Lady Gaga 'Doing Prep' For Tour, Next Album

'She's always doing 25,000 things in a row,' DJ White Shadow tells MTV News of Gaga's 2012 plans.
By Jocelyn Vena

Lady Gaga
Photo: Leon Neal/AFP

Lady Gaga is hard at work. The Mother Monster is already coming up with ideas for 2012's Born This Way Tour and even thinking about her next album. When MTV News caught up with pal and musical collaborator DJ White Shadow, he talked about what the Haus has in store for Gaga.

"She's doing prep for the next round of touring, and she's always doing 25,000 things in a row," he told MTV News last week when he stopped by to chat about the opening of Gaga's pop-up holiday shop at Barneys. "But I think the main focus for her after this season is going to be prepping up for the show, touring new songs for the record."

Gaga has hinted that she'd like to get Elton John on this next record, but, right now, anything goes. White Shadow — who has worked with Gaga extensively on Born This Way, including on the tracks "Born This Way" and "Americano" — is ready to drop everything to collaborate with Gaga again.

"I want to try and be as close to it as possible, that way I don't have to wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning and fly to L.A. or wherever or Japan or wherever she's starting to do stuff," he explained. "Maybe when the tour starts, she's working all the time. I send her stuff and she sends stuff. She's always working on something. It just depends. I know she likes to write when she's on the road, [so maybe she'll make a] new album during the tour."

Given the pair's track record, expect across-the-board sounds on the next project. "The kind of stuff that I send her, some of it is so crazy that I don't know what you'd call it," he said. "When I make stuff ... I know what's for her and what's not for her. Some of it's structured as songs and some of it is structured as madness, and she goes through it like a gold miner."

What are you expecting from Gaga's next album? Let us know in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1675019/lady-gaga-next-album-tour.jhtml

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New Hampshire Union Leader backs Gingrich (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The New Hampshire Union Leader endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Sunday editions, signaling that rival Mitt Romney isn't the universal favorite and that the state's largest newspaper could reset the contest there with six weeks to go before voters cast their ballots.

"We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing," the newspaper wrote in an editorial that was as much a promotion of Gingrich as a discreet rebuke of Romney.

"We don't back candidates based on popularity polls or big-shot backers. We look for conservatives of courage and conviction who are independent-minded, grounded in their core beliefs about this nation and its people, and best equipped for the job," the newspaper continued.

Romney enjoys a solid leads in New Hampshire polls and remains at the front of the pack nationally. A poll released last week showed him with 42 percent support among likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. Gingrich followed with 15 percent in the WMUR-University of New Hampshire Granite State poll.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas posted 12 percent support and former Utah Gov. John Huntsman found 8 percent support in that respected survey.

Those numbers could shift based on the backing of The Union Leader, a newspaper with a conservative editorial page that proudly works to influence elections in the politically savvy state, from school boards to the White House.

"We don't have to agree with them on every issue," the newspaper wrote in an editorial that ran across the width of the front page. "We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear."

While Romney enjoys solid support in national polls, a sizeable pack of Republicans have shifted all year from candidate to candidate in search of an alternative to the former Massachusetts governor. That led to the rise ? and fall ? of potential candidates such as Huntsman, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Yet with six weeks until New Hampshire voters cast their ballots, The Union Leader's move could shuffle the race there and give Gingrich another boost. In recent weeks, he has seen a surge in some polls as Republicans start to ask themselves: which candidate is best positioned to take on President Barack Obama?

As the public started tuning in, Gingrich kept posting solid debate performances and he found his stride on a national stage, the former Georgia lawmaker began rebuilding his campaign. In New Hampshire, he brought on respected tea party leader Andrew Hemingway to lead his efforts and his team has been contacting almost 1,000 voters each day.

Hemingway's team of eight paid staffers in New Hampshire has been adding more than 100 volunteers each day, campaign officials said. Gingrich's team already has lined up leaders in the major cities and has started identifying representatives in each ward in the state.

