provoked songs, but I never realised how diverse and how many songs they had produced.
The Cure headed by Robert Smith with 'The End of the World'


Just listen to the lyrics, they don't apply to me but nevertheless lovely.
Video is also really well done and I imagine using photography instead of filming it, although Legweak I'm sure you'll correct me.

P.S. Oh and I forgot to metion the spanish flu after the Great War which is estimated to have killed between 20 and 40 million people, this however coincided with the WWI. However although a huge number of lives were lost the mortality rate was much lower. All that can be said on the topic is pandemics are predictably unpredicatable

Easter

I have left this for a while and it has been gathering dust and piles - metaphorical piles i might add - of science are building up. Although my ever growing knowledge does its best to embarrass people, especially when explaining cervical cancer.


Moving swiftly on, we all know there is an economic downturn. While nobody really is feeling it yet, I feel science may be first hit with budget cuts, as long as this cuts out the bureaucracy this can be no bad thing, as at the moment ideas take years to even make it to the drawing board. However we may not see the effects now in this age but years down the line, this recession will surely hinder our scientific development. This will coincide with the industrialised countries shift from so called developing countries diseases such as cholera, sickle cell anaemia into the ones present in the western and developed world such as heart disease and cancer.

However my cynicism seems to be unfounded as Obama declared today that he would donate 3% of the gross domestic product, which when considering it was 2.6% before is a huge increase of over 15%.

Also another recent development is the complete sequencing of the cow genome, while not amazing at first. If it weren't for cows a lot of insulin would never have been produced, now it is produced by bacteria. This advancement does open up a possible increase in milk production, that can be no bad thing.