Heart-lung machines prove safe even in the elderly

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? One of the scariest parts of bypass surgery ? having your heart stopped and going on a heart-lung machine while doctors fix your clogged arteries ? is safe even in the elderly and doesn't cause mental decline as many people have feared, two landmark studies show.

Bypass surgery is one of the most common operations in the world. There is great debate about the best way to do it, and patients often are given a choice.

Usually doctors stop the heart to make it easier to connect new blood vessels to make detours around blocked ones. But some patients later complain of "pumphead" ? mental decline thought to be from the heart-lung machines used to pump their blood while their hearts could not.

So surgeons started doing "off-pump" bypasses on beating hearts. Nearly one quarter of bypasses are done this way now. But that brought a new complaint: Results on the blood vessels seemed not as good.

The new studies were aimed at testing all these factors in a rigorous way to see which method was best.

Dr. Andre Lamy of Canada's McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, led a study of 4,752 people in 19 countries. They were randomly assigned to have bypasses with or without the use of heart pumps.

After one year, there were no big differences in the rates of death, heart attack, stroke or kidney failure in the two groups. Slightly more people who had bypasses without a heart-lung machine needed a follow-up procedure to open clogged arteries but the difference was so small it could have occurred by chance alone.

Mental sharpness and quality of life also was similar in the two groups. That suggests that whatever decline occurred was temporary, or a result of anesthesia or something other than the way the operations were done, said Dr. Timothy Gardner, a surgeon at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del., and an American Heart Association spokesman.

"I'm actually somewhat surprised" the methods proved equally good because the operation is so much harder to do on beating hearts, he said. "It seems pretty conclusive" that either way is fine.

That was true even in people 75 or older, a group most worried about going on a heart-lung machine. The second study tested the two bypass methods in 2,539 of these elderly patients in Germany. Again, the methods proved equally safe and effective a year later.

The studies were discussed Monday at an American College of Cardiology conference in San Francisco and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter at (at)MMarchioneAP.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heart-lung-machines-prove-safe-even-elderly-155737078.html

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Today on New Scientist: 11 March 2013

Global greening as plant life moves northwards

A NASA visualisation shows how plants now cover parts of the globe that were once icy tundras

The curious lives of the people who feel no fear

Some people really are not scared of anything. Understanding why reveals the way the rest of us process terror

SpaceX Grasshopper rocket hops to new heights in Texas

SpaceX's reusable rocket prototype doubled its own hovering record in the company's latest move to make space travel cheaper and less wasteful

Psychedelic glowing wings give planes a lift

Watch how plasma can be used to improve an aircraft's aerodynamics

Mummies show ancient humans had heart trouble too

Heart disease is commonly thought to be a modern ailment, but evidence from ancient mummies suggests humans have had heart problems for thousands of years

Contest to crowdsource design for 3D-printed rocket

Crowdsourced. Open sourced. Global. This rocket design contest has all the buzz words - but will the subject matter be exportable under US munitions law?

Solar plant domes spring up in Fukushima's shadow

Ex-Tepco executive Eiju Hangai has created a self-sustaining agriculture project just 25 kilometres from the stricken nuclear power plant

The search for ET is a detective story without a body

Paul Murdin investigates the possibilities of nearby alien life in Are We Being Watched?, but neglects to cover more thrilling aspects of the quest

Brainless bristlebots show swarm behaviour

Lacking sensors or computing capability, some very simple robots have nonetheless exhibited the ability to swarm

Time to forget global tipping points

The idea that Earth is approaching a point of no return is probably untrue and almost certainly unhelpful, says ecologist Erle C. Ellis

The pall of Fukushima overshadows our energy future

The global repercussions of the Fukushima fiasco could threaten our ability to mitigate climate change

China's next-generation internet is a world-beater

The net's new tiger, China, is creating a faster, more secure system that is way ahead of the West

Feedback: Oratorical science fiction

Scam for science fiction writers, smells like pre-teen spirit, approximate explosions, and much more

Send a text message to charge your cellphone

People living off-grid can now pay for electricity to power their phones simply by sending a text message?- the cheapest method found so far

Briefing: The strange science of sinkholes

The stuff of nightmares, sinkholes are fairly common, although fatalities are rare. Will we see even more of them in the future?

