The Sears Tower in Chicago, the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere, is offering visitors a new way to push their fear of heights right over the edge. A set of glass balconies, nicknamed "The Ledge" and suspended from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck, opened on Thursday.The glass is three layers thick, one-and-a half inches in total, and capable of holding five tons. but it doesn't make them any less scary.
A set of glass balconies, nicknamed "The Ledge" and suspended from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck, opened on Thursday.
The glass is three layers thick, one-and-a half inches in total, and capable of holding five tons. but it doesn't make them any less scary.
for a while?
just to contemplate the concepts of transparency and (canti-)leverage, plus that 'masters of the universe' view... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Vegetarians are generally less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer but this does not apply to all forms of the disease, a major study has found.The study involving 60,000 people found those who followed a vegetarian diet developed notably fewer cancers of the blood, bladder and stomach. But the apparently protective effect of vegetarian did not seem to stretch to bowel cancer, a major killer. The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer. Researchers from universities in the UK and New Zealand followed 61,566 British men and women. They included meat-eaters, those who ate fish but not meat, and those who ate neither meat nor fish.
Vegetarians are generally less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer but this does not apply to all forms of the disease, a major study has found.
The study involving 60,000 people found those who followed a vegetarian diet developed notably fewer cancers of the blood, bladder and stomach.
But the apparently protective effect of vegetarian did not seem to stretch to bowel cancer, a major killer.
The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Researchers from universities in the UK and New Zealand followed 61,566 British men and women. They included meat-eaters, those who ate fish but not meat, and those who ate neither meat nor fish.
British Journal of Cancer - Cancer incidence in British vegetarians
Vegetarians do not eat meat or fish. Meat has been suspected of influencing the risk for several types of cancer. For example, in the systematic review by the WCRF/AICR (World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research), an expert panel concluded that both red meat and processed meat are convincing causes of colorectal cancer, and that there was some evidence suggesting that high intakes of red or processed meat increased the risk for cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas, lung, endometrium and prostate (WCRF/AICR, 2007).
Hat tip to Turkana at dKos for the above links.
New studies of plastics chemical measure effects, exposures
Women may want to reconsider that popular style accessory, certain hard plastic water bottles available in fashion-coordinating colors. New animal studies link the chemical bisphenol A, which leaches from such polycarbonate plastics and food can linings, with heart arrhythmias in females and permanent damage to a gene important for reproduction. Other recent research suggests that human exposure to BPA is much higher than previously thought. In animals, fetal exposures to BPA can be especially risky, sometimes fostering brain, behavioral or reproductive problems (SN: 9/29/07, p. 202). Canada and some states are moving to ban polycarbonate plastic in baby bottles for that reason. But the new heart data suggest that even adult exposures to BPA might cause harm. In one new study, researchers treated mice with BPA during the middle of their pregnancies. All female offspring of the treated mice suffered an irreversible genetic change in one of the "master regulatory genes" of fertility, Hugh Taylor of the Yale School of Medicine reported in June in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society. This gene, HOXA10, orchestrates the activity of "hundreds -- if not thousands -- of downstream genes," Taylor says. Through the genes it controls, HOXA10 helps synchronize the timing of uterine changes and ovulation. Without that synchrony, "you won't get pregnancies," he explains.
In animals, fetal exposures to BPA can be especially risky, sometimes fostering brain, behavioral or reproductive problems (SN: 9/29/07, p. 202). Canada and some states are moving to ban polycarbonate plastic in baby bottles for that reason. But the new heart data suggest that even adult exposures to BPA might cause harm.
In one new study, researchers treated mice with BPA during the middle of their pregnancies. All female offspring of the treated mice suffered an irreversible genetic change in one of the "master regulatory genes" of fertility, Hugh Taylor of the Yale School of Medicine reported in June in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
This gene, HOXA10, orchestrates the activity of "hundreds -- if not thousands -- of downstream genes," Taylor says. Through the genes it controls, HOXA10 helps synchronize the timing of uterine changes and ovulation. Without that synchrony, "you won't get pregnancies," he explains.
