The Girl Who Never Ages

A young girl is under the scrutiny of scientists who say she may be one of the most important finds in the often sought fountain of youth.  The girl has been alive for seventeen years, but still looks and behaves like a one-year-old child.  She weighs 16 lbs and is only 30 inches in height.  Most people who see her say Brooke Greenberg is only a toddler.  But Brooke Greenberg is almost old enough to vote.  Scientists say the child is suffering from a rare genetic mutation.  And if scientists map her genome as they are hoping to do, they may find out why.

Brooke, age 17

When many scientists look at Brooke Greenburg, they see an opportunity to discover why we age.  When her mother sees her, she sees the girl who will never grow up - literally.  Researchers at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, led by Richard Walker, have suggested that the girl's rare condition is an opportunity for the team to study something that they have been attempting to uncover for years: why we age.  There are several theories, but the actual mechanics behind the aging process are often unclear or misleading.  "If we can compare her genome," Walker says, "to the normal version then we might be able to find those genes and see exactly what the do and how to control them."

Age is a matter that all humans have to come to terms with at some point in their lives.  We are born, we reach a peak age, and then we begin gradually to deteriorate before we die.  But what about a world where we didn't age?  That's the question several scientists are proposing.  If genes could be studied accurately, then not only could the aging process potentially be halted, there are some who suggest it could even be (in some ways) reversed.  Of course this field of research is still new, and there are a thousand different avenues of research that could help the whole world.

Meanwhile, life for Melanie and Howard Greenberg goes on in the suburb where they live.  It's a struggle as they continue to help Brooke through her life as an eternal toddler, changing her, rocking her to sleep, and attempting to teach her to speak.  Brooke crawls, smiles, and giggles when tickled, but has not yet mastered the art of speech.  In addition, she has suffered several potentially deadly illnesses and conditions.  But the girl who may hold the future in her genes is not without hope.  As research into her condition continues she may not only help others, but herself as well.  Scientists have already discovered that parts of her body are aging, just at different speeds.  Those researching her case have suggested that it's likely that her genes have been damaged in such a way that it makes it difficult for her body to coordinate the rate at which her body develops.  Scientists suggest if they could only figure out which gene, they could switch it on and off at will.  And maybe switching it on in Brooke would help her develop into an adult.  Would it be possible to then stop aging for the rest of us?

Apple patent case 'could affect all android phones'

Apple's legal action against HTC may have "wider implications" for all phone makers using Google's Android operating system, an analyst has warned.

Ian Fogg of Forrester Research said that the case against HTC, in which Apple alleges infringement of 20 of its patents, could be the first of many.

Although Apple has not named Google in the suits, many of the named patents relate to operating system processes.

Google has taken the unusual step of publicly supporting HTC in the case.

"We are not a party to this lawsuit," said a Google spokesperson.

"However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it."

Wider implications

HTC was the first manufacturer to use Android in its phones and is also the maker of Google's own brand Nexus One handset.

Some have speculated that Apple - which makes the popular iPhone - are attacking Google "by proxy" by filing the case against HTC.

"I think this is kind of an indirect lawsuit against Google," analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers told Reuters.

Some of the patents that Apple alleges have been infringed are 15 years old and cover aspects of operating systems.

As a result, some believe that the patents cannot just relate to HTC and believe the case may just be an opening salvo against other firms and possibly Google.

"Simply because Apple has focused on HTC now doesn't mean it won't take action against other manufacturers later," Mr Fogg told BBC News.

"[This case] could have implications for all other phone manufacturers which have just announced their phones at Mobile World Congress."

Mobile World Congress is a showcase for the phone industry, held every February in Barcelona, Spain.

Manufacturers including Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and HTC announced new handsets running Android at the show.

"2010 is going to be the year of Android," said Mr Fogg.

Legal web

In a statement Apple boss Steve Jobs said: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it.

"We've decided to do something about it."

The Californian firm alleges that HTC have infringed 20 patents owned by Apple that are used in the iPhone.

Apple is seeking an injunction which would effectively bar HTC from selling phones that use the disputed technology in the US.

The legal action has been filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and a district court in Delaware.

HTC has said it is unable to comment on the case until it has had a chance to assess the validity of the claims.

It is the latest in a series of legal wrangles involving Apple.

Finnish phone giant Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement in October 2009, alleging it had stolen patented technology.