Gingrich also has opened three offices in New Hampshire ? in Manchester, the state's biggest city; in Dover in the eastern part of the state; and in the North Country's Littleton ? and plans two more.

Gingrich hasn't yet begun television advertising and fastidiously refused to go negative on his opponents.

Yet The Union Leader's backing could give him a nudge in New Hampshire and provide a steady stream of criticism.

Four years earlier, the newspaper threw its support to Sen. John McCain's bid and used Page One opinion columns and editorials to boost him ? and criticize Romney. In the time since, Romney has worked to court Union Leader Publisher Joe McQuaid, who often publishes columns on the newspaper's front page under his signature.

"The Union Leader's style is we don't just endorse once," McQuaid told The Washington Post in 1999. "We endorse every damn day. We started endorsing Reagan in 1975 and never stopped."

Romney and his wife, Ann, had dinner with the McQuaids at the Bedford Village Inn near Manchester, hoping to reset the relationship earlier this year. Yet it didn't prove enough and McQuaid's newspaper seemed not to appreciate the outreach.

"Newt Gingrich is by no means the perfect candidate," the editorial said. "But Republican primary voters too often make the mistake of preferring an unattainable ideal to the best candidate who is actually running."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_el_pr/us_union_leader_gingrich

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Ravens win Harbaugh bowl

Baltimore sacks 49ers QB nine times, gives coach John Harbaugh 16-6 win over brother Jim

Patrick Semansky / AP

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, foreground, hugs his brother, 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, after Baltimore beat San Francisco on Thursday night.

By DAVID GINSBURG

updated 12:37 a.m. ET Nov. 25, 2011

BALTIMORE - John Harbaugh could have gloated. He could have bragged.

Instead, the Baltimore Ravens coach played the role of gracious big brother after he bested Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers 16-6 Thursday night in the first NFL game featuring brothers as opposing head coaches.

The Ravens (8-3) tied a franchise record with nine sacks to end San Francisco's eight-game winning streak.

"To the 49ers and to my brother, I can't tell you enough how proud I am of him and the job he's done building that football team," John said of Jim, a rookie NFL coach. "That's a football team. The way they're built, it's pretty hard to figure out a way to beat them."

John, 49, and Jim, 47, grew up dueling each other in all sorts of games. This, however, was the first time their sibling rivalry was displayed on a national stage.

During the final minute, John got a Gatorade bath from his players ? twice. After the game ended, the brothers hugged at midfield.

"There's a saying that says, 'As iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another,'" Jim said. "And I have to say my brother John is the sharpest iron I've ever encountered in my life."

The Ravens chased, hindered and battered 49ers quarterback Alex Smith for much of the night despite playing without middle linebacker Ray Lewis, the team's leading tackler and spiritual leader. Lewis was inactive for a second straight game with a foot injury.

Smith completed 15 of 24 passes for 140 yards and an interception, and San Francisco (9-2) was held without a touchdown for the first time this season. Smith never could get into a rhythm against an aggressive defense that rarely let him set up in the pocket.

"It's tough to get ready for a defense like that in a short week. They do so many things," he said. "They're a great front. At home with the crowd noise, they were teeing off."

Terrell Suggs had three sacks for first-place Baltimore, which moved a half-game ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North.

"That's always the game plan, to get after the quarterback, but I think the No. 1 game plan was to win the Harbaugh Bowl," Suggs said. "Coach tried to downplay it ? act like it's not me against my brother, this is the Ravens vs. the 49ers and let's get win No. 8 and make sure our destiny is in our own hands ? but it was really important to him. We as a team went out there and really wanted to win for him."

Baltimore broke a 6-6 tie with a 76-yard, 16-play drive that lasted more than 7? minutes and ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to tight end Dennis Pitta with 14:56 left. Flacco went 4 for 4 for 34 yards and a touchdown on third down during the drive.

"When you have that kind of game plan ? your line being so efficient on third downs ? you have to come through," Flacco said.

