Sounding Circle

Saturday, June 21, 2003

The Green, Green Grass That's Home 0 comments

21 Jun 2003 @ 23:53 My housemate John Rolac posted this on his Nutiva website The Green, Green Grass That's Home Telegraph.co.uk June 14, 2003 It's barely legal, but hemp is here to stay - as a low-cost, environmentally friendly building material. David Taylor meets a family putting it to the test Jessee Mulcock has heard them all in the year she has lived in her new house: "You'd have to be dopey to live there." And "Hope your chip pan doesn't go up - the fire engine wouldn't be able to get through all the hippies standing downwind." And "If you run out of booze, you can always smoke some of the wall insulation . . . " Being the butt of such feeble jokes is the price Jessee has to pay for living in a house made almost entirely out of Cannabis sativa - hemp, for short. And, let's face it, that does sound rather like a dope-smoker's equivalent of Hansel and Gretel's gingerbread house. "Yes, we've had a lot of jokes, but at least when people find out what it's about, they stop laughing. They're interested," she says. Jessee, 26, and her six-year-old son, Vincent, are willing guinea pigs in an experiment to test the environmental, technical and economic benefits of using hemp as a building material. Her house, and the one next door, which is also made of hemp, have been built in the Suffolk town of Haverhill for social housing provider Suffolk Housing Society. The idea of using hemp came from the architect, Ralph Carpenter of local firm Modece Architects, who believes that this fast-growing crop could offer a cheap, sustainable and effective alternative to traditional building materials. "I found out about it through my brother Stuart who at the time was working for Hemcore [the UK's largest processor of hemp]. He told me about a hemp-based material which is made in France and used for building," explains Mr Carpenter. The qualities of hemp fibre are well known. It was the first choice for rope before the advent of man-made fibres and it still makes the best quality paper. But the plant's role in the illegal drugs trade suppressed its legitimate use for most of the 20th century, even though commercially grown hemp contains only negligible amounts of the psychoactive drug THC. In recent years, however, pressure from industry has led to a relaxation of the laws governing the cultivation of hemp with the result that it has bounced back and found its way into a range of new products, from clothing and cosmetics to ice-cream. Today, hemp's environmental sustainability is a major selling point. It is easy to grow, even on poor soil, and is ready to harvest in just four months. Like all plants, it absorbs carbon dioxide - the main "greenhouse" gas - from the atmosphere as it grows and, because it requires very little energy to process, it can help save money, conserve fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The French material used in the construction of Jessee's house is called Isochanvre, a by-product of fibre production consisting of the pith and sap processed to minimise its biodegradability. Mixed with hydraulic lime and water to bind it together, Isochanvre is packed into timber formwork and left to solidify like concrete. It is an easy material to work with and requires fewer skills than building in brick. Its good insulating properties mean that no wall cavity is needed, and its resistance to moisture means that the walls can sit on a ground-floor slab cast in the same hemp-and-lime mixture without the need for a damp-proof membrane. The two hemp houses at Haverhill are built around timber frames with the hemp mixture used as in-fill between the timber beams and columns. The houses form part of a development of 18 properties on the site and are flanked on either side by two similar houses built with traditional materials. These provide a benchmark against which scientists from the Building Research Establishment in Watford can assess the hemp houses. The first hemp house took almost twice as long to build as the equivalent brick houses, mainly because the contractor had to learn how to use the unfamiliar materials from scratch. "But once they got the hang of it, they were very fast," says Ralph Carpenter. "The second hemp house was quicker to build than the conventional brick ones." In terms of its performance, the hemp material seems just as good as brick-and-block construction, according to the BRE's preliminary report to Suffolk Housing Society. Jessee, though oblivious to the science involved, confirms: "It's warm and dry and comfortable, and it has a lovely rustic feel to it, even though it's a new house," she says. One unexpected benefit of the hemp material is its acoustic behaviour. Slightly quieter, according to BRE measurements, than the conventional houses, the hemp/lime mixture seems to deaden sounds within the building. "The acoustic properties have a noticeable calming effect," says Mr Carpenter. As the material is more "breathable" than modern gypsum plaster, the hemp houses also suffer less condensation than their conventional counterparts. Liz Garrod, the BRE's project co-ordinator at Haverhill, is impressed by the hemp houses but confesses herself puzzled by the material itself: "I don't know how they process it, but it looks just like the Hutch Hemp I use for my rabbit's bedding." Laboratory tests bear out the fire- and rot-resistance claims, and Ms Garrod says her own experiments at home with Hutch Hemp have yielded comparable results. Whatever the special properties of Isochanvre, Ms Garrod thinks hemp could have a bright future as a building material. "I like houses made out of natural materials, and this is very sustainable and can be recycled," she says. "It's faster to use than some of the traditional building methods, like cob and rammed earth, which are also becoming popular again." As for Jessee, she has nothing but praise for hemp: "When I moved out of my old first-floor flat on the other side of town, all I wanted was a house. But when I learned about this project, I really wanted to be a part of it.

