Ardipithecus ramidus

Science magazine dedicates its pages to 11 papers that present a detailed analysis on and introduction of our 4.4 million year old ancestor, Ardipithecus ramidus, authored by a diverse international team.

"These 4.4 million year old hominid fossils sit within a critical early part of human evolution, and cast new and sometimes surprising light on the evolution of human limbs and locomotion, the habitats occupied by early hominids, and the nature of our last common ancestor with chimps."

Fossils of A. ramidus were first found in Ethiopia in 1992. The authors uncertook 17 years of painstaking work to assess their significance and also arrive at the partial skeleton of a female nicknamed "Ardi". Below is a video that features interviews with Project Co-Director Tim White (University of California, Berkeley), Science correspondent Ann Gibbons, and paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill (Yale University).

Military Expenditures: Price of Safety or Superpowerdom?

Below is a revealing chart, via The Economist, showing the list of big military per capita spenders. Is this the price of safety or superpowerdom? How much of these expenditures is truly directed towards achieving these goals?

"...Israel spends most on defence relative to its population, shelling out over $2,300 a person, over $300 more than America. Small and rich countries, and notably Gulf states, feature prominently by this measure. Saudi Arabia ranks ninth in absolute spending, but sixth by population. China has increased spending by 10% to $85 billion to become the world's second largest spender. But it is still dwarfed by America, whose outlay of $607 billion is higher than that of the next 14 biggest spenders combined."

Scientific Perspective on Healthcare Reform

If you take out the passion, obsession, and fear mongering out of the healthcare reform debate, you are left with hard to deny facts about cost, coverage, health outcomes, and geographic disparities. These facts are nicely summarized in the following video from NewScientist. Therein, they discuss data obtained from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Health Data 2009 site and Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.

China's 60th Anniversary National Day

A nice summary of the National Day celebrations in China that was grand and eclectic at once from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

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Healthcare Bill Will...

Why is Google not giving the healthcare bill a chance?

Heathcare Reform in Graphs: Cost, Coverage, Per Capita Spending, and Public Support

In the interest of setting up a one-stop reference regarding health-care reform, included here are graphs that highlight the issues of cost, per capita spending, coverage, . Some of these graphs have previously been discussed here and here. More graphs will be be appended as they are discovered.

Heath spending by population: The graph below shows the relative distribution of health spending within the U.S. population. It clearly shows where the cost overruns are concentrated at.

Heath-care cost versus per capita spending: These graphs below clearly shows what is the critical issue at hand regarding reform efforts here in the U.S.; that is, the incommensurate cost to the quality of care being delivered to the population at large. The U.S. simply stands alone spending more than twice the amount while achieving equal or lower levels of life expectancy.

Comparison between rise health insurance premiums and wage increase: There is no denying that wage increases have been lagging significantly behind rises in health insurance premiums in the past decade.

Percent of Americans uninsured by age: A clear demonstration of who has the most to gain from the implementation of universal coverage. There is a rather drastic increase in number of uninsured going down in age from 65 to 20. Of course, because of Medicare, seniors of 65 years and above are almost universally covered.

Physicians' opinion on coverage options: a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine showed a significant support for a public option.

Physicians’ Support of Options for Expanding Insurance Coverage and Medicare. Panel A shows the proportion of survey respondents who favored public options only, those who favored both public and private options, and those who favored private options only. Panel B shows the proportions of respondents (according to their medical specialty) who supported, opposed, or were undecided about the expansion of Medicare to include adults between the ages of 55 and 64 years.

Advancements in Automotive Safety

Here is an interesting video, courtesy of Marginal Revolution, showing the progress made in improving automotive safety features. It shows a crash between a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu and a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air. We have indeed come a long way!

Fractals in Nature and Others

A glorious summary of amazing fractal images previously shared in various posts:

The State of Politics in America

Tom Friedman makes an accurate diagnosis of the crippled state of politics in America today. He brings a much needed perspective to the assessment of the insanity in the rhetoric pushed by the far right in order to de-legitimize his presidency.

"Sometimes I wonder whether George H.W. Bush, president “41,” will be remembered as our last “legitimate” president. The right impeached Bill Clinton and hounded him from Day 1 with the bogus Whitewater “scandal.” George W. Bush was elected under a cloud because of the Florida voting mess, and his critics on the left never let him forget it.

And Mr. Obama is now having his legitimacy attacked by a concerted campaign from the right fringe. They are using everything from smears that he is a closet “socialist” to calling him a “liar” in the middle of a joint session of Congress to fabricating doubts about his birth in America and whether he is even a citizen. And these attacks are not just coming from the fringe. Now they come from Lou Dobbs on CNN and from members of the House of Representatives."

The striking issue is that this president, who was elected by the largest majority in decades with a sweeping support across the political, generational, and socio-economic divides, is having to face legitimacy question. This is happening less than a year after the renewal of the American spirit brought about by his election, which lifted us all and made us proud to be alive at this juncture in the American journey.

There could be some partisan justification made for the lack of support President Clinton, having won with less than a majority support, and President Bush (43), whose accent ion to power came as a result of a messy and bitterly fought electoral process. There is no such parallel that can be drawn to the election of President Obama.

One only needs to look at this video to get a feel for the degree of misinformation that is prevalent and the unfounded apprehension expressed by his loudest critics. I sure hope that, much like Mr. Friedman, the sane voices will continue to step in forward and speak against this.

Mr. Friedman also talks about the deficiency of focus on the common interest of the country in addressing the difficult problems facing us. It has unfortunately reached a point where everything that the president does is meet with a knee-jerk opposition. My takes on these issues can be found here, here, and here. President Obama aptly put it long ago in stating:

"What's troubling is the gap between the magnitude of our challenges and the smallness of our politics--the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and the trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our seeming inability to build a working consensus to tackle any big problem." (The Audacity of Hope, page41)

Teen Gang Violence

A sad manifest of the state of teen gang violence in America. It's painful to watch...

Media Metamorphosis

Just watch. You'll be amazed by the transformation that is taking place in the media landscape in such a short span of time with little fanfare or attention.

Epigenome

Incredible!

In Honor Of Senator Kennedy

In honor of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, I'll re-post and share a poem I wrote a while back, In the Sense of Time. As he said it best, the dream will never die... He lives on in the dreams he birthed and in the dreams he fulfilled.

In the Sense of Time

In the sense of time I die

I die cell by cell

And piece by piece

Destined for a life mortal

In war and peace.

Yet I breath

Knowledge I absorb

Expressions of self

In spite of death.

In the sense of time we die

Yet dreams of a preacher

Live on to see

A destiny fulfilled

A changed generation

And a nation perfected.

The hope distilled

Of pain and despair

Seeing no end

Lives on to inspire

Elevating a son

Of a mother single

A bearer of light

A hope-vessel half-full.

In the sense of time we die

Dreams live

But you and I.

Impressive High-speed Robot Hand

Do you want to know how far robots have come towards rendering us almost replaceable? Check out this video showing Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing incredible acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. Indeed, an impressive demonstration of advances in robotics and A.I.

Ramadan Kareem!

President Obama continues to extend the unclenched fist forward to improve relations with the Muslim world by building on the Cairo speech and extending best wishes to Muslim communities here in the U.S. and around the world. A smart strategy of forging good relations based on respect and understanding.