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Billy Cundiff wrapped up the scoring with his third field goal, a 39-yarder with 4:16 remaining.

In a game dominated by both defenses, Flacco finished 15 for 23 for 161 yards and Ray Rice ran for 59 yards on 21 carries.

The 49ers began the third quarter with a 13-play drive that lasted 7? minutes and produced a 52-yard field goal by David Akers for a 6-6 tie. The key play was an 18-yard completion from Smith to Michael Crabtree on a third-and-17 from the San Francisco 26.

The Ravens responded with their lone touchdown drive of the game.

Baltimore sacked Smith four times in the first half and picked off a pass in taking a 6-3 lead.

The Ravens took the opening kickoff and moved 55 yards ? 38 of them on a pair of Flacco-to-Anquan Boldin completions ? before Cundiff kicked a 39-yard field goal.

Late in the first quarter, a 20-yard completion from Smith to tight end Vernon Davis set up a 45-yard field goal by Akers.

The 49ers blew a chance to take the lead when Frank Gore was penalized for a chop block on a 75-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Ted Ginn, who got behind Cary Williams deep down the middle.

Neither team had much luck moving the ball until San Francisco's Tarell Brown was called for pass interference on a long pass to Torrey Smith. The 50-yard penalty put the ball at the 15, and although the Ravens turned it into a first-and-goal at the 4, they had to settle for a 23-yard field goal with 2:51 left in the half.

Notes: Baltimore has won all six home games this season and 15 of 16. ... Gore finished with 39 yards on 14 carries. ... Although the Ravens had a first-and-goal at the 4 in second quarter, the 49ers held and kept intact their distinction of not allowing a TD rushing all season. ... Lee Evans had a catch for the Ravens, his first reception since Week 2 after missing seven games with an ankle injury.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Ravens win Harbaugh bowl

The Baltimore Ravens sacked Alex Smith nine times and beat the San Francisco 49ers 16-6 Thursday night, giving John Harbaugh an emotional charge in the first NFL game featuring brothers as opposing head coaches.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45432031/ns/sports-nfl/

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FBI downplays water supply 'hack'

23 November 2011 Last updated at 08:19 ET

US officials have cast doubt over reports that a water pump in Illinois was destroyed by foreign hackers.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they had "found no evidence of a cyber intrusion".

The Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center (STIC) previously claimed a hacker with a Russian IP address caused a pump to burn out.

A security expert, who flagged up the story, said he was concerned about the conflicting claims.

Information about the alleged 8 November breach was revealed on Joe Weiss's Control Global blog last week. His article was based on a formal disclosure announcement by the Illinois STIC.

The report said that the public water district's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System (Scada) had been hacked as early as September.

It claimed that a pump used to pipe water to thousands of homes was damaged after being repeatedly powered on and off.

It added that the IP address of the attackers had been traced back to Russia.

The news attracted attention because it could have been the first confirmed case of foreign hackers successfully damaging a US utilities.

'No evidence'

The FBI and the DHS said they had carried out "detailed analysis" and could not confirm the intrusion.

"There is no evidence to support claims made in the initial Fusion Center report - which was based on raw, unconfirmed data and subsequently leaked to the media - that any credentials were stolen, or that the vendor was involved in any malicious activity that led to a pump failure at the water plant," an email sent to the US Industrial Control Systems Joint Working Group said.

"In addition, DHS and FBI have concluded that there was no malicious or unauthorised traffic from Russia or any foreign entities, as previously reported."

The officials added that their analysis of the incident was still ongoing.

Mr Weiss said he was concerned that the email appeared to contradict the initial report.

"This begs the question why two government agencies disagree over whether a cyber event that damaged equipment had occurred at a water utility," he wrote on his blog.

"If the STIC report is correct, then we have wasted precious time and allowed many others in the infrastructure to remain potentially vulnerable while we wait to find out if we should do anything."

Fewer managers

Mr Weiss also notes that a 2010 report by the security company McAfee highlighted the relative vulnerability of the global water system compared with other industries including energy and financial services.

