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

Pollyanna welcomes Spring

Pollyanna is back with you and hopes that in the name of social justice you all had an equal equinox. She would like to share with you a quote from an email we received from a colleague, Dr. Moshe Waxman, guru emeritus from the TAU Comp Center.
  “Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last
fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be
eaten.”
This is from a Cree Indian prophecy and it is very true. Someone should tell the Koch brothers. Someone should also tell the Japanese company that is marketing whale meat and elephant ivory. These two splendid and endangered species deserve better from humanity. Usually Pollyanna and Titan do not call for direct action and refer to the Miriam blog. In this case however, Pollyanna would really like you to send a rant to the Rakuten corporation calling on them to stop their despicable practice motivated by greed. There is a prepared rant at the link.


For starters, let us refer you to the Miriam Shlesinger HumanRights 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 sending you to help fight child illiteracy in the community of Cajul in an isolated region of Guatemala. GlobalGiving recommends this project and we join them. It may seem small, but teaching 900 poor children to read can turn a community around.


TRAGEDY IN THE AIR
The tragic saga of MH370 has been unfolding before us for the past two weeks. It appears that the plane went down far from land and it is not at all clear what could have motivated this senseless act of terrorism, if indeed it was that. Nothing else makes any more sense.The families of the victims evoke great empathy and sorrow. On BBC-TV, the daughter of a Polish leader who perished in the 2010 crash near Smolensk was interviewed. When asked about closure for families of victims, she replied bluntly, "there is no such thing as closure." She expressed sympathy for the families of flight 370, especially for their fear and dragged out uncertainty. There are, of course, conspiracy theories floating around claiming that the plane was controlled remotely by the CIA, that the passengers were killed by oxygen cutoff at 45,000 feet and that the plane is hidden at Diego Garcia. The same theorists claim that the planes destroyed on 9/11 never hit the buildings and are flying somewhere in the world today. Let them babble.

THE RANT
For a change, instead of a specific rant about abuse of women, Pollyanna would like to call your attention to a document by the Central American Women's Network (CAWN) devoted to the topic " Women renegotiating power paradigms in Central America: their struggles in the second half of the 20th century." It is a bit long, nine pages, but worth the read for anyone interested in the process of achieving equality for women anywhere and everywhere. Pollyanna would also like to call your attention to the campaign Because I am a Girl run by Plan International, a charity for children's rights. We will get to Plan International in detail in a future post.

CATASTROPHE IN WASHINGTON STATE 
We are all shocked and dismayed at the news of the calamitous mud slide near Oso, WA, USA, which has taken so many lives and caused so much destruction. We are following the rescue and recovery efforts and hope that the final death toll does not increase further than it has. When we confront the forces of nature, we realize how puny we humans really are.

The scale of devastation

CELL PHONE NONSENSE 
At the station where we fuel our cars there is a page from a local newspaper posted on the wall claiming that an explosion was caused at a gas station by a cell phone. This rank nonsense has been taken up by our idiot government and we see signs in gas stations warning not to use cell phones. It makes no sense that the radiation from a cell phone, all the 0.75 to 1 watt of microwave power, could ignite gas fumes. We checked it with Snopes and found complete refutation and documentation of the myth. We quote: "The claim that the batteries used in a cellular phone can ignite gasoline seems specious, since cellular phone batteries are the same voltage as automobile batteries (12V D.C.) but deliver far less current. Likewise, the claim that a "cellular phone ringer uses more than100 volts for excitation" is a curious artifact of the "regular" telephone era: cellular phones don't have ringers; they produce audio tones that simulate the sound of a ringing telephone." OTOH, static electricity, from whatever source, can be dangerous near fuel pumps, but that has nothing to do with cell phones, solar flares or fluctuations in the stock market. Randall gives us another example of how a myth can be created, albeit with a tongue deep in the cheek.



 APRIL FOOL
The First of April, the day devoted to folly is coming up. Pollyanna chooses to mark it with some music from the greatest of the sons of Johannes Sebastian Bach, OK, maybe she is exaggerating a bit. Pollyanna is happy to present the 1712 Overture by P.D.Q. Bach.