Many Mistakenly Believe U.S. Found WMD's in Iraq 3 comments

21 Jun 2003 @ 23:53 The Philadelphia Inquirer Sat, Jun. 14, 2003 War poll uncovers fact gap Many mistakenly believe U.S. found WMDs in Iraq By Frank Davies Inquirer Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - A third of the American public believes U.S. forces have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a recent poll. Twenty-two percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons. But such weapons have not been found in Iraq and were not used. Before the war, half of those polled in a survey said Iraqis were among the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001. But most of the Sept. 11 terrorists were Saudis; none was an Iraqi. The results startled even the pollsters who conducted and analyzed the surveys. How could so many people be so wrong about information that has dominated news coverage for almost two years? "It's a striking finding," said Steve Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which asked the weapons questions during a May 14-18 poll of 1,256 respondents. He added: "Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention, this level of misinformation suggests some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance." That is, of having their beliefs conflict with the facts. Kull noted that the mistaken belief that weapons had been found "is substantially greater among those who favored the war." Pollsters and political analysts offer several reasons for the gaps between facts and beliefs: the public's short attention span on foreign news, fragmentary or conflicting media reports that lacked depth or skepticism, and Bush administration efforts to sell a war by oversimplifying the threat. "Most people get little whiffs and fragments of news, not in any organized way," said Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, a centrist-liberal think tank. "And there have been a lot of conflicting reports on the weapons." Before the war, the U.S. media often reported as a fact the assertions by the Bush administration that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of illegal weapons. During and after the war, reports of possible weapons discoveries were often trumpeted on front pages, while follow-up stories debunking the reports received less attention. "There were so many reports and claims before the war, it was easy to be confused," said Larry Hugick, chairman of Princeton Survey Research Associates. "But people expected the worst from Saddam Hussein and made connections based on the administration's policy." Bush has described the preemptive attack on Iraq as "one victory in the war on terror that began Sept. 11." Bush officials also say Iraq sheltered and helped al-Qaeda operatives. "The public is susceptible to manipulation, and if they hear officials saying there is a strong connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda terrorists, then they think there must be a connection," Mann said. "Tapping into the feelings and fears after Sept. 11 is a way to sell a policy," he added. Polls show strong support for Bush and the war, although 40 percent in the May survey found U.S. officials were "misleading" in some of their justifications for war. A majority, 55 percent, said they were not misleading. Several analysts said the murky claims and intelligence data about lethal weapons and terrorist ties allowed most people to see such news through the filter of their own political beliefs. And GOP pollsters said any controversy over weapons won't change public attitudes, because ridding Iraq of an oppressive regime was reason enough for war for many Americans. "People supported the war for national-security reasons, and that shifted to humanitarian reasons when they saw evidence of Saddam's atrocities," Republican strategist Frank Luntz said. "There's an assumption these weapons will be found because this guy was doing so many bad things." Several analysts said they were troubled by the lack of knowledge about the Sept. 11 hijackers, shown in the January survey conducted for Knight Ridder newspapers. Only 17 percent correctly said that none of the hijackers was Iraqi. "That really bothers me, because it shows a lack of understanding about other countries - that maybe many Americans don't know one Arab from another," said Sam Popkin, a polling expert at the University of California-San Diego who has advised Democratic candidates. "Maybe because Saudis are seen as rich and friendly, people have a hard time dealing with them as hijackers." Hugick said his analysis showed those who were misinformed were not necessarily those who had less education. "I think a lot of people are just confused about the threats out there," he said.  More >