"The water/sewage sector... had the lowest adoption rate for security measures protecting their Scada/ICS systems," it said.

The report noted that the low adoption rate might have been linked to the fact that the water and sewage sector, and said that only 55% of its Scada systems were connected to the internet - a lower percentage than most other industries.

However, it went on to highlight the lower number of managers taking responsibility for the issue.

"When considering this data, the small number of water sector executives amongst those with Scada/ICS systems responsibilities - only 11 out of 143 - needs to be noted," said the McAfee report.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/technology-15854327

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Portugal lowered to junk status as big strike hits

A man walks past closed ticket offices at an empty Campanha train station in Porto, Portugal, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, during a general strike as trade unions protest austerity measures linked to a euro78 billion ($104 billion) international bailout. The Lisbon subway is to close all day Thursday while government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, trash collection and other public services likely to be severely affected. The sign on the boards reads "Suppressed". (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)

A man walks past closed ticket offices at an empty Campanha train station in Porto, Portugal, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, during a general strike as trade unions protest austerity measures linked to a euro78 billion ($104 billion) international bailout. The Lisbon subway is to close all day Thursday while government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, trash collection and other public services likely to be severely affected. The sign on the boards reads "Suppressed". (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)

Elderly people wait at a bus stop in Porto, Portugal, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, during a general strike as trade unions protest austerity measures linked to a euro78 billion ($104 billion) international bailout. The Lisbon subway is to close all day Thursday while government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, trash collection and other public services likely to be severely affected. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)

A picture of Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, who ruled the country as Prime-Minister for 36 years, seen as members of workers union make a picket line with bus parked idle at a bus central station in Porto, Portugal, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, during a general strike as trade unions protest austerity measures linked to a euro78 billion ($104 billion) international bailout. The Lisbon subway is to close all day Thursday while government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, trash collection and other public services likely to be severely affected. The sign on the banner reads "Picket line". (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)

A young man stops by the closed the gate of a subway station in Lisbon, Thursday Nov. 24 2011, during a general strike as trade unions protest austerity measures linked to a euro78 billion ($104 billion) international bailout. The Lisbon subway is to close all day Thursday while government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, trash collection and other public services likely to be severely affected. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Members of a workers union eat and drink as they make a picket line at a bus central station in Porto, Portugal, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011, during a general strike as trade unions protest austerity measures linked to a euro78 billion ($104 billion) international bailout. The Lisbon subway is to close all day Thursday while government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, trash collection and other public services likely to be severely affected. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)

LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? Portugal's efforts to climb out of its economic crisis suffered a double setback Thursday as its credit rating was downgraded to junk status and a major strike gave voice to broad public outrage over austerity measures that have squeezed living standards.

Portugal's deepening plight underlined Europe's difficulties in finding a way out of the continent's government debt crisis which has recently shown alarming signs of spreading to bigger nations, most notably Italy.

Like others in the 17-country eurozone, Portugal has embarked on a big austerity program to make its debts sustainable. Earlier this year, Portugal followed Greece and Ireland in taking a bailout to avert bankruptcy.

As in Greece, though, the government's tough medicine, which is required by international creditors in return for the euro78 billion ($104 billion) in bailout money, is unpopular. The strike had a huge turnout, making it possibly the biggest walkout in more than 20 years.

"They are trying to destroy the national health service, and salaries haven't gone up since 2004," striking doctor Pilar Vicente told Associated Press Television News.

Fitch blamed Portugal's "large fiscal imbalances, high indebtedness across all sectors, and adverse macroeconomic outlook" for its decision to cut the country's rating by one notch to BB+. Rival Moody's already rates Portuguese bonds as junk but Standard & Poor's rates them one notch above.

Fitch's decision to cut Portugal to a non-investment grade will likely mean it's even more difficult for the country, which is already mired in a deep recession and is witnessing rising levels of unemployment, to return to bond markets by its 2013 goal. That raises the unappetizing prospect that Portugal, like Greece, may need a second bailout.

