Pollyanna wishes you a happy Midsummer Day

Pollyanna says hi and takes you to Stonehenge for Midsummer Day:
 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARI!
On Midsummer Day in 1999 our Ari came into the world. He had a medically rough early few years, but he is our delightful teenager today. Pollyanna, Titan and YandA join in wishing him a very happy birthday with much love.

Ari

For starters, let us refer you to the Miriam Shlesinger Human Rights action blog. Over a year has gone by without Miriam and we continue to realize what we have lost. She got us into the human rights struggle. Please act on behalf of people who are so much in need of support in their trials and tribulations at the hands of oppressive regimes and corporations.

CHARITY CORNER

This week Pollyanna refers you to Because I am a Girl, a charity sponsored by PlanUSA to help girls around the world. There are several projects for helping girls and Pollyanna and the rest of us here ask you to watch the video and then choose the project that fits you best.

DOWN WITH THE DEGRADING TEAM NAME. 
The Washington DC team in the National Football league is known as the Redskins, which is certainly demeaning to Native Americans.
 
Pollyanna is pleased to pass on to you the news that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office,  has ruled that the name is disparaging and has stripped it of copyright protection. The fight will go on, but this is a step forward.

WE SALUTE THE WHISTLEBLOWERS WHO TOOK ON TOYOTA AND GENERAL MOTORS
Pollyanna says cheers to Betsy Benjaminson, the Israeli-American translator who blew Toyota's cover on the lethal flaws in the accelerator system of its cars that cost the lives of many people.

Betsy Benjaminson flanked by her lawyers Dor Heskia (left) and Amos Hacmun. Photo by Tomer Appelbaum

Toyota has paid out billions to settle lawsuits. It gives you pause to think that a corporation will risk your life to enhance profits. The mass recall by General Motors is making news now. The flawed ignition switch in the Chevrolet Cobalt could easily slip into the “off” position—cutting power, stalling the engine, and disabling airbags just when they’re needed most. The part has been linked to at least 13 deaths and 54 crashes.

In 2006 the wreck of a 2005 Cobalt killed two and injured one

The whistleblower was silenced and pushed out of his job.The “Valukas Report,” named for former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, who assembled it at GM’s request from interviews with 230 witnesses and 41 million documents, blamed a culture of complacency for the more than decade-long delay before the company recalled millions of faulty vehicles. Cheers also to the GM hero Courtland Kelley.

THE RANT 
This week Pollyanna is ranting about infringement of a woman's right to choose in matters involving pregnancy and abortion. Her focus is on two countries in particular, Spain and Argentina. The law that guarantees women and girls access to safe and legal abortion services in Spain is at risk of being significantly amended, taking the country back decades to a precarious time. There are serious concerns for their health and lives if these changes are introduced. The government must withdraw the bill immediately. Pollyanna asks you to open the link and take action. She also calls your attention to the work of Socorristas En Red - Socorro Rosa: A Feminist Practice For The Right To Choose In Argentina. Abortion is illegal in Argentina, with three exceptions: when the pregnancy was the result of a rape, abuse against a woman with a mental disability and when the pregnant woman’s life or health are at risk. However, even these cases often end up before the Courts and women continue to undergo surgical clandestine abortions that put their lives at risk. AWID talked to feminist activist Dahiana Belfiori about the feminist collective that is implementing safe accompaniment for women opting for medical abortion.

Photo: La Revuelta Colectiva Feminista

Pollyanna would also like to remind you of her rant on a similar issue in El Salvador in her last blog posting.

SPECIAL RANT 
Pollyanna is venturing into the minefield of the local conflict to express her protest over the kidnapping of three teenage yeshiva students by unknown Palestinian militants. She joins the protest of Amnesty International along with their call to refrain from collective punishment of the Palestinian population.

Israeli soldiers interrogate a Palestinian family during a raid in the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazon, north of Ramallah, June 16, 2014. Photo by AFP

While Pollyanna understands the need for the victims' families to seek consolation in prayer, she agrees with Uri Misgav that the mass prayer meeting going on in the media and everywhere else is revolting and enhances the religious ideology that is eroding our national identify. We quote Ambrose Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary: “Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.” She also agrees with Gideon Levi that it is hypocritical for us to cry foul over the hostage-taking in view of our actions in the past. It also would be helpful if we had a security establishment that was worth more than a "a bucket of warm piss" to paraphrase the late John Nance Garner's description of the vice-presidency of the US. The media tell us that the PM and the CoC are "evaluating the situation blah blah" while their  incompetence  screams to the high heavens.  Here are our great heroes in all their glory.

Netanyahu and senior defense officials wanking off on camera

 One of the victims even managed to call the police to say that they had been kidnapped. The police brushed it off as a joke.

THE HIDDEN PICASSO 
Picasso's The Blue Room was among the first paintings produced during the legendary artist's "blue period," a multi-year span that saw him focus on somber works using mostly shades of blue.
 

But this early work contains a fascinating mystery of its own: a hidden portrait of a man that art experts are hoping to identify.

The portrait of the mysterious man on the right was discovered under Picasso's 'The Blue Room.' (AP/ EVAN VUCCI)

GOODIES FROM SCIENCE

COMPUTERS PASS AND FLUNK 

Alan Turing from archive of papers relating to the development of computing at the National Physical Laboratory between the late 1940s and the early 1970s. (Science Museum, London/SSPL)

We are told that a computer program has passed the Turing test. Can a computer trick a human into thinking it is actually a fellow human? That question gave birth to the “Turing Test” 65 years ago. You might wonder if the humans that tested it were up to it...

