Category: Body & Mind

Cities Are Great!

cityPeople ought to live in urban centers to ensure the world develops in a good way according to a new United Nations report. People are already drawn to urban centers for employment, lifestyle, and education so it makes sense for politicians to plan for cities to continue growing. By embracing cities we can prepare for the future and make it a little better.

There are many economic, social, and environmental advantages to concentrating people and the services and jobs they need in close proximity to one another. The higher intensity of economic activity in cities favors jobs and income. In addition to this, proximity and concentration allow for governments to more effectively and inexpensively provide social services, infrastructure, and amenities to their citizens, the report explains.

Personally, I love living in the city because there is so much more awesomeness than in the suburbs and way more to do and experince than in the country, what’s your take on urban-centricism?

Photo by domcisme.

Politicians and Scientists Ought to Talk

SciDev.net has an article about how scientists and politicians can help developing nations develop in Africa by highlighting science. By creating policies that support research and development countries will benefit from increased keeping educated labour within their borders and perhaps attracting companies to setup shop in their country.

Bernard Aduda, professor of physics at the University of Nairobi said the move would take S&T to the heart of policy making and raise socioeconomic development to levels comparative with countries in Asia.

“We need the linkage to enable MPs and scientists to work together so that we can mainstream science, technology and innovation issues in the countries’ policy making processes for the socioeconomic benefits of the citizens,” he told SciDev.Net.

SARS Treatment Nears

Scientists in Beijing have discovered that there are two human antibodies that neutralise the active components of SARS. SARS is a respitory illness and caused a lot of fear a couple years ago. Fear no more, or less, now that research is finding ways to combat the infectious SARS.

Scientists have identified two human antibodies that neutralise the viral strains that caused the two outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) between 2002 and 2004.

These antibodies could be the first step in producing a treatment to disable the virus that causes SARS.

Sicko Inspires Audience to Fight Injustices

After watching Sicko, an entire audience broke into conversation and grouped together to make their country better. If that’s not good enough, get this – it happened in Texas!

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone’s attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. “If we just see this and do nothing about it,” he said, “then what’s the point? Something has to change.” There was silence, then the redneck’s wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else’s email, promising to get together and do something… though no one seemed to know quite what.

Via boingboing.

The Question You’ve All Been Secretly Asking

Vortextual
Q: Why, oh why does the shower curtin blow in when I’m in the shower?

A: A vortex.

To do the calculation, I drafted a model of a typical shower and divided the shower area into 50,000 minuscule cells. The tub, the showerhead, the curtain rod and the room outside of the shower were all included. I ran the modified Fluent software for two weeks on my home computer in the evening and on weekends (when my wife wasn’t using the computer). The simulation revealed 30 seconds of actual shower time.