"Portugal's downgrade goes to show how hard it will be for troubled economies to pull themselves out of the crisis and how long this will take," said Sony Kapoor, managing director of Re-Define, an economic think tank. "The Portuguese downgrade highlights the limits of austerity policies both domestically in Portugal and in the wider euro area."

The 24-hour walkout came as Portugal, one of western Europe's smallest and frailest economies, endures increasing hardship as it tries to get its borrowing levels down.

The strike was called by Portugal's two largest trade union confederations, representing more than 1 million mostly blue-collar workers. Much of the private sector remained open for business though a huge Volkswagen car plant south of Lisbon, which accounts for 10 percent of Portuguese exports, decided to shut down production for the day because of problems facing its suppliers.

Much of the disruption was centered on the transport sector. Airlines canceled hundreds of international flights, and the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro were mostly empty as tens of thousands of workers walked off the job. Commuters had to get to work without regular bus or train services. The Lisbon subway was shut, and police said roads into the capital were more congested than normal.

Few staff were working at government offices, local media reported. Many medical appointments, school classes and court hearings were canceled, while mail deliveries and trash collection were said to be severely disrupted.

An unsustainable debt load and feeble economic growth over the past 10 years pushed Portugal towards bankruptcy earlier this year, forcing it to ask for a financial rescue.

In return for the aid, Portugal agreed to cut its debt burden to a manageable level by 2013. That goal requires it to enact deep spending cuts and hike taxes. Income tax, sales tax, corporate tax and property tax are all being increased. At the same time, welfare entitlements are being curtailed. Falling living standards have stoked outrage at the austerity measures.

"All the sacrifices the Portuguese are making today will prove worthwhile in the future," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Miguel Relvas told reporters.

A key difference from Greece is that the markets have not given up completely on Portugal. Though Portugal's key ten-year borrowing rate in the market stands at a still-exorbitant 12 percent, it's way below the 30 percent or so Greek equivalent. The aim is to eventually get that rate down below the 7 percent threshold that eventually proved to be the trigger for this year's bailout.

The Portuguese government, which came to power in June, has already conceded that its deficit reduction efforts have gone "off track" this year but says one-off measures, such as a 50 percent tax on Christmas bonuses and transferring banks' pension funds to the Treasury, will ensure Portugal achieves its 2011 budget deficit goal of 5.9 percent. That is down from 9.8 percent in 2010.

Debt is also expected to surpass 100 percent of GDP this year and peak at 106 percent in 2013 before retreating.

The austerity drive is hitting the real economy hard. Unemployment is up to 12.4 percent and is forecast to hit 13.4 percent next year. The European Commission predicts the Portuguese economy will contract by 3 percent in 2012 ? the worst performance in the eurozone.

Fitch said that the recession is making it more "challenging" for the government to achieve its deficit-reduction plan and will negatively impact bank asset quality. However, Fitch said the center-right government's commitment to the debt-reduction program was "strong."

Portugal has so far witnessed none of the violent demonstrations seen in Greece, though police said three Lisbon tax offices were vandalized Wednesday night.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-24-EU-Portugal-Financial-Crisis/id-377642541647490bba522378f4d1dae3

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Mood Disorders May Not Hinder Cancer Diagnosis | Psych Central ...

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 23, 2011

Psychiatric disorders are believed to be a barrier for appropriate and timely medical care among vulnerable populations.

A new investigation studied if pre-existing depression (with and without anxiety) would influence the time to diagnostically resolve an abnormal mammogram and/or Pap test.

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) discovered suffering from depression was not associated with a prolonged time to diagnostic resolution in a vulnerable population of urban women.

Cancer outcomes are influenced by the time to treatment after an abnormal cancer screen. Some studies have found that women with psychiatric disorders are less likely to receive cancer screening and may also have delays in diagnostic resolution after an abnormal screening test.