Plants lace their nectar with drugs to make bees return

Pollinators return to the same plants to get their hit of caffeinated nectar

The melting of Canada's glaciers is irreversible

By 2100, a fifth of the world's third-largest ice sheet will be gone - and the world's oceans will be 3.5 centimetres higher

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What you 'like' on Facebook can be revealing

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, a sign with Facebook's "Like" logo is posted at Facebook headquarters near the office for the company's User Operations Safety Team in Menlo Park, Calif. A study by researchers at Cambridge, published Monday, March 11, 2013 in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, has found that clicking the social network's friendly blue "like" buttons may reveal more about people than they realize. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2011 file photo, a sign with Facebook's "Like" logo is posted at Facebook headquarters near the office for the company's User Operations Safety Team in Menlo Park, Calif. A study by researchers at Cambridge, published Monday, March 11, 2013 in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, has found that clicking the social network's friendly blue "like" buttons may reveal more about people than they realize. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

LONDON (AP) ? Clicking those friendly blue "like" buttons strewn across the Web may be doing more than marking you as a fan of Coca-Cola or Lady Gaga.

It could out you as gay.

It might reveal how you vote.

It might even suggest that you're an unmarried introvert with a high IQ and a weakness for nicotine.

That's the conclusion of a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers reported analyzing the likes of more than 58,000 American Facebook users to make guesses about their personalities and behavior, and even whether they drank, smoked, or did drugs.

Cambridge University researcher David Stillwell, one of the study's authors, said the results may come as a surprise.

"Your likes may be saying more about you than you realize," he said.

Facebook launched its like button in 2009, and the small thumbs-up symbol has since become ubiquitous on the social network and common across the rest of the Web as well. Facebook said last year that roughly 2.7 billion new likes pour out onto the Internet every day - endorsing everything from pop stars to soda pop. That means an ever-expanding pool of data available to marketers, managers, and just about anyone else interested in users' inner lives, especially those who aren't careful about their privacy settings.

Stillwell and his colleagues scooped up a bucketful of that data in the way that many advertisers do - through apps. Millions of Facebook users have surveyed their own personal traits using applications including a program called myPersonality. Stillwell, as owner of the app, has received revenue from it, but declined to say how much.

His study zeroed in on the 58,466 U.S. test takers who had also volunteered access to their likes.

When researchers crunched the "like" data and compared their results to answers given in the personality test, patterns emerged in nearly every direction. Since the study involved people who volunteered access to their data, it's unclear if the trends would apply to all Facebook users.

The study found that Facebook likes were linked to sexual orientation, gender, age, ethnicity, IQ, religion, politics and cigarette, drug, or alcohol use. The likes also mapped to relationship status, number of Facebook friends, as well as half a dozen different personality traits.

Some likes were more revealing than others. Researchers could correctly distinguish between users who identified themselves as black or white 95 percent of the time. That success rate dropped to a still impressive 88 percent when trying to guess whether a male user was homosexual, and to 85 percent when telling Democrats from Republicans. Identifying drug users was far trickier - researchers got that right only 65 percent of the time, a result scientists generally describe as poor. Predicting whether a user was respectively a child of divorce was even dicier. With a 60 percent success rate, researchers were doing just slightly better than random guesses.

The linkages ranged from the self-evident to the surreal.

Men who liked TV song-and-dance sensation "Glee" were more likely to be gay. Men who liked professional wrestling were more likely to be straight. Drinking game aficionados were generally more outgoing than, say, fans of fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett. People who preferred pop diva Jennifer Lopez usually gathered more Facebook friends than those who favored the heavy metal sound of Iron Maiden.

Among the more poignant insights was the apparent preoccupation of children of divorce with relationship issues. For example, those who expressed support for statements such as "Never Apologize For What You Feel It's Like Saying Sorry For Being Real" or "I'm The Type Of Girl Who Can Be So Hurt But Still Look At You & Smile" were slightly more likely to have seen their parents split before their 21st birthday.

Some of the patterns were difficult to understand: The link between curly fries and high IQ scores was particularly baffling.

Jennifer Golbeck, a University of Maryland computer scientist who wasn't involved in the study but has done similar work, endorsed its methodology, calling it smart and straightforward and describing its results as "awesome."