In response, Apple countersued in December 2009, followed by a second round of legal action from Nokia.

Apple is also being investigated by the ITC following a complaint by camera manufacturer Kodak. The firm alleges that the iPhone uses technology for previewing pictures that infringe Kodak patents.

Survivor of Two Atomic Blasts Dies

When looking at unlikely and impossible feats of luck both good and bad, one of the hallmark figures is Tsutomu Yamaguchi.  The story of Yamaguchi's survival and subsequent danger is so incredible that many list it as a case of fate intervening even as an entire city is destroyed around him.  This story is even more incredible than the cases of plane crashes where there is only one survivor as Mr. Yamaguchi survived not one, but two nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945 before dying just this month of stomach cancer.

Yamaguchi's incredible story that began in Hiroshima would later end in Nagasaki, but not due to either atomic blast he survived.  His journey would see him through ground zero of the most intense war Japan would ever face, and his story would be retold years after the events.  The first bomb struck just as Yamaguchi was arriving in Hiroshima to work as an engineer when suddenly a tremendous boom shattered one of his eardrums and a bright flash blinded him temporarily.  Though he was burned badly on his upper body he did eventually recover while staying with his family in Nagasaki.

Unfortunately, Nagasaki was the last place on Earth Yamaguchi should have been.  Working as an engineer, Yamaguchi realized he would have a considerable task with recovering the lost city of Hiroshima.  Luckily those fires were far away.  For a moment Yamaguchi felt safer.  After that a second blast destroyed his home city of Nagasaki.  And somehow he survived that as well.  In his life he would make a full recovery and even live to the age of 93.  Though the bomb had taken away the will to live for many survivors, Yamaguchi was not among them.  In 2005 he would begin speaking publicly about the horrors of nuclear war and attempt to find ways to bring attention to the horrors following a nuclear blast.

Whether it's a stroke of incredible fortune to survive two unlikely attacks using an experimental weapon more powerful than anything previously seen on Earth or an act of incredible misfortune to witness it entirely, the real question becomes one of human will.  How can someone witness something so awe inspiring and terrible and yet find a way to turn around and live life normally?  The power of the mind in this case is certainly inspiring, but it's also an extremely intense matter of intellectual curiosity.  Many of those who witnessed even one of the bombs were thrown into intense depression and post traumatic stress, often living in congregations and incapable of undertaking anything more than simple tasks to care for themselves.

So was there something more to Mr. Yamaguchi's survival than mere luck?  In his later years he did provide the world an incredible service by becoming a spokesman for the horrors of nuclear war and why they needed to be avoided in the future.  When one looks at it, it seems he was afterward fighting against the end of life on Earth.  Does that make this unlikely case of luck into something else?  Perhaps only time will tell.

Apple reveals new iPhone features (Friday, 9 April 2010)

Apple has shown off some of the 100 new features to be included in the iPhone operating system later this year.

The update includes a mobile advertising platform called iAd that will be used to place adverts in applications made by third parties.

Apple founder Steve Jobs also showcased a long-awaited multi-tasking feature, which will allow users to run more than one program at a time.

The feature is already included in many other smartphones.

iAd marks Apple's first foray into a potentially lucrative new market, and pits it directly against Google's search engine advertising model.

Apple will allow external developers to pocket 60% of ad revenue from iAd.

The Apple boss said the iPhone OS 4.0 update will be released first for the iPhone and iPod touch, and then the iPad, later this year.

'Ad-sense'

Mr Jobs gave a demonstration of the multi-tasking feature showed the online radio station Pandora running in the background playing music while a user could either read news online or deal with e-mail.

"We weren't the first to this party but we're going to be the best," he said.

Some of the other features unveiled at the presentation at Apple's headquarters in California include being able to create specific folders to store third party applications downloaded from iTunes, enhanced mail, which will gather e-mail from multiple accounts into one "unified" inbox and iBooks, which is already on the iPad.

Mr Jobs said mobile users spend more time inside applications than searching the internet.

Therefore it made sense to have adverts within the applications - or apps as they are commonly known.

"It's very clear that [Mr] Jobs believes that ads in the context of apps makes more sense than generic mobile search," said Tim Bajarin at consulting company Creative Strategies.

Mobile sales

Apple's move into mobile advertising was widely expected after it bought Quattro Wireless mobile advertising network for almost $300m (£196m) in January.