OTOH, we also have a failure. Quantum computers have been long touted as the Holy Grail of computer speed and efficiency. Google spent $15 million on such a device and after rigorous tests it was found to be no faster than conventional computers. Read all about it in Science. Our hearts weep peanut butter for poor baby Google.

DENTISTRY GOES PAINLESS 
You all recall "Painless Pole" the dentist in M.A.S.H. with his hilarious sex problems. It now appears that painless dentistry will soon be with us. Scientists have developed a new pain-free filling that allows cavities to be repaired without drilling or injections. The tooth-rebuilding technique, developed at King's College London, does away with fillings and instead encourages teeth to repair themselves.

The new treatment, Electrically Accelerated and Enhanced Remineralisation (EAER), could be available within three years. Photograph: Hermes Morrison 2/Alamy

 Pollyanna is all in favor of it and is glad indeed.

WHO NEEDS FOOD? 
A new food substitute has come out of the Silicon Valley and it seems to be gaining popularity. Rob Rhinehart was getting fed up on the hassle of food expenses and preparation. He is twenty five, studied electrical engineering at Georgia Tech, and he began to consider food as an engineering problem. “You need amino acids and lipids, not milk itself,” he said. “You need carbohydrates, not bread.” Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins and minerals, but they’re “mostly water.” He began to think that food was an inefficient way of getting what he needed to survive. “It just seemed like a system that’s too complex and too expensive and too fragile,” he told Lizzie Widdicombe, the New Yorker writer who interviewed him. If the New Yorker link does not open, you can read about it in the Guardian. The product known as Soylent is a drinkable mix of vegetable oil and nutrients.

Tasters have compared Soylent to Cream of Wheat and “my grandpa’s Metamucil.” Photograph by Henry Hargreaves.

 It is open source on the Web and you can make your own if you wish. It is obviously not for everyone and the name evokes a disgusting movie, but who are we to judge?

IS HANDWRITING IMPORTANT?
When we were in school we suffered reprimands and hassle because of our bad handwriting. We seem to have passed this mild alexia on to our progeny.

Our handwriting did not lead us to medical school and our grades went up when we learned to type and started submitting typed (yes children, there once were machines called typewriters before computers and printers) homework. Now we are told that handwriting is good for our cognitive processes, which is quite interesting, although not everyone agrees.

MAGNETIC MOMENT OF THE PROTON 
Pollyanna is sure that you all have been losing sleep, as she has, over the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. If at the time of the Big Bang equal amounts of matter and antimatter had come into being, they should have annihilated one another and there would have been no matter, no stars, no us, nothing. A major step towards understanding why this did not take place is the recent accurate measurement of the magnetic moment of the proton. The magnetic moment is one of the fundamental properties of protons, which combine with neutrons to form the nucleus of atoms. In principle, the method can also be used to measure the magnetic moment of an antiproton with a similarly high precision, making it possible to investigate matter/antimatter asymmetry. Pollyanna proposes a toast or antitoast to the researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) for their beautiful experimental work.

The oscillating proton (red) generates a tiny current which is recorded using highly sensitive electronic detectors. The red arrow represents the magnetic moment of the proton; the green lines indicate the magnetic field in the trap.

Credit: © Georg Schneider, JGU

[Click to enlarge image]

SILLY TIME

What If? asks: As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur? Steve Lydford

Interesting question and answer.

Randall has a good illustration of what is meant by global warming and this is not funny:



 Poor Barney has a moral problem. Maybe he should turn atheist...



 We should be careful in our use of words.

Pollyanna greets you

NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet
Image Credit & Copyright: Bob and Janice Fera (Fera Photography) Explanation: This helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages is popularly called Thor's Helmet. Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the helmet is more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center sweeps through a surrounding molecular cloud. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star, the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova stage of evolution. Cataloged as NGC 2359, the nebula is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. The sharp image, made using broadband and narrowband filters, captures striking details of the nebula's filamentary structures. It shows off a blue-green color from strong emission due to oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.

Pollyanna greets  you all again and would like to share something beautiful from the cosmos. Here is an image of a nebula known as Thor's Helmet because of its shape.

For starters, let us refer you to the Miriam Shlesinger Human Rights action blog. Over a year has gone by without Miriam, we continue to realize what we have lost. She got us into the human rights struggle. Please act on behalf of people who are so much in need of support in their trials and tribulations at the hands of oppressive regimes and corporations.

CHARITY CORNER
This week Pollyanna refers you to the Center for Biological Diversity. They have exciting good news that the State of  California has granted protected species status to wolves. The Center  announced the decision along with the news that the former lone wolf OR-7 has been seen with pups in southern Oregon.


Wolves play an important ecological role, primarily in controlling the rodent population and are worthy of protection. They are also magnificent animals. Cheers and please send them a donation.

 IN MEMORIAM HANNAH MARON 1923-2014 
The grand lady of Israeli theater passed away this week at age 90. She had a long and most successful career despite setbacks that would have defeated a lesser person. In 1970, en route to London via Munich to audition for a part in the West End production of Fiddler on the Roof opposite fellow Israeli actor Chaim Topol, Maron was injured following a failed terrorist hijacking of her El Al flight and lost her left leg. After a hiatus, she returned to the stage and in the years to come became a vocal peace activist.

Hanna Maron speaking at an anti-racism gathering in 2010.