But she warned of what the work showed about privacy on Facebook.

"You may not want people to know your sexual orientation or may not want people to know about your drug use," she said. "Even if you think you're keeping your information private, we can learn a lot about you."

Facebook said the study fell in line with years of research and was not particularly surprising.

"The prediction of personal attributes based on publicly accessible information, such as ZIP codes, choice of profession, or even preferred music, has been explored in the past," Facebook's Frederic Wolens said in a written statement.

Wolens said that Facebook users could change the privacy settings on their likes to put them beyond the reach of researchers, advertisers or nearly anyone else. But he declined to say how many users did so.

For the unknown number of users whose preferences are public, Stillwell had this advice: Look before you like.

The like button is "quite a seductive thing," he said. "It's all around the Web, it's all around Facebook. And it's so easy."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-11-Britain-Facebook%20Likes/id-ac618b4dc2e644b9ba3d3761c9c44f85

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Maduro leans on Chavez's charisma for popularity

Nicolas Maduro raises his fist as he dons the presidential sash after he was sworn in as Venezuela's president at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013. Maduro was sworn in Friday as Venezuela's acting president, against the objections of the political opposition who said the move violated the country's constitution. Late President Hugo Chavez designated Vice President Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Nicolas Maduro raises his fist as he dons the presidential sash after he was sworn in as Venezuela's president at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013. Maduro was sworn in Friday as Venezuela's acting president, against the objections of the political opposition who said the move violated the country's constitution. Late President Hugo Chavez designated Vice President Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

In this image released by the office of Mexico's Presidencia, Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro, left, holds a replica of Simon Bolivar's sword next to the flag-draped coffin of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez during the funeral ceremony at the military academy in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013. Chavez died on March 5 after a nearly two-year bout with cancer. (AP Photo/Presidencia de la Republica de Mexico, Daniel Aguilar)

Supporters of Nicolas Maduro watch on a giant screen outside the National Assembly the ceremony in which he is sworn in as Venezuela's acting president in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013. Maduro was sworn in Friday against the objections of the political opposition who said the move violated the country's constitution. Late President Hugo Chavez designated vice-president Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Nicolas Maduro speaks as he leaves the National Assembly after he was sworn in as Venezuela's acting president at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013. Maduro was sworn in Friday as Venezuela's acting president, against the objections of the political opposition who said the move violated the country's constitution. Late President Hugo Chavez designated vice-president Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Supporters of Nicolas Maduro cheers outside of the National Assembly after he was sworn in as Venezuela's acting president in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, March 8, 2013. Maduro was sworn in Friday as Venezuela's acting president, against the objections of the political opposition who said the move violated the country's constitution. Late President Hugo Chavez designated vice-president Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Nicolas Maduro so far has led by imitation, seeking to fill the shoes of a president whose uncanny vigor, mischievous humor and political wiles sowed a revolution and transformed a nation.

As Hugo Chavez did during his 14-year presidency, Maduro has stoked confrontation, and shed tears.

While steering Venezuela through the trauma of Chavez's death, Maduro has pinned his move to the top on his beloved predecessor.

Yet there are doubts, even among die-hard Chavistas, about his ability to lead the nation.

At his swearing-in Friday evening as acting president, Maduro pledged his "most absolute loyalty" to Chavez.

Then he launched into another fiery, lionization-of-the-masses speech punctuated by tears, Chavez-style harangues and attacks on capitalist elites and the international press.

"This sash belongs to Hugo Chavez," he said, choked up, after assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello slid the presidential band over his head. Hours earlier at Chavez's state funeral before more than 30 foreign leaders, Maduro delivered a speech similarly strident in content and tone.

Maduro, 50, hasn't stopped idolizing the outsized leader who made him Venezuela's foreign minister, then vice president and, before going to Cuba for a final cancer surgery in December, publicly selected him presidential successor.

The National Electoral Council was expected on Saturday to set a date for a special presidential election as early as April.

While Maduro has filled the leadership void since Chavez disappeared from public view after his surgery, many Venezuelans find him bland and uninspiring. Some blame his lack of education, noting the former bus driver never went to college.

Others say it goes much further. After all, Brazil's hugely popular former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also started out as a workers and union leader with limited education.