Vulnerable populations of women, as defined by low income or with racial/ethnic minority status, are less likely to receive standard preventive health care, which contributes to worse breast and cervical cancer outcomes.

Depression is prevalent in these populations, and may lead to worse health care outcomes.

In recognition of these variables, researchers conducted a retrospective chart review of electronic medical records to identify women who had a diagnosis of depression or anxiety in the year prior to the abnormal mammogram or Pap test.

They used time-to-event analysis to analyze the outcome of time to resolution after abnormal cancer screening.

Of the women with abnormal mammogram and Pap tests, the researchers found 19 percent and 16 percent, respectively, suffered with depression.

The time to resolution for the abnormal mammograms and for the abnormal Pap tests were similar for depressed and non-depressed women (median time of 27 days for mammograms and 85 days for Pap tests).

As a result, researchers believe documented mood disorders are not an additional barrier to resolution after an abnormal cancer screening test in this vulnerable population of women who already had barriers to receiving health care.

?Although we found delays in diagnostic resolution after abnormal cancer screening, women with a depression diagnosis did not have increased delays compared to those who were not depressed,? explained lead author Andrea Kronman, M.D., M.Sc.

?Pre-screening the electronic medical records of women for mood disorders may not be the most reliable approach to identify a group of patients at higher risk of delayed diagnostic resolution of abnormal cancer screening tests in a vulnerable population,? added Kronman.

These findings currently appear in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Source: Boston University Medical Center

Mammogram photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2011). Mood Disorders May Not Hinder Cancer Diagnosis. Psych Central. Retrieved on November 24, 2011, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/11/23/mood-disorders-may-not-hinder-cancer-diagnosis/31816.html

?

Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/11/23/mood-disorders-may-not-hinder-cancer-diagnosis/31816.html

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Public bathrooms house thousands of kinds of bacteria

?especially on toilets which, by the way, saved humanity, changed our ecology, and made the modern city possible.

If you are the sort of person who does not like to use public restrooms, I will warn you right now, this article is going to cause you some concern. It may lead you to hold it until you get home. It may even lead you to abandon bathrooms altogether for a bear?s life of pooping in the woods. The bears, after all, never have to worry about whether or not to put toilet paper around the rim of the seat. Then again, bears also don?t live in cities with million of other pooping bears.

I am getting ahead of myself a little. Before we get to what is living in public restrooms, we need to better understand the toilet, the restroom?s glamorous raison d??tre. It is remarkably hard to identify the person who invented the first flushing toilet. Brighter minds have tried and failed. Praise is sometimes leveled on Sir Thomas Crapper. Crapper was a toilet visionary?no question. But crapper did not invent the flushing toilet, he just elaborated upon existing designs (Crap is not named for him, though that would be a better story.) [1]. Truth is, toilets are one of those inventions that followed need and so arose independently all around the world when the alternatives went from terrible to unbearable.

In urban Europe from the 1500s until the mid-1800s most homes lacked indoor plumbing. Folks were content to use chamber pots emptied out of windows with a heave. When throwing one?s feces out a window it was polite to yell some version of ?look out below.? When accidentally walking under such falling feces, one assumes the standard thing to yell back was ?oh crap.? With time, feces accumulated beneath windows to a depth that required shoveling. This and a general preponderance of waste eventually led to the use of indoor, flushing, toilets, but not until the 1850s. Until then, European cities reeked of filth and decay. The good ole days of London and other major cities were, at least for people, not so good.

The problem with waste is not its smell, which is vulgar and unpleasant but ultimately without consequence. The problem is the life that thrives in what we leave behind, species that would love nothing more than to pass from one person to another via feces forever, the way that an ugly family heirloom is passed among generations. These creatures include deadly microbes such as those that cause cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever and then also crazy hook-faced animals like hookworms, pinworms, tapeworms and roundworms (whose presence may actually have offered some benefit). When waste was everywhere in cities, these species thrived. They bet on the odds and the odds were that if you waited around long enough in feces you would make contact with another human, whether directly or by hitching a ride on, say, an insect species. For centuries, the streets were alive with the sounds of flies, many of them ferrying disease.