She was born in Berlin where she appeared as a child actress at age 4 and in 1931 made her cinematic debut in Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang's thriller M. With the rise of the Nazis to power in 1933 her family emigrated to Palestine. She volunteered to entertain troops in WWII and after the war was among the founders of the Cameri theater in Tel Aviv. We have the DVD's of the 1980's sitcom Near Ones/Dear Ones in which she starred and find them still funny and the satire still relevant. She starred in numerous plays including Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, multiple Shakespearean plays and the musical Hello, Dolly.  

In 1973 she was awarded the annual Israel Prize, regarded as the state's highest honor. She was long upheld as one the country’s first ladies of theater and in 2011 was acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the actress with the longest theater career in history. She also took a major role in liberal and left wing politics. Pollyanna mourns the loss of a great person and actress.   A detailed obituary is in Haaretz.

THE RANT 
The week's rant is about the intolerable situation of  women in El Salvador. Because of El Salvador’s absolute ban on all abortions, seventeen Salvadoran women who arrived at public health care facilities after suffering a miscarriage, stillbirth or other obstetric complication, often hemorrhaging and unconscious, were accused of provoking an abortion and turned over to police. They were prosecuted for aggravated homicide based on a constitutional amendment declaring that life begins at conception and now sit in prison, serving sentences of up to 40 years.

For the “crime” of having an obstetric complication while living in poverty, these women -- Alba, Carmen, Cintia, Ena, Evelyn, Guadalupe, Johana, Maria, Mariana, Marina, Maritza, Mirian, Mirna, Salvadora, Teodora, Teresa, and Veronica -- were vigorously prosecuted and harshly sentenced. Pollyanna calls upon all of you to join the call to the President of El Salvador to grant pardons to these most unfortunate women.

Pollyanna is also outraged over the discovery of 796 bodies of infants and small children in the septic tank of a convent in Ireland. If you saw the film Philomena you should be aware of the system of nun operated orphanages in which unwed mothers and their children were exploited and abused in Ireland. The orphanage in question in Tuam county, Galway, operated from 1926 until 1961. A 1944 government inspection recorded evidence of malnutrition among some of the 271 children then living in the Tuam orphanage alongside 61 unwed mothers. The local Archbishop is talking about getting the sisters of the order that ran the hell house to put up a memorial. Local people are talking about church accountability and a state-funded investigation and excavation of the site.

An Irish historian discovered this 1920s photo of children at an Irish orphanage in Galway county, along with a Connaught Tribune news story about potentially moving the children's orphanage to Tuam, where a researcher now believes nearly 800 dead infants were buried in a mass grave between the 1920s and '60s.

A BIT OF GOOD NEWS
LABOR RIGHTS AT THE UN  
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon withdrew recognition of the unions of the UN employees last year. Pollyanna is pleased to pass on to you the news that recognition has been restored. This is a result of the explosion of anger from unions and working people all over the world. The Secretary-General has agreed a new negotiating system that significantly improves on the UN Staff Management Committee (SMC) rules that applied previously.
POLLUTION CUTS DO NO HARM
Pollyanna is pleased to note that despite all the hysteria of the energy industry after President Obama's pollution cut announcement, ten states have implemented such cuts with no real economic damage. It should be clear that short term profits of special and well heeled interests need not impact the real public interest in saving our planet.  Pollyanna is right with you Mr. President.


GOODIES FROM SCIENCE

DUST UP ABOUT GRAVITATIONAL WAVES 
You will recall that last March Titan told you about the great discovery of gravitational waves by the Biceps2 telescope. At the time, the phrase in the background was "if the results hold up to further scrutiny."

In the meantime, as happens in science, various people have been taking a hard look at the data and the claims are expressing severe doubts about the validity of the results. The question raised in a Nature blog was whether the foreground dust and the polarization it could have caused was accounted for properly. The answer to that question will only be out when the full Planck spacecraft data set is published in the fall.

Preliminary data from the Planck probe on how galactic dust scatters microwave radiation, presented at an April 2013 meeting, are now being used to evaluate the strength of signals from the primordial Universe.

In the meantime, the observers are standing by their results. They used partial Planck data from a slide, so called data scraping, which is legitimate practice to reach the conclusion that the observation is real. Brian Koberlein writing in Universe Today tends to support the observers. Stay tuned.

RESTORATION NEWS

New techniques may make it possible to restore an old drawing about 500 years old by Leonardo da Vinci. The mysterious da Vinci portrait, widely considered to be a self-portrait of the artist, was drawn with red chalk on paper in the early 1500s and has since been fading.

A self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci done in red chalk.Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1510-1515

If the restoration succeeds, it will be a great boon to art and history.

Not only painting, but sound recordings, especially old ones are subject to decay. A Berkeley physicist, Carl Haber, has been using techniques that were applied to the Higgs hunt at CERN to restore ancient sound recordings.
 
He was awarded a MacArthur genius grant to pursue this development and Pollyanna is most impressed. Read the link for fascinating details.

THE FERMI PARADOX
The late great physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) asked the question "if the time for a civilization to spread through the galaxy is short compared to the lifetime of the galaxy, then were are they, if they exist?"   Fermi's colleague  Leo Szilard, is said to have assured him that they are here among us and are known as Hungarians. Randall has revived the question in the light of the discovery of exosolar planets.


SILLY TIME

What If? asks: I was watching this video and was wondering: How
many birds there would need to be for gravity to take over and
force them into a gargantuan ball of birds?

—Justin Basinger

Relax, we are not going to be overwhelmed with starling clouds.

Have you ever wondered what drove Tom Lehrer to become an enemy of
pigeons?