Analysts say revenue from mobile advertising will jump dramatically this year.

"It has huge potential to really change mobile commerce," said Van Baker, Vice president of research at Gartner.

"The evidence so far is that very few transactions really happen in this space. Mobile is used to compare prices, find restaurants, movie times and the like but very little in the way of commerce."

Apple bought mobile ad company Quattro after failing to buy the market leader AdMob, which was purchased by Google.

In a slight to the search giant, Mr Jobs said "Google came in and snatched them (AdMob) because they didn't want us to have them".

Google's deal is currently being investigated by US regulators.

iPad demand

During the packed press event, Mr Jobs revealed that to date Apple has sold 50m iPhones. That number rises to 85m when the iPod touch is included.

Mr Jobs also gave an update on the iPad, which went on sale in the US only at the weekend. It is expected in stores in the UK and part of Europe, as well as Canada and Australia at the end of the month.

Apple said it had sold 450,000 iPads as of 8 April. Mr Jobs added that 600,000 electronic books and 3.5m applications had been downloaded for the iPad in the previous five days.

"We're making them as fast as we can," Mr Jobs said. "Evidently we can't make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder."

The Sacred Cow

The term sacred cow is a firm representation of the several factors of human history where cows were used as symbols of the most spiritual aspects of eastern philosophy.  And there was a firm presence of sacred animals of bovine nature in the west as well.  The importance of the cow has been seen in everything from the Egyptian Kemetic tradition as well as being sacred to the Celts.  Where did this shift from the cow as a sacred animal to fast food consumerism take place?  And can it be an indicator of our own spirituality?

In several belief systems the cow is sacred because it is a system of fertility and growth.  It represents the Mehet-Weret or primordial force that eventually gave birth to Ra.  In the Hindu belief system the cow is equally sacred due to its relationship to the fertility of crops, but also of all forms of life.  Perhaps it is not the cow itself that seems to have a strong relationship with spirituality, but that which the cow seems to represent.  Even the name of our galaxy is called, perhaps not coincidentally, the Milky Way.  If these primordial forces are not held in the same esteem as they once were, then how did the sacred cow become a sacrificial animal, and to what force of man was it put to slaughter?

Today the cow is seen as a source of food to many, not just for its ability to enrich barren lands with its nutrients, and its life giving milk, but also using its very flesh as a source of sustenance. In fact, many would argue this is the primary purpose the cow serves these days.  So if the cow has changed from being an animal which produces sustenance which is reusable to an animal which must first be slaughtered in order to be consumed, is this an indication of something more?  Just as Buddhists are encouraged to think on the relationship of the sacred animal in order to draw conclusions about the human experience and their relationship with spiritual forces, perhaps it would be worthwhile to explore the evolution and ultimate conclusion that has brought us to present day.  Buddha's famous metaphor drew parallels between the human experience and the products produced by the cow, "For just as milk comes from the cow and from the milk cream, and from the cream butter, and from the butter ghee, so that is reckoned the best of all, and he who has striven both for himself and for others is the highest and most supreme.

Is there an aspect of human spirituality that would celebrate the death of fertility in the universe?  In looking at the sprawling metropolises devoid of all life except that which is man, serves man, or is man's enemy, is it possible that there is no place for the sacred cow?  And can a world that does not value the sacred nature of creation truly sustain itself and create the new if it removes itself from the cycle of creation?

Russia's oil exploration threatens gray whales

Oil exploration plans in eastern Russia are a serious threat to gray whales in the area, say scientists with the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The Rosneft company is due to begin a seismic survey around Sakhalin island within the next few weeks.

The IWC's Scientific Committee is "extremely concerned" about the plans and is calling for a postponement.

The gray whale population is critically endangered, with only about 130 animals left and only 20 breeding females.

Russia says it is aware of the problem, but the company's capacity to shift is limited for financial reasons.

Western Pacific gray whales (also known as grey whales) come to Sakhalin each summer to feed, and seismic survey work - which involves producing high-intensity sound pulses and studying reflections from rock strata under the sea floor - can seriously disrupt their feeding.

The small area where the whales congregate has shallow water, and scientists suspect this is where mothers teach their calves how to feed at the sea floor.

The IWC's head of science, Greg Donovan, said the survey work was planned for the period "when there's probably the highest density of gray whales and particularly mother-calf pairs.