"Nicolas Maduro does not embody Chavismo. He's not in touch with the people," said Carlos Borola, a 57-year-old member of a "colectivo," a radical pro-Chavez citizen's group.

"You can try to imitate the aggressivity of speech. You can try to imitate the conjuring of imaginary enemies. But you can't imitate Chavez's charisma," said Luis Vicente Leon, president of the respected Datanalisis polling firm.

"Chavez was a showman. Maduro is not," he said.

Many worry that Maduro may not be capable of managing the economic challenges of rising public debt, inflation above 20 percent, endemic crime responsible for the world's second-highest murder rate and nagging food shortages.

As Chavez's political heir, he had three months to establish himself as the face of Chavismo. It fell to him to announce Chavez's death, and he sweated through the hours-long walk Wednesday as the funeral cortege crawled through adoring crowds, some shouting "with Chavez and Maduro, the people are secure."

When Maduro was sworn in, boisterous lawmakers shouted "Chavez lives, Maduro carries on." The ceremony was mostly boycotted by the opposition, which called it illegitimate because Venezuela's constitution says the assembly speaker should be interim president.

For the socialist Chavista movement, Maduro's leftist credentials, at least, are unassailable.

He joined the now-defunct Socialist League at a young age, got some revolutionary schooling in Cuba and later, as Chavez's foreign minister, became close to Fidel and Raul Castro.

Chavez named him vice president after defeating opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the Oct. 7 election. Capriles won 45 percent of the vote, however, in Chavez's closest presidential re-election.

Once Chavez fell from sight as his health failed after Dec. 11 surgery, Maduro began wielding the huge state media machine built by his mentor, mindful that Chavez was unlikely to live much longer and that a snap presidential election was likely.

He began to crisscross the nation and show up on state TV presiding over the distribution of apartments and buses for university students.

As Chavez's death drew nearer, Maduro's rhetoric grew more incendiary, while criminal investigations of opposition leaders for alleged financial irregularities were opened. He launched blistering personal attacks against Capriles, accusing him of "conspiring against the homeland" with far-right U.S. putschists and fugitive bankers.

Maduro expelled two U.S. military attaches for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation, just hours before he announced Chavez's death Tuesday, surprising analysts who had thought a rapprochement between the two nations might be possible under the new leader.

"There was a sense that perhaps Maduro was a more pragmatic person, would be amenable to exchange ambassadors," said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "The statement he made Tuesday threw a huge bucket of cold water on those hopes."

Maduro had spoken the day before Thanksgiving with Washington's top diplomat for the hemisphere, Roberta Jacobson, about improving ties, especially in fighting drug trafficking. Top diplomats of the two nations met more frequently. But when it came time to honor a newly deceased Chavez, Washington's delegation consisted of two Democratic congressmen and the local embassy charge d'affaires.

Arnson speculated that Maduro might feel he needs to play to the more hard-line wing of his party.

On Friday night, Maduro's voice boomed as he said "the imperialist elites who govern the United States will need to learn to coexist with absolute respect with the insurrectionary peoples" of South America. "Nothing and no one will take away the reconquered independence with our Comandante Hugo Chavez at its front."

He did not mention how he might confront Venezuela's multiple ills, including crumbling infrastructure and diminishing production of oil, which accounts for more than 95 percent of its exports.

Capriles, meanwhile, fired back at Maduro, saying he had withheld criticism since Chavez's death out of respect but could no longer hold his tongue at what he considered a power grab by the new leader.

"I tell you clearly, Nicolas, I am not going to speak of the times you lied to the country, shamelessly," said the man the opposition is expected to choose as its presidential candidate. "The people have not voted for you, boy."

Leon, at Datanalisis, thinks Maduro will win the presidency if the election comes soon, but says his shortcomings will become more evident in a few months of grappling with a possible recession, another expected currency devaluation following a 30 percent cut in February, and public impatience with deteriorating public health care and services and rising crime.

For now, Maduro can benefit from having Chavez's embalmed body on public display and the late president's son-in-law, Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza as his running mate, reminding Venezuelans of who chose him to lead the nation.

But people like Edgar Carvajal, a 50-year-old employee of the Chinese appliance company Haier, said people could lose patience.

"We've got to trust in Maduro, but he had better take care of all these shortages we're having and the high prices," Carvajal said Friday while standing in the long line of people waiting to view Chavez's body lying in state.