'Alpha-Earner' Wives More Common 0 comments

21 Jun 2003 @ 23:53 'Alpha-Earner' Wives More Common Last month, Newsweek magazine's cover story, "She Works, He Doesn't," reported on a new trend. More men, it reported, are staying home or cutting back at work to attend to family responsibilities. That's because 30.7 percent of married working mothers now earn more money than their husbands do, up from 24 percent just a few years ago, the magazine reported. Eleven percent of marriages now feature "alpha-earner wives," women who earn more than 60 percent of the family income. Hollywood is trying to catch this wave as well. The plot of the new Eddie Murphy comedy "Daddy Day Care," centers on laid-off marketing-executive fathers banding together to create a family day-care home while their alpha-earner wives worked. The last time Hollywood tried a similar storyline, 20 years ago in "Mr. Mom," Michael Keaton, another laid-off executive, was far less competent than Murphy and his pals. Keaton's dinner-burning, poker-playing character would never have stretched his imagination beyond taking care of his own kids. A husband at home and a wife at work was going far enough for conventional gender role swapping in 1983. At the end of the movie, Keaton's character goes back to work and his wife quits her job because they prefer a more traditional arrangement. Two decades later, a lasting stay-at-home father arrangement is not unusual. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, the number of families with stay-at-home fathers and working mothers rose by 70 percent. Nearly 2 million couples have reversed roles. The number of at-home fathers last spiked during the recession of 1992. When fathers get downsized, as is happening now, mothers often help shoulder more of the financial load and fathers often take on more work inside the home. In addition to changing conventions about who nurtures the children and who earns the money, lines and attitudes have blurred for other family situations. Countless studies show that men, particularly in dual-income households, shoulder more child care and household chores than they used to. For example, in 1998, the Families and Work Institute, a New York research and policy center, reported that men put in 75 percent of the time women did on workday chores, versus 30 percent in 1977. 'Nontraditional' Parenting More Common Finally, in the post-September-11 world, many men have rethought the assumption that one can find no greater reward or success than climbing the corporate ladder. Given the economic, cultural, and ideological climate, more U.S. fathers are poised to become more like Sonora Dodd's father; selfless, sacrificing and hands-on. Julie Shields, an attorney and writer in McLean, Va., is the author of "How to Avoid the Mommy Trap: A Roadmap for Sharing Parenting and Making It Work." For more information: Families and Work Institute--The Fatherhood Project How to Avoid the Mommy Trap: A Roadmap for Sharing Parenting - and Making it Work