Eventually the flushing toilet began to become common and then, as the causes of cholera and other diseases were discovered, the norm. [2] Slowly, the urban experience changed. Toilets saved human lives by making it harder for the species in our waste to move person to person. Just how many lives were saved is impossible to know, though I would wager tens of millions. Sinks saved lives by making it easy to wash our hands, toilets saved lives by causing there to be fewer things to wash from our hands. In this sense, bathrooms with their porcelain centerpieces are the healthiest places in our modern society, the rooms for which we should be most grateful. Bless you bathrooms not for what you are, but for what you have saved us from.

I wanted to establish the value of the toilet, public or otherwise, before discussing the results of the new study published today in PLoS ONE, results that are going to make you feel as though toilets and bathrooms are, well, not good. In this study, Gilberto Flores, his mentor Noah Fierer and other colleagues at the University of Colorado, Boulder studied twelve public bathrooms at the University of Colorado. The sampling was simple. Two postdocs on the team, Scott Bates and Christian Lauber, appear to have drawn the short straws and were sent to swab a variety of locations in each of the bathrooms. They swabbed stall handles, soap dispensers, toilet seats, toilet flush handles, the floor and more. The samples of these bathrooms were then taken back to the lab where the team used genetic techniques, a kind of molecular microscope, to reveal which species were present but invisible in the bathrooms. [3] This study was the first of its kind in the history of humanity, the first clean look at our dirt.

Certainly, this is not the first study of the life in bathrooms. Sociological studies consider the foot movements of senators in public restrooms. Psychological studies consider the effect of public bathrooms on people who have trouble peeing (it makes it worse). Sexual studies consider what can be learned from the graffiti in public bathrooms (that most people can?t spell dirty words). Then there are the studies of germs in bathrooms. Beginning in the 1960s, an entire field of science aimed to understand the story of bathroom bacteria [4]. These studies revealed that when you flush the toilet with the lid up that bacteria can go up to six feet through the air (including onto your toothbrush), that students very rarely wash their hands, that bacteria are present all over the bathroom though differ between wet versus dry places, and that, so long as the lid is closed, flushing the toilet is actually a pretty good way to get rid of bacteria such that toilet bowls don?t have that many bacteria. If you know some factoid about bacteria in bathrooms, you know it from these studies. BUT all of these studies miss something, namely most of the species.

What no one until Flores, Fierer and crew had done was to study those species of bacteria that do not/will not/cannot grow in petri dishes. Everything you (and scientists) know about the bacteria in bathrooms is based just on those species we know enough about to ?feed? in the lab. So what about the other species? They tell, it turns out, other stories.

Flores and colleagues discovered thousands of species in the twelve bathrooms they surveyed, more kinds of bacteria than there are kinds of birds in North America.

Those thousands of bacteria species seemed to be composed of three groups corresponding to just how they arrived in the bathroom?gut species, skin species and shoe species. Species associated with human guts or feces were common on toilet flush handles and toilet seats, where they were either sprayed when the toilets flushed or transferred on hands. Species associated with human skin were common on door handles and other surfaces frequently touched by hands, though not necessarily hands with any feces on them. Finally, the floor community was sparse but diverse, with many rare species found here and there among the tiles, as though our feet were bringing bacteria in from all over the world, each and every place we, or at least the visitors to these particular bathrooms, had been.

The more Flores and colleagues looked to the bacteria for evidence of how we use bathrooms, the more they saw. Bacteria species like those found on the floor were found on some toilet flush handles. This finding is, Flores suspects, evidence of the ways in which some people flush, with their feet. Also, bacteria species typically found in vaginas were common on women?s but not on men?s toilets, one more microbial measure of who has visited. None of the areas tested in bathrooms had bacteria similar to those found in tap water (another potential source). Instead, most of the species appear to have come in the old fashioned way, on us. The bacteria present in any particular bathroom appear to be a measure of the process of colonization, wherein the lifeless tiles, plastic and ceramic are reinvigorated with species. One could go to Krakatau to study the process by which life colonizes non-life (volcanic rock in Krakatau?s case). Flores and company go to the john.