P.D.Q. Bach, 1807-1750

There is no requirement that you listen to the end. Give this music all the respect that it deserves, that is to say, none at all. Pollyanna will spare you the Unbegun Symphony and Erotica for Banned Instruments, but you can find them on YouTube.


GOODIES FROM SCIENCE
While many scientific ideas are said to be half-baked, those associated with the Sicilian Space Program are from deep in the nutty oven. Thanks to Richard for calling our attention to the flight of the cannolo into the stratosphere. 
 
As described in several media, a group of amateur scientists launched a cannolo, a cream-stuffed pastry roll symbolic of the Italian island, into the stratosphere, capturing bizarre images of the dessert flying far above the earth. It reached a height of nearly 30 km and took some pictures as well, all for the princely cost of 350 Euros. We salute the imaginative guys from the town of Enna. Cheers says Pollyanna. We hope it raised the morale of poverty-stricken Sicily, long the neglected stepchild of the Italian republic.

OK, enough of tasty spacecraft, let us look at some real science.

HOLES IN TIME
You all know about Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Scientists have succeeded in getting light to go around an object and continue to  propagate, but only at long wavelengths. Visible light invisibility will depend on new materials. Time invisibility, i.e. causing an event to not have happened has been achieved. It involves creating a hole in a light beam or in space-time if you will in which anything that happens will not be seen. It is done by sending a light beam, the “probe beam,” through an optical fiber. The team then introduced additional rays through the time lens ( a device based on a special optical fiber that allows one light ray to interact with another light ray. ) and used them to split the probe beam so that the front section was blue and the rear section was red. The probe beam was then sent through another optical fiber in which blue light travels faster than red, thereby opening up a gap in the beam. Within this gap, an event can occur without the beam detecting it.

The STLs are used to create a temporal ‘hole’ in a probe beam such that any temporal or spectral changes caused by an event within this hole do not occur. The figure is oriented such that the probe light is described by horizontal line…

To close the hole, the probe beam was sent through another optical fiber in which blue light travels more slowly than red, enabling the rear section to catch up to the front. Finally, the beam was sent through another time lens to turn it back into a uniform ray with the same color and wavelength as the original. In this way, the very fact that the hole in time occurred was also concealed. This is like the Israeli judge who issued a gag order and then issued another one forbidding the publication of the existence of the first gag order. It took two days for all the information to come out on the bloggosphere. This erasure of information seems to be more effective, albeit on a much smaller scale.

An Israeli researcher, M. Friedman, fresh back from a post-doc at Cornell where he was involved in the research and was the first author on a Nature paper, is setting up to expand on this work at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan. He plans on increasing the scale of the phenomenon by a factor of 10,000. Pollyanna thinks this is really cool.

STEM CELL TECHNIQUE UNDER FIRE

STEM CELL RESULTS QUESTIONED  A technique for making a type of stem cell called STAP cells (shown in green) that can reportedly transform into any cell type is now in question as multiple researchers have failed to replicate the results.

It sounds like a replay of the old cold fusion story. Haruko Obokata of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, and colleagues first reported in two January 29 papers in Nature that they had reprogrammed newborn mouse cells by dunking them into acid or squeezing them. The cells took on stem cell–like qualities and were dubbed STAP cells for stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency. So far, no other researchers have been able to repeat the accomplishment. It now appears that the technique is not as simple as described in the original Nature paper. The paper is under fire for other reasons as well. Pollyanna hesitates to call this jiggery-pokery, but if it is an honest error as in the fast neutrino case, then let us have the truth as quickly as possible.

NEWLY DISCOVERED SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS 
Two major discoveries in the outer Solar System were announced in the same recent Nature paper. One is a planet orbiting at 80 AU (1 AU or astronomical unit is the mean distance from the center of the Sun to the center of the Earth, 150,000,000 km or 8 light minutes).