"If Maduro can't handle it, the people will show him the door," Carvajal said.

___

Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera, Eduardo Castillo and Jorge Rueda in Caracas and Luis Alonso in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-09-Venezuela-Maduro/id-ecaf8d36c3ad4470b21558c8c1ccf94a

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GOP splits over immigration and terrorism play out

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican Party divisions over immigration, anti-terrorism and other issues are bubbling to the surface just as President Barack Obama shows a new interest in capitalizing on GOP differences.

The latest example played out Thursday on the Senate floor, where two Republican senators rebuked a third ? tea party favorite Rand Paul of Kentucky ? for his filibuster that challenged U.S. policies for using drones to kill suspected terrorists. Just a few days earlier, other high-profile Republicans had differed on immigration, and a House committee chairman renewed his call for spending cuts that would go much deeper than those now making headlines.

Every case featured past or possibly future presidential candidates. It was a fresh reminder that the party has no clear leader, and no clear road map, after Mitt Romney's November loss to Obama.

The quarrels also underscore the Republican establishment's uneasy relationship with the tea party. That grass-roots movement, born in 2009, pumped new passion into the GOP, but it also fueled unwise Senate nominations that saved several endangered Democrats.

Every party undergoes self-examination and blame-swapping after losing a presidential race. The Republicans' intramural disputes may eventually lead to greater solidarity and popularity.

Some party activists, however, are warily watching Obama launch a new outreach to rank-and-file Republicans, including his Wednesday night dinner with a dozen GOP senators at a posh Washington restaurant.

"The president recognizes the fractures within the Republican Party and is moving to try to take advantage of them with a charm offensive," said GOP pollster Steve Lombardo. Republicans should react carefully, he said, because voters "want to see each side extend an olive branch and work together."

First, however, top Republicans must resolve some of their own differences. And either by choice or trial-and-error, the GOP must decide how closely to align its identity with the tea party movement, whose fiercely small-government philosophy draws relatively low approval ratings in national polls.

Paul, the son of libertarian hero and three-time presidential contender Ron Paul, drew widespread attention this week with a nearly 13-hour Senate filibuster. He demanded assurances from the Obama administration that unmanned aircraft would not be used in the United States to kill terrorism suspects who are U.S. citizens.

Many Republicans say Paul and his father are so libertarian in their outlook that they operate outside the party mainstream. But Paul's filibuster drew active support from several tea party-leaning senators, including Marco Rubio of Florida, who possibly could vie with Paul and others for the 2016 presidential nomination. Also helping with the filibuster were more traditional Republican senators such as John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota.

That sharpened the drama Thursday, when Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina claimed the Senate floor to chide Paul and to defend the administration's drone policies.

McCain, the party's 2008 presidential nominee, and Graham are frequent guests on national talk shows. They rank among the party's best-known members, and they attended Obama's dinner Wednesday.

Their critiques of Paul's actions were acidic at times. McCain read approvingly from a Wall Street Journal editorial titled "Rand Paul's Drone Rant." McCain said Paul's reasoning did not match his "showmanship."

McCain and Graham are among pro-military Republicans unhappy with a tea-party-backed push to cut spending across the board, including in the Pentagon. The recently enacted "sequester" cuts were seen as a triumph for conservatives, especially in the House, who place their highest priority on refusing to raise income taxes on anyone, even if it means reducing military spending.

These House Republicans, led by 2012 vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, now promise to pass a 10-year budget plan that will call for much deeper spending cuts, including significant changes to Medicare.

The move carries risks, say moderate Republicans. They cite polls showing substantial public support for a balance of tax increases and spending cuts to tame the deficit.

A survey by the centrist Republican Main Street group found that most Americans feel the Republican Party chiefly "looks out for rich guys," said the organization's president, Steve LaTourette. The former Ohio congressman said the party's self-examination, on balance, is healthy and essential, and he thinks Republicans outflanked Democrats in the sequester showdown.

Virginia-based Republican consultant Chris LaCivita said the intraparty debate is healthy and should reassure voters the GOP is vigorous and transparent.

Obama is appealing to Graham and other Republicans who say new taxes on the rich might be possible if Democrats agree to tackle the long-term funding problems of Medicare and Social Security. Most Republican leaders adamantly oppose any increases in income taxes.

