Can You Force Yourself to Sleep Less ?

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130320-can-you-get-by-on-less-sleep
by: Hadeel

People when they get older they sleep less. While teenagers sleep more than the normal hours. Is this statement is true? We don't actually know. According to CNN they said that the hours of sleeping differ from one to another 80% of us manage between six and nine hours a night; the other 20% sleep more or less than this. But how easy is it to change your regular schedule? If you force yourself to get out of bed a couple of hours early every day will your body eventually become accustomed to it? Sadly not. We all know that the lack of sleep makes us sick and weaker. One of the effects of not sleeping well is hard time to concentrate on one thing either a lecture or your work. Also, being stressed and confused is another effect in the short – term. However, in the long-term effects is more dangerous. According to the article they said that getting less sleep than you need over the course of decades is associated with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. But, there are a very few people who sleep less every day and they don’t get sick; those people known as “sleepless elite”. In 2009, the University of California San Francisco discovered a mother and daughter, who went to bed very late, yet were up bright and early every morning. Even in the weekends when they can get more sleep they actually don’t and they wake up very early and sleep late. So, tests shows that the mother and daughter have a gene called hDEC2, and when the researchers put the same gene in mice they found that they sleep less. But, this gene isn’t available to rest of us, because at the moment we are stuck with the genes we have.

The researchers working with the military had found that people can bank sleep in advance that might work. For instance, according to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research they had people go to bed a couple of hours earlier than usual every night for a week. When they were subsequently deprived of sleep they didn't suffer as much as the people who hadn't had the chance to bank sleep in advance. Try this method it will help you on organizing your sleep.

Behind the "Cheap Price" Wal Mart

      BY Tomoe

    
Wal-Mart seeks the lowest prices to its customers.  It pressures to vendors to sell products at low prices.  Those vendors have to lay off the U.S employees and close the factories, so they outsource goods from the low-cost countries.
      For example, “The pressure on Levi goes back 25 years--well before Wal-Mart was an influence. Between 1981 and 1990, Levi closed 58 U.S. manufacturing plants, sending 25% of its sewing overseas(Fishman, 56).”  Some companies have deep relation with Wal-Mart; their main consumer is Wal-Mart so they need to fill the condition even the price is ignored of the cost to produce.
       The low price at the Wal-Mart consists of the imbalance between the price and the costs.  They get benefits from laying in large quantity and sell a large amount.  However they makes seller sell predatory pricing and infringe the U.S jobs.

When I came to America in February, I was so surprised of the cheap price.  For example, one gallon milk is twice as expensive as in Japan.  I thought American buy much quantity so it is so cheap, of course it is true but not only that reason.

 

    For example, in 1994, the most admired and innovation-oriented company in America was Rubbermaid.  It has high quality, and didn't always charge the lowest price.  However Wal- Mart forces Rubbermaid to sell lowest products.  In 2003, the most admired company became Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart controls other company.  For consumers, the price gives benefits but some companies in America bankrupt. 

     However, some companies didn’t get negative effects.  Those companies planed new strategy.  They started having to change our facility to try to be quicker, better delivery and specialize in high-tech, large products. That required a lot of shipping cost, so they could compete and offset the difference in labor. They are focusing on large-screen, high-transportation-cost products, and also they try to specialize in delivery, making sure that we deliver on a timely basis and low quantities.

To keep American economy, the domestic companies is necessary so they need think about their strategy.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

Life on other planets

“The history of life on a planet mirrors the planet's life history.”

Last week, the NASA space telescope Kepler which should be searching for planets similar to Earth that orbit stars near to our galaxy did not function and does not seem to be fixable.

Kepler cost 550 million dollars. It was launched in 2009, and has found 132 planets which could be habitable. Scientists have found other 2,740 planets which should be analyzed in more details with telescopes from Earth which will confirm whether or not the aforesaid planets are habitable.

Stars that have planets which orbit around them is a very old idea originating from Greece. The existence of other worlds was suggested by philosophers at that time. There is an infinity of worlds in the space with probably some similar to our world.

In the sixteenth century, Giordano Bruno, an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, speculated about the existence of other worlds which could be habitable like Earth in his work On the Infinite Universe and Worlds.