The orbits of Sedna (orange) and dwarf planet 2012 VP₁₁₃ (red). Also shown are the orbits of the giant planets (purple). The Kuiper belt is the dotted light blue region. Illustration: Scott S Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science

The other is the discovery that the asteroid Chariklo has rings analogous to those of Saturn and the other giant planets.  The discovery was made by observing the passage of the asteroid in front of a star (occultation) and noting the decrease in the light of the star.

 The rings show up in the absorption of the light of an occulted star

This is quite surprising since one would not have thought an asteroid to have sufficient gravitational attaction i.e. mass to hold and maintain a ring system. Pollyanna is thrilled.

SILLY TIME

 What If? asks How far would a tungsten countertop descend if I dropped it into the Sun?

Michael Leuchtenburg

Not very far.

LATTER DAY ARCHIMEDES A LA RANDALL
You all know what Archimedes claimed he could do with a lever and a fulcrum. Randall can possibly do more:


Pollyanna would like to share a philosophical discussion between the genius brains of Dilbert, Wally and their boss:


 Pollyanna is very glad that the social services are really trying to help street people, such as Clyde and Dabney,  take control of their lives and deal with reality:



Pollyanna also would like to point out the hazards of the teaching profession when dealing with the other end of the socio-economic spectrum:

Happy Purim from Pollyanna

Pollyanna is back with you and wishes all her Jewish readers a very happy Purim festival which is coming up. It commemorates the events described in the Biblical Book of Esther. The book will be read in synagogues around the world on Saturday night (Sunday in Jerusalem) and the day will be marked by celebrations, masquerades, children putting on the story as a play and an order from the rabbis to get as drunk as a lord.

At some indeterminate time during the heyday of the Persian Empire a scheming bad guy named Haman conspired to kill all the Jews in the kingdom. His plot was foiled by the wisdom of Mordechai and the courage and resourcefulness of Esther who just happened to be the Queen of Persia at time. Have fun everyone!

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 
Pollyanna is going to discuss an issue that might be regarded as less than refined by some of our readers. She refers to the problem of keeping girls in school in the Third World and in particular to the problem of absenteeism from school by teen age girls because of menstruation. Linda Scott blogging as DoubleXEconomy discusses the issues in depth. She points out that the present situation in which girls in both sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia use cloth or worse in place of sanitary pads is unacceptable. She writes in part "They use whatever they can find, often cutting up old clothes, but sometimes taking “found” cloth, even from the public rubbish. We have heard horror stories of girls using animal skin and leaves, but all the direct reports we have heard have been of cloth usage, if sanitary pads (or sometimes toilet paper) are not in use." There are also issues of privacy. When a girl reaches puberty, she becomes an object of sexual predation which in turn can lead to  unwanted pregnancies and ostracism by families. Keeping girls in school and protecting them from exploitation and abuse are important matters both  for the girls themselves  and for the future of their societies.

In India, the invention of a cheap machine  for the production of sanitary pads by Arunachalam Muruganantham has revolutionized female health. The machine enables women to make their own sanitary pads out of cellulose.The whole process can be learned in an hour.We can only hope that it spreads.

The inventor and his device

In the meantime, Pollyanna recommends The Kasiisi Project Girls Support Program, which functions in Uganda and has three main initiatives: keeping  girls a) in school, b) informed about their sexual health and c) economically independent. The Kasiisi Project Girls Support Program has developed initiatives to assist girls in successfully completing their education. These programs include:
Supplying sanitary pads to girls who are menstruating; 
Constructing private 'girls only' latrines; 
Providing accurate health information and mentorship through a female health worker.
Please donate.

THE RANTS
Pollyanna is ranting this week about the legislative initiative in Mozambique that would grant impunity to a rapist who married his victim. In the Miriam blog (see above) there is a link to a protest site and Pollyanna hopes that all of you will raise your voices in a fierce outcry against this atrocity. It is clear that this law allows rapists to commit crimes with impunity, in violation of women's and girls' rights not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment; this law is also a retrogression of the rights of women and girls in the country and places survivors of sexual abuse at risk of being deprived of justice, as well as being subjected to a profoundly abusive situation where they will be subjected to further acts of rape, under the obscene guise of a so-called "marriage." Less than a week ago we marked International Women's Day, yet we see that women are still fair game for exploiters and predators.