Other internal debates that Republicans must resolve include gun control and immigration. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa was the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee this week to vote with Democrats to make it a felony to buy a gun for someone who could not pass a background check.

Regarding immigration, Romney and other GOP candidates did poorly among Hispanic voters, many of whom see the party's immigration policies as a slap at all Latinos.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is heading a Republican effort to craft immigration legislation to counter Obama's proposals.

Another prominent Republican, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, created a stir this week by saying he did not support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, even if they have lived peacefully for years in the United States. Bush, whose father and brother were presidents, tried to soften the comments later, but they served to remind everyone that Republicans face difficult debates over immigration.

The 2016 presidential race could possibly attract Bush, Rubio, Ryan, Paul, Thune and numerous other Republicans, including Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

The 2012 Republican primary featured exhaustive and often unwieldy debates. Catering to hard-core conservatives who dominate primaries, Romney and his rivals veered to the right on many issues, a process that many feel hurt Romney among centrist voters in the general election against Obama.

With tea party-backed House Republicans thus far dominating the tax-and-spending debate, it's unclear whether the GOP can avoid similar clashes in 2016. Before it confronts that question, however, the party must move closer to consensus and intraparty peace over immigration, anti-terrorism and other matters.

This week's back and forth in the Senate indicates the soul-searching will go on a while longer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-splits-over-immigration-terrorism-play-084707789--politics.html

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Download the Universe: A Discerning Curator for Science eBooks ...

We all need guides for the overwhelming world of the Internet. Digital curators are essential to sifting through the vast and expanding supply of online content because they find the good stuff that?s worth checking out.

When Download the Universe?launched a year ago, the digital world gained a smart and discerning curator for the growing number of science ebooks. What a boon for science lovers. Science lends itself uniquely to apps and ebook publishing. And doing what digital publishing does best, a good ebook can bring content to life like no paperback or hardcover can.

Take Harper Collins? Fragile Earth ($2.99 on?iTunes), which came out originally as a glossy coffee table book. Loaded with before and after photos of places on the planet scarred by deforestation and climate change, the book was visually stunning, if pedantic. But when released as an ebook, the whole experience unfolded like a beautiful, heartbreaking origami.

As Download the Universe?s review of the Fragile Earth ebook??points out, the app version benefits from digital technology, laying before and after satellite images over one another, rather than side by side, making the experience of seeing them ?even more profound.

Here?s another one:?Color Uncovered (free on?iTunes), produced by San Francisco?s Exploratorium Museum, is a rich experience like a museum exhibit itself. Combining text with images and interactive features, the ebook explores how the eye perceives color. The reviewer, New York Times contributor Carl Zimmer, uses his review to discuss what the ebook experience shares with museum exhibits.

In the hands of Download the Universe, it appears that ebook publishing has matured into its own genre, with its own distinct advantages.

Sometimes ebook publishers don?t make good use of available features. This review of Blindsight by journalist Chris Colin notes that the book?s app version, telling the story of a television director who suffers a brain injury, should have included neurological background information in the main story, not as a separate feature.

Download the Universe only reviews ebooks in the digital universe, not spin-offs from traditional print books. They look at Kindle products, self-published pdf manuscripts and apps, and they?ve got top-notch talent reviewing this brave new world on our behalf. The editorial board includes some names you may well recognize, like Sean Carroll?(Caltech physicist),?Steve Silberman?(Wired),?Maggie Koerth-Baker?(Boing Boing),?Annalee Newitz?(io9), and?David Dobbs?(NYTimes, Nat Geo, etc.).

Related Content:

Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read

NASA Presents ?The Earth as Art? in a Free eBook and Free iPad App

375 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook?

Kate Rix writes about digital media and education. Read more of her work at katerixwriter.com.

Source: http://www.openculture.com/2013/03/download_the_universe_a_discerning_curator_for_science_ebooks.html

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Renovate, Remodel, And Update Like A Pro With These Home ...

TIP! It is important to get several estimates when choosing a contractor, and those estimates need to be based on the same specifications. Make a clear list of the items you want repaired or replaced, and don?t make any changes between contractors.