"The Scientific Committee is requesting them to postpone the survey until next year, and to do it as early in the season as possible when there are as few whales there as possible," he told BBC News.

"We actually made a similar recommendation to another company, Sakhalin Energy; they have followed that recommendation and this year, they are carrying out the survey with a very detailed mitigation plan as early in the season as possible."

The mitigation plan includes a provision that testing must stop if mother-and-calf pairs appear in the area.

Energy balance

Russia's IWC commissioner, Valentin Ilyashenko, said he accepted the scientists' conclusions, but there might be a problem in following through on its recommendations.

"Our government and minister of natural resources know this problem... and this question was discussed maybe one month ago," he said.

"From my information, it's very difficult to start this work next year, because the work was planned last year and the money was in the budget for this year, and all equipment and the mothership is rented.

"It's very difficult to change that work but in any case, I know that our scientists and the staff of our ministers is working with this problem with this company."

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been working with companies including Sakhalin Energy to minimise the impact on gray whales.

But Rosneft, reportedly, has appeared less interested in the issue.

Justin Cooke, a member of the IUCN panel, said that if the planned tests go ahead, there was a risk that mothers with calves could be driven out of their feeding grounds.

"This could have a crucial impact on this critically endangered population," he said.

"We have some evidence of a slow recovery, but that would be jeopardised by serious disruption in their feeding grounds."

The population has to recover and expand, he said, if its survival is to be assured.

Going south

The western grays spend the winters in breeding grounds further south, where another issue threatening their survival is entrapment in fishing nets.

Japan is trying to reduce this bycatch in its fleet through an education programme.

Fishermen are not now allowed to sell gray whale meat, and are asked to report entanglements so that authorities can release the whales.

Since the programme's introduction in 2008, there have been no reports of gray whales deaths through this mechanism.

This is one component of a comprehensive conservation plan drawn up by scientists from a number of countries and endorsed here by the IWC.

A key priority is to locate the breeding grounds, which are thought to be close to the Chinese coast - perhaps in a military zone.

Google Shut Down in China

The mega search engine Google has been blocked thanks to an alteration in how firewalls connect to the internet in China.  What is being called the Great Firewall of China is one of the most comprehensive blocks in the world, keeping the majority of the internet censored in order to keep from 'indecent' and 'inflammatory' materials from reaching the Chinese public.

Originally, when Google signed an agreement with China, it originally agreed without commitment to go along with the censorship laws.  Google spokesmen say this was in order to provide any service as opposed to none at all, and thus some limited censorship was allowed.  It did, however, stop cooperating with China's strict censorship laws shortly after a series of attacks on Google's email system.  The cyber-attacks are still being investigated, but Google spokesmen deny that there is a direct relationship between the two events, saying the move against censorship came in the interest of freedom of speech.  To Google's credit, they have consistently acted in the past as interested in freedom of speech internationally.  The company's informal slogan "Don't be evil," while notably unusual seems to be in the consciousness of those in decision making capacity in this particular case.

Although this may not be as much an issue of good versus evil as much as an issue of conflicting ideologies between governmental and corporate bodies working in a global market.  Google clearly is flexing its muscles as it ascends in value and its market capital exceeds 150 billion dollars, and keeping in mind its philosophical tenant #8 "The Need for Information Crosses All Borders."   The company was founded in California in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and has been making consistent decisions to make information as universally possible to access ever since.  Of course in order to make some information accessible to the world, it had to make some compromises.  The controversial deal with China was just one of several where Google agreed to share as much information as possible rather than be blocked out entirely.

Mainland China has as a result, suspended many features of the search engine and even blocked out its main search engine results.  This is thought partially to be a glitch, but could also be a direct message from the Chinese government that Google should play by its rules or suffer a considerable loss in revenues.  Human rights advocates, on the other hand, are giving Google high praise for its bold move to ensure freedom of speech throughout the world.

But there's another and perhaps more disturbing conflict arising from this.  Corporate and government interests have rarely seen a time of purely coinciding values and motivations.  In fact the notion of a powerful corporation almost directly rebels with government, as they are competing for money and influence.  And with competition there is always the threat of conflict.  As such, this feud between Google and China's values is an understandable and seemingly almost inevitable one as the information industry continues to emerge across national and cultural borders.