Four centuries have passed, and nowadays, observation of other planets similar or like Earth is carried out instead of the speculation about likewise planets. "Comparative planetology", a new branch of astronomy, consists of studying and contrasting properties of numerous planets in detail.

Owing to comparative planetology, we know that most stars have planets orbiting around them, that life on planets is only possible with regular astronomical properties, and quite narrow chemical composition. Whereas simple bacterial life may be prevalent, complex life may not be ubiquitous.

Scientists defines life as carbon-based and operating in water, but there may be other types of life which could be silicon-based, and operating in ammonia. As a point in case, intelligent life could have evolved more than we can imagine, and maybe can leave behind its physical carbon envelope.

There are hundreds of billions of other planets in our galaxy, and with their moons, we can count trillions of other worlds. By the same token, there are “hundreds of billions of other galaxies across space”. Some planets will have the same properties than Earth. Life on each of these planets will be specific to them, and will depend on the planet’s history. Each planet has a unique history which winds up in this planet being unique in the Universe.

The observation of other planets will continue as Kepler's mission will be carry on by other space telescopes.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/06/05/188321257/other-planets-from-speculation-to-confirmation

Cartoonist Barry's challenge

By: Yoko

Original source: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/29/187079888/looking-ahead-to-the-future-of-cartoons-and-creativity (NPR)

Lynda Barry is a cartoonist. She had worked in alternative newspaper and was in charge of weekly comic strip Ernie Pool’s Comeek. After she worked in there from 1979 to 2008, she decided to shift her focus to teaching and started to work as an artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin.

 

She has a course which is described as a “writing and picture-making class with focus on the basic physical structure of the brain”. In the first class, she named all students with “brain names” such as Thalamus and Hippocampus so that she can know her students by their work, not by their personalities. Students remember names of brain when they finished semester by calling each other by names of brain. Lynda and students in this course got the point that they don’t be surprised to hear student say “Yeah, I saw Hippocampus at the party with Limbic System”. Now she become assistant professor of interdisciplinary creativity and is called Professor Old Skull.

In her class, she tries to soften student’s stiffed brain and help them tap innate creativity. Barry strongly believes that doodling has a power to inspire creativity. So she teach student to draw when they are listening to people read the stories, and aims to get that drawing habit into student’s hands. She herself is always with pen and paper.  The students wrote about 50000 words and hundreds of drawings during the course of semester, according to a student known as Brain Stem. 

Her courses are not requiring drawing skills or former experiences. She says that she is interested in how people draw who didn’t draw or who didn’t feel they could draw. She sometimes surprised to see the work of people who had quit drawing around adolescence and started to draw again. 

When she was 19, her teacher asked her “what is an image?” This is why she got interest in the intersection of art and brain science. She is still trying to answer this question.

I really respect people who can draw. I don’t think I can draw, but Barry believes a possibility in people who like me… maybe I can try drawing from now：）  Her classes look so unique. Encouraging student to doodle is interesting. Expanding own major to another field is good. I’m not sure what kind of biological function of the art she is trying to figure out. I want to look growth of her work.

Global Village or Global Pillage?

By Tomoe

Now, we can’t avoid globalization.  I think we have to have compatibility for globalization.  In today's global economy it is getting easier and easier for companies to move their operations around the world. Many companies try to get money by lower cost.  It is said that “Race to the Bottom”.  Because of the Race to the Bottom, many people who are especially in developing countries have to work very hard situation and can’t get enough money.  For example, Beijing had sunny day per two weeks in this May.  It is a violation of human right.  Even though those companies outsource to the other countries so they give others job opportunities, they need to consider of their right.  I think two solutions of the global economy problem.
 



 First, big companies which effect global economy should inspect by outside professional.  Actually, NIKE was said sweat shop in the past and the job situations in the outsourced countries were terrible so other factor claimed NIKE. NIKE drops down the image of the company.  That’s why NIKE inspects by outside professional.  It avoids violating employees’ right.  Big companies should recognize they try to yield benefit too much and lose sight of employees’ right.



     Second, any organizations should protect human rights and the environment.  Big companies have power but such organizations and group of people have also power.  Those powers can block the race to the bottom and make companies think of the job situation.  Actually, some NGO start business for the poor and women.  For third world countries, the NGO is very popular job and situation is well.  Also, the venture company which is new company and young leader owns, starts business or those countries.  The company keep the wage and working condition.