We will even forgive Randall for this:

Pollyanna again

Fresco restored to Herodian palace at Masada

Pollyanna would like to provide some relief from the dour picture brother Titan unloaded on you last week. To his credit, he did have a few positive things to report. Pollyanna also has a few nice things to tell you. First, she is delighted to show you one of the frescoes restored to the palace of King Herod (37-4 BCE) in Masada. She salutes the team headed by Italian expert renovator Prof. Maurizio Tagliapietra of the University of Verona and including employees of the Israel Parks and Nature Authority. Cheers! Later she will also have some things to be upset about.

For starters, let us refer you to the Miriam Shlesinger Human Rights action blog. Over a year has gone by without Miriam, and we continue to realize what we have lost. She got us into the human rights struggle. Please act on behalf of people who are so much in need of support in their trials and tribulations at the hands of oppressive regimes and corporations.

CHARITY CORNER 
Last week we saw a beautiful documentary film about Louis Sarno, the musicologist who lives among his Bayaka friends and family in the Central African Republic.
 

He spends much of his time and energy supporting the Bayaka in various ways, most significantly by distributing medication and food to those in need. But the current civic war in the CAR means that tourism – the most important source of income for Louis in recent years – has more or less stopped. Through "Global Voice“ you can help Louis and the Bayaka of Yandoumbé to survive even in these difficult times. If the link works for you, you can donate via PayPal. If not, as happened to Pollyanna, send a check to Global Voice Foundation 133 East De La Guerra Street #160 Santa Barbara CA 93101 USA Here is a trailer of the film.


WELCOME POPE FRANCIS

It would better be to lower expectations ahead of next week's Mideast visit by Pope Francis. Photo by AFP

Pollyanna is delighted to welcome Pope Francis I on the occasion of his visit to Israel. She hopes that the visit will go off well and that no major hate crimes by Orthodox Jews sully the occasion. She agrees that the visit is primarily religious and no one should expect any great political or diplomatic effects. Already the anti-Christian graffiti have appeared, but let us hope that nothing worse happens.

Graffiti on the wall of a Be'er Sheva church. Quote:"Jesus is an SOB." Photo by Israel Police

Cheers to the Pontiff and enjoy your visit.

WEB SITE FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS 
Pollyanna would like to call your attention to a Web site launched early this year as a cooperative effort of AWID, Mama Cash and the Guardian newspaper. The founders regard this collaboration as an opportunity to achieve these goals:

•     bring a rights based analysis to a broad and powerful audience

•     increase the visibility of women’s rights organizing and make the case for more and better resources for women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements

•     influence key global policy processes and debates related to the post-2015 agenda

•     raise the visibility of women human rights defenders at risk

•     support more diverse voices to frame debates and set priorities about women’s, girls and trans* people’s rights and the changes that are needed at global, regional and national levels

Pollyanna recommends that you all take a look at the site as well as at the links to AWID and Mama Cash, a major funder for women's rights activity.


Also, last week Titan promoted the initiative of a group of Israeli women to take Palestinian children to the sea. Although they live not far from the Mediterranean, most Palestinian children have never seen it. This project has taken wing and expanded. Please help take a kid to the beach. Pollyanna joins the call.

THE RANT 
This week's rant is about the tragic coal mine accident in Turkey that claimed over 300 lives. It could have been prevented and serves as a reminder that privatization of an industry can lead to a lack of regulation and relaxing of safety standards. The BP massive oil leak catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico four years ago was, as stated explicitly by President Obama, a result of the cozy relationship between corporations and regulators. The privatization of British Rail in the 1990's led to an increase in accidents and the eventual renationalization of the main rail operating entity. The disastrous chemical spill in West Virginia is certainly related to the cutbacks in environmental control and supervision of the coal and chemical industries, as noted in the New Yorker. This quote tells it all:  
"The state has become a standard-bearer for pro-business, limited-government conservatism. The day before the chemical spill, the governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, delivered his State of the State address, criticizing federal environmental regulators and vowing, “I will never back down from the E.P.A., because of its misguided policies on coal.” Tomblin, a conservative Democrat elected in 2011, cut corporate taxes and denounced the federal government for overstepping its authority. To balance the budget, he tapped other government funds and called for broad cuts, including reducing agency spending by seventy million dollars. For the second consecutive year, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection would take a 7.5-per-cent cut in state funds, dropping to its lowest level since 2008."
To Pollyanna, it is clear that the rush for short term profits and the corruption entailed by the government-industry cohabitation leads to an inevitable devaluation of human life and basic rights. The public needs to be more aware and to stand up to the bad guys.

BTW, Pollyanna notes that protesters were abused when PM  Erdogan visited the disaster site at Soma.

Yusuf Yerkel, left, adviser to Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, kicking a protestor as Special Forces police officers detain him during a protest against Erdogan's visit to Soma, May 14, 2014. Photo by Reuters

It is also typical that the a newspaper supportive of Erdogan blames the Turkish mine disaster on Jews. 

FIRE, ROCKETS AND CHILDREN 
Last March a science fair of sorts was held in Tel Aviv. It was designed to tout the achievements of the hi-tech industry and of course to expose children to rockets and
weapon systems in the style of North Korea.  It might have been more appropriate to focus on medical research or even astronomy, but in militaristic Israel, this is what you get.

The Israel Science Day at Rabin Square, Tel Aviv. March 26, 2014. Photo by Daniel Bar On

In one of the exhibits, set up to demonstrate rocket launching, an accident took place, three children were burned and there was no ambulance on hand. The children were burned badly and the mother asks about accountability for the lack of safety precautions at the site. As Haaretz wrote at the time, "Israel may have incredible technological accomplishments in weapons and defense systems. But when it comes to taking care of its own people, this country is as incompetent as an ambulance driver with a burned child." Her op-ed piece in Haaretz was unfortunately not translated. Pollyanna wonders why.