Pollyanna is also up in arms against the antivaxxers. The propaganda caused by totally spurious "research" data linking MMR vaccines to autism has created an atmosphere in which many people refuse to vaccinate their children. We have bashed them in the past, especially Mayim Bialik aka Amy Farrah Fowler for this. Now we see the results with the resurgence of a disease thought to have been eliminated, measles. We think that unvaccinated children should be excluded from schools, kindergartens and nursery schools.

LOVERS IN DEEP TROUBLE 
In Afghanistan we have a very sad story of two lovers who wish to marry, but are in a Romeo and Juliet situation. Mohammed Ali and Zakia

Zakia, 18, whose life is being threatened by family members after publicly declaring love for a man of a different sect, in Bamian, Afghanistan, Feb. 17, 2014. (Mauricio Lima/The New York Times)

would like to marry, but their families will not hear of it and as a result their lives, in particular hers, are in danger. Mohammad Ali is a Hazara, who are mostly Shia Muslims. Zakia is a Tajik, a Sunni ethnic group. (As with many Afghans, neither has a surname.) The rule of tradition still can trump modernity in many parts of the world.

 GOODIES FROM SCIENCE

DEMISE OF AN ASTEROID

Pieces of the asteroid formerly known as P/2013 R3 move apart, flung off by quantum effects writ large.

Phil Plait, blogging in Slate, calls our attention to the disintegration in full view of observers of the asteroid P/2013 R3, discovered in September 2013. This is apparently a terminal phase of the YORP effect by which the emission of infrared radiation by an object can accelerate its rotation and, if the object is sufficiently fluffy, impair its structural integrity.

NEW CANCER THERAPY 
Pollyanna is not only glad, she is delighted to tell of new therapies for the treatment of cancers. A potential revolution in cancer treatment that involves harnessing the body’s own immune defenses to eliminate tumors has been voted breakthrough of the year by the Washington-based journal Science. Two different techniques show signs of helping some patients. One  involves antibodies that release a brake on T cells, giving them the power to tackle tumors. Another involves genetically modifying  an individual's T cells outside the body to make them better able  to target cancer, and then reinfusing them so they can do just  that. Experts stress that these techniques have been tested in only small trials, and they don't always work. But the results have raised hope that immunotherapy may give doctors new options for treatment in the future.

Pollyanna cheers!

HORROR BOOK REVIEW-HAVE WE SCARED YOU? 
As you all know our owner Murphy has a strong case of species prejudice against all cats and deplores our feeding the creatures to bribe them to keep our yard free of mice and snakes. We have never subscribed to his belief that cats are evil, but we are sure he is pleased with the new novel by Lynne Truss. We of course know her as the gura of the language with her panda book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Now she has tried her hand with a horror novel that has a bit of tongue in cheek. Viv Groskop reviews it in the Telegraph. Meow!


ANCIENT MASKS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is putting on an exhibit of 9,000 year old  stone masks.

These Neolithic objects show human artistry at its dawning. It should be an interesting exhibition and is certainly appropriate for the Purim season.

BURY POOR KING RICHARD

A controversy and a lawsuit have broken out in Britain over the appropriate place to bury the remains of Richard III that were discovered in Leicester. The descendants of the Plantagenet family want him buried in York but the authorities have decided to inter him in Leicester. Stay tuned.


SILLY TIME

What If? raises some interesting questions of law enforcement.

I've occasionally seen "radar enforced" on speed limit signs, and I can't help but ask: How intense would radio waves have to be to stop a car from going over the speed limit, and what would happen if this were attempted?

—joausc

Those of us who wear hearing aids will appreciate the consideration Wally shows:

Welcome to the modern world: