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| | World must be more attentive to male virgins | | | Friday, May 9, 2008 (1:23 PM)
(I'm feeling hopeful) | | In a film titled “The 40 Year Old Virgin” people treat the main character differently. They regard him either as a serial killer, or as a freak; some take pity on him and try to save him. Viewers are usually unanimous to judge old virgins as mad or weird, especially if it goes about a male virgin.
However, there are a number of factors that can change the general public’s attitude to late virginity among men.
Reason One: it is not so easy for a man to lose virginity
Historically, the first sexual experience is a subject of extraordinary pride for men. That is why most boys grow up with the aim of losing virginity as soon as possible. According to France’s National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), an average West European man has his first sex at age 17. If it takes longer, boys think that there is something amiss with them and unintentionally enhance the possibility of turning from a proud eagle into a timid sparrow.
There is another stereotype: men are the first to show an initiative. If they do not, they are automatically associated with a sniveler, a loser and an object of pity.
It turns out that while a girl is waiting for a boy to take her flower, a boy should run goggling and searching for a sexual experience. It usually results in one of the three ways.
The first way is meeting a prostitute. The second one is casual sex with a curious classmate. The third one is the happy end of romantic relations with his girlfriend. The first two variants require confidence and persistence. With the third variant you may wait for your love throughout the entire lifetime.
So if a man is shy for some reasons, and there is no love on the horizon, he may stay a virgin for a long time.
Some countries took a responsible attitude to the problem of male virginity. As a result, special facilities sprang up to help young men lose virginity. In Berlin there was a brothel for male virgins where experienced women tactfully help them in every aspect. In Holland there are special courses available for losing virginity. Men pay 3,500 euros, and then they get used to seeing their own naked body and learn the sexual intercourse theory and finally lose virginity with the help of their tutors.
In May of 2007 Britain’s Channel 4 showed how the Dutch courses work in The Virgin School reality show. A 26-year-old man named as James, a participant of the show, confessed at the end of the program that he finally started feeling like everyone else. He also said that there would be no estrangement in his life any longer.
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| | HAY COSAS QUE NO SE OLVIDAN PERO LAMENTABLEMENTE SE REPITEN | | | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 (9:01 AM)
(I'm feeling confused) | | Yo tuve en mis manos los informes que en esa epoca eran recientes, por ejemplo la matanza de las comunidades aborigenes de america latina que la estaba llevando a cabo la empresa americana Texaco, la cual en USA tiene muchisimos juicios encaminados por aborigenes y sus representantes, pero esa empresa sigue sin pausa usando su fuerza para descubrir el oro negro y enriquecer a los que no les importa la vida humana, sino el dinero.
Milagros Aguirre
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Quito, 12 de julio de 2006
Asediados por la explotación petrolera y maderera y por los turistas, los pueblos indígenas tagaeri y taromenani de Ecuador, que viven voluntariamente ocultos, han hecho sentir su presencia con varias muertes en su territorio, el amazónico Parque Nacional Yasuní.
El parque ocupa vastas extensiones del bosque húmedo tropical de la cuenca amazónica ecuatoriana, en las centro-orientales provincias de Napo y Pastaza, con una superficie de 982.000 hectáreas. En 1989 fue declarado Reserva Mundial de Biosfera por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura. http://www.selvas.org/newsEC0106es.html
Allí, los pueblos amazónicos que han elegido permanecer sin contacto con otras culturas están en riesgo de desaparecer y defienden su territorio con lanzas.
Andrés Moreira quiere olvidar aquella tarde de lanzas del 12 de abril, en la que casi pierde la vida. Estaba aserrando un grueso árbol de ceibo en la mitad de la selva cuando escuchó el grito de su compañero William Angulo y lo vio caer con una lanza atravesada en el pecho.
Moreira quiso correr, tropezó, y la punta de una lanza se le incrustó en la espalda.
Los hombres de las lanzas eran altos, blancos y estaban desnudos, según el relato del maderero herido, rescatado más tarde.
Se trata de un grupo de tagaeri-taromenani que habita en la selva ecuatoriana en aislamiento voluntario. Moreira relató que, tras herirlo, se perdieron velozmente entre la fronda.
La de Angulo no fue la única muerte en un parque supuestamente protegido. En agosto de 2005, un maderero murió con 33 lanzas clavadas en su cuerpo.
Los dos ataques ocurrieron en el mismo lugar: sobre el río Cononaco Chico, parte de la denominada Zona Intangible decretada por el gobierno en 1999 para la protección de etnias ocultas o en aislamiento voluntario, pero que lleva siete años sin delimitar.
En 2003, un grupo de guerreros waoranis, vecinos de los tagaeri-taromenani que trabajan en la explotación de madera, atacó una vivienda y acabó con la vida de 26 personas (mujeres y niños) de un clan taromenani, en una masacre denunciada incluso en el plano internacional.
A fines de abril de este año corrió el rumor de otra masacre protagonizada por indígenas waoranis involucrados en el negocio de la madera, que no ha podido comprobarse.
Lo que sí está claro es el asedio a los tagaeri-taromenani por parte de madereros, petroleros, turistas y de algunos de sus vecinos, como los waorani de Ñoneno, Tigüino y Sandoval. http://www.waorani.com/
Ellos venden la madera de su territorio a un dólar por tablón, dejan entrar a los leñadores a zonas prohibidas y hasta han organizado expediciones para buscar a los hombres desnudos, veloces caminantes de la selva del pueblo llamado taromenani para "traerse una mujer" o para "civilizarlos".
Los waorani de esas comunidades han encontrado en la venta de madera un ingreso más pues desde que abandonaron su vida silvestre (hace apenas cincuenta años, cuando misioneros evangélicos los contactaron), necesitan dinero para sobrevivir.
Más aún, la actividad petrolera los ha empujado a la economía del dinero, pues la contaminación ha acabado con los peces de sus ríos, los animales han huido gracias a la apertura de carreteras y las compañías han vuelto a muchos waoranis, mendicantes de motores, techos de zinc, medicinas u otros insumos básicos.
En Ecuador hay al menos dos grupos de pueblos sin contacto, los tagaeris y los taromenanis, aunque se presume la existencia de otros, caminantes y nómadas, que habitan la Amazonia ecuatoriana.
Los tagaeri-taromenani han dado varias señales de "ya no más". Pero dentro del Parque Nacional Yasuní operan las compañías petroleras extranjeras Andes Petroleum, Petrobras, Petrobel y la propia empresa estatal Petroecuador en el eje de yacimientos ITT (Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambacocha), los extractores ilegales de maderas y algunos complejos turísticos.
Pocos días después del incidente del 12 de abril, Manuel Kawilla, de la comunidad de Ñoneno y uno de los waorani que trabajan en la madera, organizó una expedición en busca de los taromenanis. Encontró apenas una vivienda deshabitada, de la que se llevó una olla, una manta y muchas lanzas de chonta (una variedad de palma espinosa) que ahora vende a 100 dólares la unidad.
Ante los rumores de nuevas muertes, los ministros de Ambiente y Defensa se reunieron el 2 de mayo en Coca, provincia de Orellana, con autoridades provinciales y con dirigentes waorani, y se comprometieron a acciones mínimas de control forestal.
El 10 de mayo, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) ordenó medidas cautelares "para proteger la vida y la integridad personal de los pueblos tagaeri y taromenani que habitan en la selva amazónica ecuatoriana".
El pronunciamiento de la CIDH busca que el Estado ecuatoriano "adopte medidas efectivas para proteger la vida e integridad personal de los miembros de los pueblos tagaeri y taromenani, en especial, adopte las medidas que sean necesarias para proteger el territorio en el que habitan, incluyendo las acciones requeridas para impedir el ingreso de terceros".
Pero varios testimonios indican que desde entonces la actividad maderera sigue a tope en los ríos Shiripuno, Cononaco, Tiguino y Tiputini.
Enormes canoas cargadas de tablones de cedro surcan los ríos. Las maderas se embodegan en el puente de Shiripuno y se cargan en camiones con destino a Colombia, según los relatos de los propios madereros, de turistas que han recorrido la zona y de waoranis que trabajan en la actividad turística y que se oponen a la extracción de madera.
La propia ministra del Ambiente, Ana Albán, constató el problema en un vuelo sobre la zona el 28 de junio.
David Gilbert, becario de la estadounidense asociación Fulbright, quien visitó la comunidad waorani de Bameno, relató a IPS que en su viaje por el río avistó al menos 10 campamentos madereros, canoas llenas de madera y troncos tirados por mulas y caballos en pleno corazón del parque.
Los líderes de la organización waorani han centrado sus acciones en la cuestión petrolera.
Vicente Enomenga, presidente de la Organización de la Nacionalidad Waorani del Ecuador, Onwae, dijo el 18 de mayo ante el Foro Permanente para los Asuntos Indígenas de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas que la operación de la compañía brasileña Petrobras en un yacimiento de la zona llamado bloque 31 ponía en peligro la vida de los pueblos aislados o sin contacto, pero no se refirió al tema de la madera.
"Petrobras ha transgredido normas internacionales al realizar actividades en un territorio intangible y ha violado derechos indígenas pues el proyecto no ha sido consultado al pueblo waorani ni cuenta con su consentimiento libre, previo e informado", dijo Enomenga.
"Si bien el proyecto ha sido suspendido momentáneamente, se prevé que Petrobras reiniciará su trabajo en cualquier momento poniendo en riesgo a los pueblos aislados taromenani y tagaeri", añadió el dirigente.
Armando Boya, quien fue presidente durante ocho años de la Onwae, montó una expedición hacia la comunidad de Boameno, para saber más de los taromenani, "porque queremos, como pueblos hermanos, protegerlos, reunirles en un solo lugar y ayudarlos", dijo y manifestó que su interés en el tema empieza en el 2003, cuando fue a rescatar a los muertos de aquel entonces. http://www.selvas.org/newsEC0106es.html
Según dijo a IPS, Boya fue a "explicar a Manuel Kawilla, a Babe Ima y a otros, que no deben sacar madera" e insistió en que buscará apoyo logístico para continuar visitando a las comunidades. La Onwae soporta divisiones internas y presiones externas en tres frentes: la explotación ilegal de madera, contratos de usufructo de los recursos de sus territorios y el petróleo, según la Campaña De Selva Tropical De Yasuní, de la organización estadounidense Save America's Forests. Boya ha sido acusado por otros miembros de la Onwae de haber cedido parte del territorio waorani para el usufructo de la compañía EcoGenesis, del estadounidense Daniel Roscom.
El Ministerio de Ambiente tiene lista una propuesta de decreto para delimitar la Zona Intangible, en la que estarían prohibidas las actividades extractivas. http://www.elmercurio.com.ec/web/titulares.php?seccion=fzuyEtT&nuevo_mes=08&nuevo_ano=2007&dias=12
La ministra Albán dijo --en un taller realizado para comprometer a varios sectores en dicha propuesta-- que faltaba limar algunos detalles del decreto y que esperaba la inminente firma y promulgación del presidente Alfredo Palacio. http://www.presidencia.gov.ec/noticias.asp?noid=9168
Pero, frente a la complejidad del problema, la delimitación de la Zona Intangible es apenas un primer paso para la protección de los pueblos ocultos que podrían encaminarse a la extinción.
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| | Researchers mimic bacteria to produce magnetic nanoparticles | | | Monday, April 14, 2008 (1:04 PM)
(I'm feeling jubilant) | | Researchers mimic bacteria to produce magnetic nanoparticles
When it comes to designing something, it’s hard to find a better source of inspiration than Mother Nature. Using that principle, a diverse, interdisciplinary group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is mimicking bacteria to synthesize magnetic nanoparticles that could be used for drug targeting and delivery, in magnetic inks and high-density memory devices, or as magnetic seals in motors.