MACCABI TEL AVIV, EUROLEAGUE CHAMPIONS 
Israel's Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv basketball team defeated Real Madrid 98-86, in overtime, and won the Euroleague championship  in Milan on Sunday evening. This is the club's sixth European championship title. Thousands turned out at Rabin Square to cheer the champions. Pollyanna watched the game and is glad to extend her congratulations.


BOOK REVIEW
We have long been admirers of the literary work of John Updike.

A priapic male gaze? John Updike in the mid-1960s. Photograph: Susan Wood/Getty Images

Pollyanna, therefore, welcomes the new biography of Updike which provides much insight into the life and work of the writer.  The book by Adam Begley  is reviewed in the Guardian/Observer. It is well worth your attention

GOODIES FROM SCIENCE

BLACK HOLES AND THE EVENT HORIZON 
The concept of a black hole as a one way road to oblivion has been called into question by no less than Stephen Hawking. Much attention is now being paid to the question of what happens at the so-called event horizon.  Imagine a poor astronaut arriving there.



Astronomers know that virtually every galaxy harbors a giant black hole at its center, shaping the formation of millions of stars and even neighboring galaxies with its immense gravitational influence. Galaxies also contain millions of small- and medium-sized black holes, each with an event horizon past which light is never seen again. The idea that if a black hole evaporates eventually all the information that has gone into is lost is in conflict with quantum mechanics. What is happening?  Read on to see details of this mystery. Pollyanna thinks it is cool that physics is facing one crisis after another. As the great Neils Bohr said: "How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress."
ON CANCER THERAPY 
In her March 14 blog this year Pollyanna expressed her delight and hopes for new cancer therapies based on harnessing the human immune system. This week she wants to tout an alternative approach, a silver bullet particle irradiation therapy evolving out of research at the Large Hadron Collider where scientists are developing a new and more effective alternative to radiotherapy which treats tumors with high-powered beams of positively charged particles at a greater accuracy than current radiotherapy techniques. Proton beam therapy enables doctors to target precisely tumors with a focused beam of protons, leaving the nearby tissue undamaged which minimizes the risk of unpleasant side effects. We underwent gamma ray therapy in 2002 for prostate cancer which in turn, because of poor focusing, led to a bout of bladder cancer in 2008.  Pollyanna and her family wish all success to all who toil in the vineyard of medical research and the improvement of means of healing.

THE ICY SAINTS 
The Ice Saints is a name given to St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatius in much European folklore. They are so named because their feast days fall on the days of May 11, May 12, and May 13 respectively which , as discussed in the Guardian, are supposed to be days of cold snaps in May.

It can get cold in May as this young Scottish rabbit discovered one frosty morning in 2009. Photograph: Duncan Shaw/Alamy

In the early 20th century, statisticians claimed to have debunked this as myth, but the so-called blackthorn winter belief persists and gardeners in many countries wait with spring planting until the cold saints have passed. While this indeed may be folklore, a climatological study carried out in the 1960's, using a century of meteorological data,  produced phenomena that showed preference for particular calendar days such as the breakdown of the stratospheric night polar vortex and intrusions of cold air in springtime into Europe.

SILLY TIME
What if?  asks:

What if you were to somehow ignite the pollen that floats around in the air in spring? Other than being a really bad idea, what effect would it have?

Jessica Thornburg
The answer is not reassuring to people with hay fever, but  otherwise it would not raise the temperature much unless you decided to concentrate it.

Finally the truth about the horny head boss:

 

As mosquito season moves in, we swear by our blue light zapper. Fortunately, none of us hear well:

 

In Israel the Army is again demanding more money to pay its inflated salaries and buy more useless toys:

Pollyanna welcomes you to the merry rainy month of May

Curiosity Inspects Mt. Remarkable on Mars
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech; Additional Mosaic Processing: Kenneth Kremer & Marco Di Lorenzo

Explanation: What has the Curiosity rover come across on Mars? Dubbed Mount Remarkable, the rolling robot has chanced upon this notable 5-meter tall mound during its continuing journey around, and eventually up, 5.5-kilometer high Mt. Sharp. Unsure of the density of the surrounding layered sandstone, the human team on Earth has instructed the car-sized rover on Mars to drill into a rock on the side of Mt. Remarkable to investigate. Quite possibly, water involved in creating the dense sandstone could have helped to support ancient life on the red planet. Mt. Sharp, the unusual central peak of Gale Crater, has a similar base-to-peak height as Earth's Mt. Everest.

Pollyanna would again like to provide some relief from the dour picture brother Titan unloaded on you last week. To his credit, he did have a few positive things to report. Pollyanna has a few nice things to tell you. First, take a look at Mt. Remarkable as seen by Curiosity on Mars."There are more things on heaven and Earth..."

For starters, let us refer you to the Miriam Shlesinger Human Rights action blog. Over a year has gone  by without Miriam, we continue to realize what we have lost. She got us into the human rights struggle. Please act on behalf of people who are so much in need of support in their trials and tribulations at the hands of oppressive regimes and corporations.

CHARITY CORNER 
This week Pollyanna is referring you to the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War. This is a volunteer organization whose activities include a broad range of issues as they pursue their mission to create a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation. Pollyanna invites you to look over their Web site and to make a donation to a worthy cause.