If you do home improvements, you might think about saving money by doing some of these things yourself. You can, but before doing so weigh your options and select the right decision. Use the tips below to determine whether you?ll attempt a specific home improvement project on your own or whether you?ll choose to hire a professional.

Floor Joists

TIP! Installing attractive hand railings will improve your home?s look and increase safety. They can be used on a stairway or porch.

Building material can be stored between floor joists or rafters in the ceiling. It?s easy to keep things like two by fours and pieces of molding out of harm?s way with this method. You can easily hammer in furring strips across a couple of exposed rafters or floor joists and put in the material that needs to be stored.

TIP! A light color material is an excellent choice for a new roof. Using dark colored tile can cause an attic to become hot.

Ensure you check out your contractors references before you hire him. You need to ensure that the contractor has the required skills and experience to complete the project without causing any problems. You should be able to avoid a lot of mishaps by checking credentials.

TIP! Although many homeowners use an ordinary word stove or fireplace to heat their homes, you should give the drawbacks of such a system some thought before employing it yourself. Apart from aesthetic reasons, this type of system is also quite inefficient because most of the heat ends up going through the chimney.

When hiring a professional, read the entire contract and make sure there is a guarantee on the work. If any problems arise, they won?t be covered if the work isn?t guaranteed in the contract. It is important to have guaranteed work.

A great tip for home improvement is to personalize any project you undertake. While this is a good idea, you should also make sure that each improvement is practical.

Liter Bottles

TIP! If you don?t get them, be sure to ask for copies of all reports, applications, and permits. Before you hire a contractor, ask him if you will be receiving those items.

Use two-liter bottles that are empty to store things in your kitchen. They are quite useful in that you can see through them and will hold up well when protecting sugar and flour or other dry goods. You can store it in the freezer or refrigerator and even outside on a shelf. With two-liter bottles all it takes is a simple twist of the cap to gain access to your products.

TIP! When you wish to paint a home or just a few walls, then you really need to figure out how many buckets of paint you?ll need. If you just guess how much is required, you may end up buying too much or too little.

Before you install paneling on your walls, paint stripes! Regardless of your skill, it seems inevitable that some of the old wall will show through. This can be prevented by taking a few minutes to measure the area in which the panels will adjoin. If you have paneling, make sure your paint color matches!

TIP! The lighting inside a room makes a big difference in how it looks. Bright rooms look nice and have a positive effect on people.

When you?re making major renovations in your bathroom, plan ahead and make the room handicap-accessible. Although it is not necessary to completely convert the bathroom now, preparing it for future adaptations as you grow older will be very convenient. Most improvements will add value when it comes time to sell your home.

Don?t wait until winter to winter-proof your home. Start in the fall. The climate has to be warm for adhesives to work on products like weatherstripping.

Crown Molding

TIP! Have you ever looked at a home, wondered about the number of bathrooms inside and whether that was enough? How many bathrooms a house contains directly influences its value. If you add one or two bathrooms to your home, it substantially increases the resale value.

Crown molding can add an amazing touch of elegance to your walls. The molding spices up plain walls to add interest so they are not so bland. The installation of crown molding is easy, and on the whole the project is not expensive.

TIP! Small rooms tend to be gloomy, but they don?t have to be. Just let a little sunshine in! Make sure your windows are perfectly clean and pull up the shades.

Bright colored flowers is a way to improve your home?s exterior appearance. Find ones appropriate for the season. As well, keep your hedges and bushes trimmed, and weekly mow and manicure your lawn. Little improvements like that will instantly boost your home?s appearance.

TIP! You should keep a small box full of fasteners. Having these available to use when you need them will prevent you from needing to run to the hardware store when something comes up.

The kitchen is a great place to start improving your home. Start by cleaning the walls with a mix of water and TSP. This will remove the grease and a lot of the old paint. Paint your kitchen an attractive shade of tan and marvel at how the character of the room has changed as a result.

TIP! It is important to utilize safety precautions when remodeling a home. You may feel odd wearing a hardhat at home, but it will protect you should an accident happen.

You can show your good taste with the right home improvement project. Many home improvements are well within the skill set of the average homeowner and you can often learn as you go. Sometimes, you?ll need an expert and this article can help you figure out when to call them.

Source: http://www.floorkitchenbath.com/renovate-remodel-and-update-like-a-pro-with-these-home-improvement-tips/

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