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Commercial room-temperature synthesis of ferromagnetic nanoparticles is difficult because the particles form rapidly, resulting in agglomerated clusters of particles with less than ideal crystalline and magnetic properties. Size also matters. As particles get smaller, their magnetic properties, particularly with regard to temperature, also diminish.
However, several strains of bacteria produce magnetite (Fe3O4) – fine, uniform nanoparticles that have desirable magnetic properties. These magnetotactic bacteria use a protein to form crystalline particles about 50 nanometers in size. These crystals are bound by membranes to form chains of particles which the bacteria use like a compass needle to orient themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field.
To see if researchers could learn from the bacteria, Surya Mallapragada, Ames Laboratory Materials Chemistry and Biomolecular Materials program director pulled together a team that included microbiologists, biochemists, material chemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists and physicists from Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University.
As a starting point, former ISU microbiologist Dennis Bazylinski, now at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, isolated several strains of magnetotactic bacteria for use in the study.
Based on earlier work by a Japanese research team, Ames Laboratory biochemist Marit Nilsen-Hamilton looked at several proteins known to bind iron, including Mms6 found in magnetotactic bacteria, which she cloned from the bacteria. “This protein is associated with the membranes that surround the magnetite crystals,” Nilsen-Hamilton said, “and each bacterium appears to make particles with their own unique crystal structure.”
Ames Lab chemist Tanya Prozorov tried synthesizing crystals, using the proteins with various concentrations of reagents in an aqueous solution, but the particles formed quickly, were small and lacked specific crystal morphology. At the suggestion of Ames Lab senior physicist and crystal growth expert Paul Canfield, the team used polymer gels developed by Mallapragada and Balaji Narasimhan, who are both Ames Lab scientists as well as ISU chemical engineers, to slow down the reaction and help control formation of the nanocrystals and minimize aggregation.
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“It’s simple chemistry,” Prozorov said, “and you can judge the reaction by the color, watching it go from yellow to green to black as the crystals form. Once the crystals precipitate out, we use a magnet to concentrate the particles at the bottom of the flask, then separate them out to study them further.”
Prozorov also conducted electron microscopy analysis of the synthetic nanoparticles which showed that Mms6 produced well-formed, faceted crystals resembling those produced naturally by the bacteria. Powder X-ray diffraction studies verified the crystal structure of the particles.
Ames Lab physicist Ruslan Prozorov, tested the magnetic properties of the synthetic crystals which also showed striking similarities to the bacteria-produced crystals and bulk magnetite. The magnetic studies also showed that the “chains” of particles formed by the bacteria had a much sharper magnetic transition definition at a higher temperature than single crystals.
“Nature found a way to beat the thermodynamics (of crystalline magnetite) by arranging the nanoparticles in such a way that they aren’t affected by temperature the way individual crystals are,” Ruslan Prozorov said.
With this basic understanding of magnetotatic bacteria and the ability to synthesize magnetite nanoparticles, the team proceeded to find out if the bioinspired approach could be used to produce cobalt-ferrite nanoparticles. Cobalt-ferrite, which doesn’t occur in living organisms, has more desirable magnetic properties than magnetite, yet presents the same problems for commercially producing nano-scale particles.
In addition to their previous method, the team took the added step of covalently attaching the Mms6 to a strand of functionalized polymer known to self-assemble and form thermoreversible gels. Because the polymer strands come together in a particular way, the attached proteins had a specific alignment that the researchers hoped would serve as a template for the formation of cobalt-ferrite crystals. And the way in which the gel formed would help control the speed of the reaction.
“It worked rather well,” Tanya Prozorov said, “and we ended up with very nice hexagonal cobalt ferrite crystals” and added that she is studying whether the protein will also work for the other neodymium, gadolinium, and holmium ferrites.