IN MEMORIAM BOB HOSKINS 1942-2014 


The British actor and director  Bob Hoskins died this week in London. He was successful in the theater, film and television. Actor and director Dexter Fletcher pays tribute to the much-loved star in the Guardian. We saw him in several films and will go back to see them again, starting with the iconic Who Framed Roger Rabbit? His breakout leading role in the gritty British thriller "The Long Good Friday" (1980) established Hoskins' streetwise charm, and from there, the following he had acquired on British television and the stages of London's West End spread internationally. A New York mobster in Francis Ford Coppola's "Cotton Club" (1984), Hoskins lent an emotional depth to the ex-con he portrayed in Neil Jordan's "Mona Lisa" (1986), earning a Golden Globe Award for his performance and returning to the ceremony two years later as a nominee for one of the era's most inventive comedies, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" (1988). For a man who self-deprecatingly referred to himself as "5 foot six and cubic," Hoskins was perpetually booked, disappearing chameleon-like into portrayals of world leaders and charismatic self-starters like the role that earned him an Academy Award nomination opposite Judi Dench in "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (2005). Hoskins' gregarious charm and ability to bring humanness to heavies made him a much-loved player in both Hollywood and his native U.K. May he rest in peace. We shall continue to enjoy his legacy. Barbara Ellen writing in the Guardian/Observer claims that he was the last actor to rise out of the working class. We doubt it.

THE RANT
This week's rant is about the nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria. The government of Nigeria is coming under increased pressure to do something about the intolerable situation and has been severely criticized for downplaying the event. Boko Haram means Western education is sinful and has just abducted eight more girls from a school. The leader sent out a video in which he announced that the girls would be sold. Imagine what would be happening if nearly 300 girls had been abducted in the US or in France. What is shocking also is that Patience Jonathan, the First Lady of Nigeria, has told Nigerian women that they should stop the protests and that they are bringing shame on Nigeria. Jonathan reportedly even accused the demonstrators of making up the incident and working with Boko Haram. Leaders of the womens' protest were even arrested at the behest of Ms Jonathan.  Obviously something is very wrong there and it is unacceptable that the Nigerian government should be indifferent to the atrocities of Boko Haram. Pollyanna is not glad, in fact she is foaming at the mouth with outrage.

GIRL EAGLE HUNTRESS 
A 13-year-old eagle huntress in Mongolia has aroused Pollyanna's interest and admiration. Hunting with eagles is a tradition going back over two millennia, but young Ashol-Pan, the daughter of a particularly celebrated hunter, may well be the country's only apprentice huntress.


HOMELESS SOCCER 
Pollyanna would like to call your attention to a project by Micah X. Peled, a documentary film about soccer played  by homeless people. We have had wonderful experience with Micah whose film about exploited textile workers in China, China Blue, won awards and contributed greatly to raising consciousness worldwide about the issue. We quote him on social soccer: "We are excited to find out that a group of social entrepreneurs has come up with an innovative approach to the age-old problem of homelessness. As the gap between rich and poor in the U.S. is increasing, huge resources and taxpayer dollars are directed toward this issue, without significant improvements. Nobody (outside a small circle) has heard of Street Soccer USA, so the film will bring some news on the homeless front, but also about what the impact sports can have on social issues.

Can soccer help people out of homelessness? The transformative power of sports launches Kay from Charlotte, Angelina from Sacramento and their teammates from around the country out of their shelters and lives at the margins of society to represent the U.S. in the Homeless World Cup. This initiative combines soccer with assistance in transitioning out of homelessness through job, education and housing. Boarding an international flight, the players embark on a journey of a lifetime, where they will meet and compete against homeless soccer teams from 50 nations, and be challenged to their limits."

Please go to the site and donate to support this effort.

TALKING AND DRIVING

Tom and Ray have been saving this for years Cars.com photo

Our old friends from CarTalk, Click and Clack aka Rant and Rave, join the campaign against talking on the cell phone when driving, even with a device in a cradle. Pollyanna tries to avoid it and recommends the same to you as well. She and Titan have ranted on this in the past. Live long and prosper fellow Vulcans.

GOODIES FROM SCIENCE

ADDICTION CAN BE OVERCOME 
Most people who are addicted to cigarette smoking, alcohol or other drugs manage to quit, usually on their own, after experiencing major attitude adjustments. Although relapses occur, successes ultimately outnumber failures. People can permanently walk away from addiction.

Evidence that addiction is a solvable coping problem rather than a chronic, recurring disease seems like encouraging news. But it is highly controversial. Neuroscientists and many clinicians regard drug addictions as brain illnesses best vanquished with the help of medications that fight cravings and withdrawal. From this perspective, drug-induced brain changes increase a person’s thirst for artificial highs and make quitting progressively more difficult.

This conflict over addiction’s nature plays out in two lines of research: studies of remission and relapse among treated substance abusers and long-term studies of the general population.

We managed to quit smoking 50 years ago, despite being heavily addicted, mainly because of  the Surgeon-General's report. The shock of the report and the fact that we were in graduate school at the time seem to have had some effect. Note these graphics:


YOUNG GENIUS FLOWERS
Pollyanna salutes seven teenagers who came up with great ideas to improve life for people.
 Cheers!!

SILLY TIME

WHAT IF? What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different Solar System bodies?

—Glen Chiacchieri

The answer is interesting. Have a nice trip.