     In short, inspecting by outside professional and organization activity can lead judgment world economy.


sourced from http://dgmoen.net/blog/free4alll/video_trans/027.pdf

10 reasons why so many people are moving to Texas

By Cary

Every way you look at it, there are a lot of people moving to Texas.

Five of the 10 fastest-growing cities in the country between 2011 and 2012 were in Texas, according to new figures from the US Census Bureau. New York is way out in front in terms of added population, butHouston is second with San Antonio and Austin fourth and fifth.

In Texas, it is more easy to find a job. As we know, the problem of employment in the United Stated still affect people's lives. Thus, people are more willing to live where is more easy to find a job."I don't think people go for the weather or topography," says Joel Kotkin, professor of urban development at Chapman University in Orange, California. "The main reason people go is for employment. It's pretty simple. According to Kotkin's website, New Geography. four of the top 10 metropolitan areas for jobs growth in 2013 are in Texas, 

In addition, it is more cheap to live in Texas. New York, LA and the San Francisco Bay Area are too expensive for most people to live, but Houston has the highest 'effective' pay cheque in the country.

The ratio of the median home price to median annual household income in Houston is only 2.9. In San Francisco, it's 6.7. If you live in Texas, the land is cheaper than other place, and you can get the building  permit right to construct you house more quickly. Therefore, the whole process of having your own house become much quicker than other states.

Most importantly, Texas is one of only seven states where residents pay no personal state income tax, says Kay Bell, contributing tax editor at Bankrate and Texan native. In California, if your income range is between $37,234 and $47,055, your tax rate on every dollar of income earned is 8%. It means that if you earn $40,000, you need to pay $3,000 for the tax. In contract, you may save $3,000 when you live in Texas. That's wonderful, it means that you can buy more 12 iphone5.

The Texas doesn't just attract new arrivals, the native Texans also aren't leaving the state either. It is the "stickiest" state in the country, according to the latest figures from the Pew Research Center, which suggest that more than three-quarters of adults born in Texas still live there. Alaska is the least sticky.

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22649624

https://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1C1CHMO_zh-CNUS534US534&q=texas&ion=1&biw=1366&bih=642&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl

Do You Eat Genetic Engineering Wheat?

by: Takeshi

Original Souraces:
1) Japan and South Korea Bar U.S. Wheat Imports
2) Prices rop after discovery of Monsanto rogue wheat

 

      According to today’s post of the New York Times, Japan and South Korea stopped importing wheat from the United States, and the European Union encouraged its 27 states to increase testing. After that, the government of the United States revealed that a genetic strain of engineered wheat which was for sell was never found in wheat growing in an Oregon field.Thought the Department of Agriculture stated that there would be no risk concerning health, governments in Asia and Europe rapidly behaved to have some kinds of limits in order not to allow the wheat to come in.

      Last year, South Korea imported almost half of its total wheat of five million tons from the United States. The last Friday, South Korea expressed that it would better to suspend purchases until tests on shipments were clearly performed. By the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the results of the tests would be ensured in the first week of June. The European Union has a “zero tolerance” approach to the crops which are modified genetically, and the European Union suggested that if the result of the test about shipment is bad, they would not be sold the wheat. The European Union wanted to show “further information and reassurance” from Washington.The biggest exporter of wheat in the world is undoubtedly the United States. While genetically engineered grains like corns and soybeans are grown, the grains are mainly consumed by livestock.  On the other hands, wheat is consumed directly by people. Japan and Mexico are ones of the biggest countries to import American wheat. The European Union, mostly Spain, also imports more than one million tons of American wheat each year.

      In my opinion, I can agree with the policy of Europe and Asian countries. When it comes to human lives, food is surely one of the most important things. If the cereal which you eat every morning contains some sorts of bad factor which came from genetically engineered grains, do you want to keep to eating it? Even if the amounts of the some factors are so minute that they do not seriously harm your body, can you overlook the fact that you will eat something bad for your health in daily? Furthermore, parents probably need to pay attention to their children’s health. I can admit that there are too nervous atmosphere toward food, but it is impossible too careful of your rest of life and it is not too late to restart to import the wheat from the America after a strict test has done.