The project is funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The research has generated fodder for a number of journal articles, including published works in ACSNano, Physical Review B, and Advanced Functional Materials.
“This is an exciting interdisciplinary project addressing some of Basic Energy Sciences’ ‘Grand Challenges’ by bringing together materials scientists, chemists, physicists and biologists to develop new bioinspired materials of relevance to DOE's mission,” said Mallapragada. “Ames Laboratory is a wonderful environment in which to foster and grow these sorts of interdisciplinary initiatives because teamwork is really built into the culture here."
Source: Ames Laboratory
» Next Article in Nanotechnology - Physics: Memory in artificial atoms
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| | SOUTH AMERICAN NEW GUITAR GUITARIST | | | Monday, April 14, 2008 (5:17 AM)
(I'm feeling artistic) | |
DANIEL RAMIREZ
OF URUGUAY
www.livevideo.com/video/AFA35F9454464F278DFBF11068B9507F/f-tarrega-adelita.aspx
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NEWS IN GUITAR
Suite South America Excerpts
"Suite South America is based on a piece written for the Czech guitar virtuoso Vladislav Blaha. He contacted me wanting something for accordion with guitar accompaniment that had a South American flavor. As a composer I have always admired the compositions and performances of Astor Piazzola, so inspired by his legacy and Blaha's request I started to work on this project.
Not so very long after the piece was finished I was invited to perform at the Miami International Guitar Festival and was encouraged by festival director Rene Gonzalez to perform my own compositions. Thinking that Suite South America might be well received in Miami I rearranged the melody line for my long time duo partner flutist Jim Zellers and we premiered the piece on March 16, 2005.
All 3 movements of Suite South America follow an ABA form but with much more complicated slower B sections, even in the fast movements. There are alternate themes slipped in here and there in each movement and eventually the return of each opening theme gives way to a coda that closes the movement."
Rex Willis - August 9, 2005
About the composer
Willis’ original compositions have been described as “haunting and high-energized . . . fun . . .” Sound Board Magazine, “accessible . . . skillful . . . and brilliant” Les Cahieve de la Guitare, France, and “very powerful”, Classical Guitar.
Rex Willis is a member of the music faculty at Manatee Community College, where he has taught guitar, composition and music theory since 1987. A published composer and professional classical guitarist, he recently wrote the music and lyrics for the new musical, In Ybor City, which premiered at Manatee Community College in January, 2007, with future performances in the planning for the Tampa Bay area. Mr. Willis’ compositions for guitar and orchestra have been performed in cities around the world, including Washington D.C., Dallas, Miami, Prague, London and Tokyo. His CD, Suite Florida and original sheet music is distributed by Clear Note Publications and other scores, including his popular The Floating Ancillary Ants, are published by Tuscany Publications.
Mr. Willis holds bachelors and master’s degrees in music composition from Florida State University. He also has studied with world-renowned guitarists Bruce Holzman, Pepe Romero and Christopher Parkening. While attending FSU, he participated in master classes with legendary composer Aaron Copland.
In addition to teaching at MCC and conducting guitar and composition workshops at other colleges and universities, Mr. Willis created and since 2003 has hosted, Guitar Unplugged, a weekly show on Manatee Educational Television (METV). In 2004, he was a featured lecturer, conductor and teacher at the International Guitar Festival Brno in the Czech Republic and will perform the opening concert of this same festival in 2007 with Solea Musica. In the 2006 Festival, a commissioned work by Mr. Willis received its premiere. Published by Clear Note, Balatta di Brno, was written in homage to Czech folk music of that region. In 2005, Mr. Willis wrote the original music score for The Southernmost Point, a film by MCC colleague Doug Osman, which premiered at the CineWorld Festival in Sarasota and was selected for inclusion in the Sedona Film Festival. Mr. Willis recently completed the score for a new film, currently winning awards at festivals around the world, The Ghosts of Ybor, by Paul and Pete Guzzo, themselves, award-winning independent film makers.
http://www.clearnote.net/Suite_South_America.html
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