Not all cartoons are silly. The Wizard of Id is such an example. Here is a profound truth:


PALEOBIOLOGY AND FAMILY DYNAMICS
Our Murphy has a nasty habit of picking up innocent turtles on the dune and running with the poor creatures in his mouth. In addition to the obvious PTSD, one might wonder if the turtle is believed when he comes home with the tale of having been kidnapped by a marauding dog. This can happen to many species on different time scales.


Chapter II or the joys of having or being a stepmother...

This Wumo is cool or hot as you choose. We cannot reproduce it because of threats of copyright, but here is the link.

HOW BRAINSTORMING WORKS IN THE HIGH TECH INDUSTRY

Pollyanna wishes all her readers a happy Pesach or Easter, as you choose to celebrate

Pollyanna wishes happy holidays to all her readers. Let us try to look at the bright side of life if we can find it.

For starters, let us refer you to the Miriam Shlesinger Human Rights action blog. Over a year has gone and by without Miriam, we continue to realize what we have lost. She got us into the human rights struggle. Please act on behalf of people who are so much in need of support in their trials and tribulations at the hands of oppressive regimes and corporations.


CHARITY CORNER
This week Pollyanna is referring you to the Israel Cancer Association with hopes that you will make them the beneficiary of your pre-holiday donation. The Association is most worthy of support and has done great things for the prevention and cure of cancer in Israel. One of the latest is a push to prohibit smoking in the stands at sports events, which has already won the support of a parliamentary committee and should soon make its way to the floor of the Knesset for approval. The days when Big Tobacco could block such initiatives have fortunately passed. The Cancer Association also succeeded   in obtaining the deactivation of all tobacco vending machines in the country as of 1.1.14, thus blocking an overly easy access of minors to cigarettes. A propos cancer, there seems to be some good news about a new drug that reduces the risk of progress of breast cancer.

POLLYANNA SALUTES 

Floods in Ladakh. 'This is how we were brought up' (Photo: AP

Pollyanna is proud of the 200 Israeli backpackers who refused to be evacuated from the catastrophic flood zone in Ladakh, India but chose to stay behind and help with the rescue operation. "It is heart-warming," said Israeli Consul General in New Delhi Irit Shneor with unabashed pride. "In the heart of the destruction in the Ladakh region, among the demolished cabins, in the somber atmosphere, Israeli trekkers are volunteering around the clock, always with a smile on their lips, giving their all to help the refugees from the disaster area left bruised and wounded, without anything, without shelter."

Hundreds are dead and many more missing in the flood area. Israelis made up more than half the foreign volunteers helping out. Some of them had been combat medics in the Army and used their skills to aid the stricken people. As one of them said, .."this is how we were brought up." Pollyanna says cheers.

IN MEMORIAM MICKEY ROONEY 1920-2014 
The irrepressible performer Mickey Rooney, who died April 6 at 93, began appearing before audiences at 15 months in his parents’ vaudeville act, singing “Pal o’ My Cradle Days” while sporting a tuxedo and holding a rubber cigar. So was  launched a nine-decade career (“I’ve been working all my life, but it seems longer,” he once said) of unapologetic scene-stealing — he could sing, dance, play drums and do pathos, pratfalls and impersonations — that once made him the top box-office draw in the world.
 
We recall him on the screen during our childhood, in the Andy Hardy series and acting opposite Judy Garland in some great films. They were beautifully matched in charisma. Both had difficult lives in the real world. One of his most captivating performances was as Puck in the 1935 all-star version of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” Film historian David Thomson said Mr. Rooney’s mischievous, almost bratty interpretation was “one of cinema's most arresting pieces of magic.” Mr. Rooney emphasized how easy the part was for him, writing later in a memoir, “I’d never read Shakespeare before or since.” We have the DVD and enjoyed the film greatly.

Any 14 year old who can steal a comedy film spotlight from James Cagney (Bottom) has to be a consummate actor.

We link you to an obituary in Variety.

IN MEMORIAM PETER MATTHIESSEN 1927-2014 
Peter Matthiessen, the American author who  won awards for books such as The Snow Leopard and Shadow Country, died on Saturday at the age of 86.

Linda Gavin/Courtesy of Riverhead Books

Matthiessen, who was born to a wealthy background in New York, had his first short story published in the Atlantic Monthly when he was still a student at Yale. In the early 1950s he decamped to France, where he started The Paris Review with another American expatriate, George Plimpton. Matthiessen had success in fiction and non-fiction. His breakthrough work was the 1961 novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord, which dealt with missionaries at work in difficult circumstances in Brazil. He won two National Book Awards, for The Snow Leopard (1978), about the Himalayas, and for Shadow Country (2008), a reworked trilogy of novels about a notorious Florida outlaw, Edgar Watson, and the disappearing Everglades in which he lived.

The NYTimes published a detailed profile of him just a few days before he died. Among other things, the interview by Jeff Himmelman describes how he became a novelist, a C.I.A. agent, a founder of The Paris Review, author of more than 30 books, a naturalist, an activist and a master in one of the most respected lineages in Zen. We strongly recommend that you read it.

THE RANT 
This week's rant is about the abuse, marginalization and repression of Dalit women in India, Nepal and other parts of Southeast Asia. While officially the caste system has been abolished in India, in practice the Dalit, formerly known as Untouchables, are subject to discrimination and abuse. In particular, in India, the sexual abuse of Dalit women goes with impunity, especially for high caste Hindu men. There is a strong Dalit women's movement and they are making their voices heard. “Who has the right to tell us that we are condemned by God?” demands Thenmozhi Soundararajan, an American director, singer, writer, and transmedia artist who is a second-generation Dalit woman whose parents left the caste system. Soundararajan stresses the difference between the “Bollywood India” and the “actual India.” In the “actual India,” there is no rule of law. It’s an India where doctors conduct “two-finger tests” after girls and women report rapes to “morally assassinate character of a victim,” she says. It is an India where a rape survivor showed a judge video footage of her rape that was circulated around her village, but the judge simply laughed and said “Now you have proof that you enjoyed yourself.” We might mention that when a judge in Israel made a remark about rape victims' enjoying the experience he was forced to resign. Pollyanna wishes all success to the movement in its struggle to help and liberate the 80,000,000 Dalit women around the world.