More U.S. Dads Balance Laptops, Kids on Laps 0 comments

21 Jun 2003 @ 23:53 Belated Father's Day Article.... More U.S. Dads Balance Laptops, Kids on Laps By Julie Shields - WeNews correspondent (WOMENSENEWS)--Now is the perfect time to go back to the roots of Father's Day in the United States and celebrate and support what is called "involved fatherhood." Few know that Father's Day in this country arose out of a daughter's desire to honor her father, a widowed single Dad who raised six children--including a - newborn--on a Spokane, Wash., farm. Sonora Smart Dodd, so the story goes, heard a Mother's Day sermon in 1909 and wondered why fathers like hers were not similarly celebrated. In 1910, Dodd organized the first such celebration in Spokane on June 19, a date she chose because her father was born in June. Dodd believed her father courageous and strong because he made sacrifices and behaved selflessly while she and her siblings grew up. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge advocated for a national father's day to help establish better relations between fathers and children and to remind fathers of their responsibilities. In 1966, Lyndon Johnson proclaimed the third Sunday in June a national holiday, making it official. This Father's Day, we should support fathers who have followed in the footsteps of William Jackson Smart, Dodd's father. We sit on top of what could be a watershed moment in fatherhood. All kinds of evidence document a zeitgeist shift for modern fathers. The recession and altered views about men, women and work bring us to a point where real economic and family change can occur--and has occurred--quickly. Feminists, economists, legal thinkers, and practical folk everywhere have long recognized that women will never achieve equality outside of the home until men become equal partners inside the domestic sphere. On average, U.S. women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by U.S. men. The gender wage gap occurs in part because of the disproportionate family, child rearing, and household responsibilities that mothers bear. Current statistics indicate that, until they have children, women earn roughly the same as men. Often, as women's family involvement intensifies, mothers' work-force participation--and income--diminishes or ends altogether. Many argue that the glass ceiling is in the nursery.

Bubbles Oust Viruses in Therapy 0 comments

21 Jun 2003 @ 23:53 Bubbles Oust Viruses in Therapy Researchers in the Netherlands say they've demonstrated a way to use sound waves to manipulate microscopic bubbles so that they can deliver DNA and other molecules, such as drugs, into cells. The goal is to reduce geneticists' reliance on viruses to deliver genes into cells, a method that has led to cancers in some patients, said University of Twente physicist Claus-Dieter Ohl. While innovative drug and gene therapies have been developed in recent years, researchers are still looking for efficient and safe ways to deliver the therapeutic molecules into cells. Experiments haven't been performed in human bodies yet. But using Ohl's method, a solution of DNA and microscopic bubbles would be injected into a patient's bloodstream. Ultrasonic waves would then cause the bubbles to compress. The pressure also forces tiny bits of water and DNA to leak into those bubbles. The compressed bubbles then act like tiny syringes that shoot jets of DNA or drugs through the patient's cell membranes. Ohl said the process would be much like clapping your hands while they are partly below the water's surface. Strong jets shoot in the direction of the channel made by your hands. Injecting microbubbles into the bloodstream is nothing new --it's a common technique in ultrasound imaging now, where the microbubbles are used to create contrast. In the new process, the bubbles would function as carriers to deliver molecules into the cell. In Ohl's experiments, the jets move at 200 meters per second, enough to blast through a cell membrane. That speed should increase with perfection of the technique, which will be described in a coming issue of Physical Review Letters, Ohl said. The ultrasound levels needed to compress the bubbles are no greater than those already in use today. In a separate project, Ohl's colleagues at Twente, fluid physicists Philippe Marmottant and Sascha Hilgenfeldt, use sound waves to oscillate bubbles on the surface of cell membranes. That motion, like the vibration of a ringing bell, rapidly swirls the liquid around the bubbles until the tug of the strong current tenses the cell membrane and finally tears it open. The study was published in the May 8 edition of Nature. A related technique has been tried on laboratory animals. In an experiment performed by Professor Katsuro Tachibana of the Fukuoka University School of Medicine in Japan, a gene for extra fingers was injected into a chicken embryo, which later developed an additional digit. Ohl's approach is one of the latest scientists have used in an attempt to replace viruses as a delivery mechanism. Just last week, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory announced a way to ferry genes into cells using carbon nanofibers. But lessening gene therapy's reliance on viral vectors won't be easy, said Dr. Mark Kay, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "A lot (of) ideas show promise in tissue culture cells, but cause problems in vivo (in living beings)," Kay said. "But anything that can work and get rid some of the disadvantages of current vectors is good."