Farm Plants from "Pinkhouses"

By Ashley:

Architects and engineers have conceived the idea of vertical farming which consists of cultivating farm plants in buildings. These towers should provide food in urban area in the near future.

However, nowadays, most of these constructions resemble more to large greenhouses.

Besides, many horticulturists do not see any practical use in such structures.

According to Cary Mitchell of Purdue University, a horticulturist who has been working on ways to grow plants in space for more than 20 years, farm towers are not practical from an energy perspective. Also, he says that the future lies more in large suburb warehouses than in vertical farms on account of the fact that both real estate and electricity are cheaper.

He then goes on further by maintaining that these vertical gardens will have nothing to do with traditional greenhouses and their fluorescent lamps as they will glow from blue and red LEDs which associated are perceived as magenta. These plant factories will be “pinkhouses”.

Light is really important for plants to grow.  With vertical farms, plants on the top shade the ones at the bottom. Consequently, artificial light is added, but this light is expensive and harms the environment.

Fortunately, the expenses can be reduced by using only blue and red LEDs in view of the fact that these two colors are the most needed for plants to grow. In addition, LEDs are generally energy sufficient, they can produced specific wavelengths like those of blue and red which enhance the growth of plants, and they can be placed close to the plants since they are cooler. That way, energy loss is diminished.

Currently, experiments with LEDs are carried out to supplement natural light, but not to replace it.

Still, some growers such as Barry Holtz at Caliber Biotherapeutics use this method to grow plants in enclosed rooms to protect them from harmful environment factors such as temperature changes. He reports to have his crops growing faster by 20 percent, and to save energy.

Nevertheless, Holtz thinks that indoor gardening of that kind will not replace traditional farms for quite a while in light of the fact that it is a relatively expensive way to grow food even with the efficient use of water and electricity.

From my perspective, vertical farming has many benefits. First, it is a good way to deal with the shortage of food. With the future 9 billion of people the Earth will count, it is important to produce more food. Also, they can be placed directly in cities, reducing the transportation cost. As for the environmental advantage, everything is recycle in vertical farms, and less if no more pesticides will be used. Furthermore, it is very convenient. Any kind of crops and plants could be consumed at any time of the year since they grow in closed space, and are not influenced by external factors. Moreover, they will probably be organic with no pesticide. Fresh and natural vegetables will be at hand. An additional benefit I see in “pinkhouses” is that plants will grow faster. 

Source : http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/21/185758529/vertical-pinkhouses-the-future-of-urban-farming

Healthful Vending Machine

By: Yoko

Original source:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/28/186503168/why-healthful-vending-machines-might-hurt-the-blind

We can buy snacks easily by vending machine. Since obesity epidemic has been big problem in the US, Alissa keny-guyer, Oregon state representative, suggest that we should make a good environment for people to choose healthy foods.  She introduced a bill to change the contents of vending machines from snacks to healthy ones. She believes that this change will help people to choose healthful choice. However to operate vending machine is a good job for blind. According to Kevan Worley, director of the National Association of Blind Merchants, 2.300blind entrepreneurs go to work because of the Randolph Sheppard Act. Randolph Sheppard Act is a program which provides blind people with remunerative employment and self-support through operation of vending machines and this is the most successful employment program for the blind ever conceived. Now blind vendors are worried that this shift will take away their business. Finding employment is still difficult for blind today.

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions is now in corporation with blind vendors and vending machine companies to avoid this problem. They are trying to find snacks that are not expensive and small enough to place in vending machine, and finding ways to distinguish these options.

One more thing that we have to think is that whether vending machines contribute to increase number of diabetes. Joel Kimmons, a nutrition scientist thinks that vending machines do no contribute negatively to the overall diet and therefor they do not contribute positively, neither.

 

I think vending machines have also have influence on global warming because they are working 24 hours, spending lot of electricity. Perhaps vending machines are used mainly for advertising items and we don’t really need it because we often have stores right next to the vending machines. I’m not sure that vending machines have impact on eating habits, but to improve heath, it’s a good idea to deal with this problem by changing environment.  However we can’t disregard of providing work for blind because it is necessary for them to live independently. We should find another way to create job which have no negative effect.