 

HEARTBLEED 
This is a new bug floating around the Web that can get information from just about anyone since most sites use open SSL and it is vulnerable. Here is some advice on how to deal with it. Start by changing your passwords. You might also want to join LastPass for security. It is free.




  SOCIAL PROGRESS INDEX 

Pollyanna would like to call your attention to this document.





It grades the nations of the world on their degree of social progress. It makes use of a list of parameters, the details of which you can see in the document. They come under the headings of Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing and Opportunity. The document  is long but well worth your time.The top three countries are New Zealand , Switzerland, and Iceland which have closely grouped scores of 88.24, 88.19, and 88.07 respectively. These three countries, which are relatively small in terms of populations, score strongly across all dimensions, though there are important variations in their areas of relative strength. A group of eight countries registers the lowest levels of social progress, from Yemen (125th) to Chad (132nd). The Social Progress Index provides evidence that extreme poverty and poor social performance go hand-in-hand. However, this group also demonstrates that economic development does not guarantee social progress. For example, Chad (132nd) with a GDP per capita of $1,870 ranks well below Malawi (109th), a country with GDP per capita of just $660. Angola is an even starker illustration, ranking 127th on social progress even though its GDP per capita is $5,262. There is an interactive map over which you can pass your cursor and see each country's rank and score. Pollyanna thinks there is much food for thought here.

GOODIES FROM SCIENCE

AN EXOTIC PARTICLE IS FOUND 
Thanks to Judy for calling this exciting event to our attention. A particle that does not fit the standard model has been found in the LHC. It shakes up conventional wisdom. We quote the Quantum Diary blog of the particle physics community:"The conventional and simple quark model states that there are six different quarks, each quark coming with its antiparticle. All these particles form bound states by either combining two or three of them. Protons and neutrons for example are made of three quarks. All states made of three quarks are called baryons. Other particles like pions and kaons, which are often found in the decays of heavier particles, are made of one quark and one antiquark. These form the mesons category. Until 2003, the hundreds of particles observed were classified either as mesons or baryons. In 2003 a particle was found that looked like a combination of four quarks. Now the LHCb Collaboration at CERN has just confirmed the unambiguous observation of a very exotic state, something that looks strangely like a particle being made of four quarks. As exotic as it might be, this particle is sternly called Z(4430)-, which gives its mass at 4430 MeV, roughly four times heavier than a proton, and indicates it is has a negative electric charge. The letter Z shows that it belongs to a strange series of
particles that are referred to as XYZ states."

Theorists will rack their brains for a while to figure out what this really is, a completely new tetraquark, a bound state of four quarks, or some strange combination of two charmed mesons (mesons containing at least one charm quark). The question is still open. Physics is fun albeit weird at times.

WE ARE PART NEANDERTHAL 
By finding the lost Neanderthal genome, the Swedish biologist Svante Pääbo has discovered that we are all part Neanderthal—except those with an entirely African heritage. His book, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo
Basic Books, 275 pp., $27.99 is reviewed in the New York Review of Books by Steven Mithen along with The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals by Thomas Suddendorf Basic Books, 358 pp., $29.90. The subject is fascinating and Pollyanna has every intention of getting her hands on the books and reading them. If the NYRB link does not work (they can be stuffy about access), you can find a alternative reviews for both Paabo and Suddendorf.

WE CAN ALL BLUNDER: THE GREATEST MINDS HAVE DONE SO. 
Our friend and colleague, Mario Livio, whose blog is linked to your right, has come out with a book on scientific blunders, Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein—Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe by Mario Livio Simon and Schuster, 341 pp., $26.00. Freeman Dyson reviews it in the NYRB and Marcia Bartusiak, in the Washington Post. Mario makes the case for the contribution of mistakes to the advancement of science. He says “The blunders of genius are often indeed the portals of discovery.”

SILLY TIME

WHAT IF? I just moved into a new apartment. It includes hot water but I have to pay the electric bill. So being a person on a budget... what's the best way to use my free faucet to generate electricity?---David Axel Kurtz
The question turns out to be all wet, the answer amusing. BTW Randall, according to a nephrologist, drinking 3 liters of water a day is healthy because half of it goes to flush out your kidneys and keep them flowing well and the other half helps maintain your body temperature by transpiration through your pores.

PROVING EINSTEIN WRONG
It is a common component of psychoceramic (crackpot) science to prove Einstein wrong. Indeed there are now serious issues involving relativity and quantum mechanics, but that is not going to discredit Einstein. We are grateful, however, to Randall for showing us a successful attempt. 
 


Professors of Philosophy ride Aunt Suzie's Steamboat

RAPUNZEL, SILLY GIRL, THE PRINCE HAS HAD IT WITH YOU


Click here to see how the Big Bang really came about.

We went to the beach with Murphy where he found a branch a few meters long that gave him a challenge. The background sound is Yosefa laughing. It has been said that the worst airline is the one on which they show you the pilot's home movies...

Happy Pesach or Easter from Pollyanna