Flores and colleagues have, in the end, discovered our bathrooms to be yet another everyday wilderness, still largely unknown. Some of the species they found are new arrivals, having traveled to the bathroom for the first time on someone?s hand, belly or unmentionable part. Others have been traveling with us for generations, moving bathroom to bathroom, as they once moved chamber pot to pot. These include pathogen species we need to scrub away with soap and water (though not antimicrobial wipes). But just as significant as what Flores and colleagues found is what they did not. They did not find cholera or typhoid (or for that matter any worms). They did not see them because of the toilet. The toilet continues to be what separates us from the most terrible of the beasts, the ones that Flores didn?t discover (but that he likely would have found in countries where toilets are rare), species that since the 1850s we have largely flushed away. And so hover over the seat if Flores?s study worries you. But as you do so, be grateful, for the invention below your intentions, a breakthrough that as much as antibiotics or heart surgery is likely to save your life, whether you know it or not, one uncelebrated flush at a time.

To have your own house sampled, visit www.yourwildlife.org? .

[1]-Queen Elisabeth?s dirty poet, John Harrington, who was, it is said, more dirty than poet may have actually invented one of the first flush toilets in the late 1500s. Queen Elisabeth appears to have tried the toilet out and liked it so much she ordered one herself, giving rise to the first royal flush. The very first toilets, however, are much older with toilets ?flushed? with water having been recorded as early as 2000 BC in Pakistan.

[2]-Though even today it remains common only some places. By some estimates 4 out of 10 people in the world still lack hygienic waste disposal, whether it be via outhouse (how my sister lives), dry toilet, or flush toilet.

[3]-16S rRNA barcoded pyrosequencing for any hipster readers who need to know.

[4]-For example the classic paper by Elizabeth Scott and colleagues from 1982, ?An investigation of microbial contamination in the home (J. Hyg. 89: 279-293? in which Scott and clan consider the microbes (that grow on petri dishes) from each of 200 homes.

Images: 1. A lovely EMPTY British chamber pot; 2. Public restroom; 3. Women?s room sign.

Reference:

Flores GE, Bates ST, Knights D, Lauber CL, Stombaugh J, et al. (2011) Microbial Biogeography of Public Restroom Surfaces. PLoS ONE 6(11): e28132. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028132

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=0eb07ca1a534eed79429c0036c65a4fa

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7 Tools To Wake Your Ass Up on Black Friday [Video]

It's the most important shopping day of the year, but all the best deals go quickly. So given you'll be groggy from your turkey gorging, you need a surefire way to hit the stores early on Black Friday. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/b3y8AnN5NrM/

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Solar Trade War Heats Up (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Blasts in Syrian capital as Assad vows crackdown

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2010 file photo, Syrian President Bashar Assad smiles as he shakes hands with Venesuela's President Hugo Chafez, not seen, at the Syrian presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria. Assad said in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times newspaper published Sunday Nov. 20, 2011 that Syria will not bow and will continue to resist the pressures being imposed on it. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, file)

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2010 file photo, Syrian President Bashar Assad smiles as he shakes hands with Venesuela's President Hugo Chafez, not seen, at the Syrian presidential palace, in Damascus, Syria. Assad said in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times newspaper published Sunday Nov. 20, 2011 that Syria will not bow and will continue to resist the pressures being imposed on it. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, file)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Residents in the Syrian capital awoke to two loud explosions Sunday amid reports from activists that the Damascus headquarters of the ruling Baath party had been hit by several rocket-propelled grenades.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report but the Free Syrian Army, a group of military defectors, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement posted on the group's Facebook page, the FSA said the assault caused casualties and damage to the building. But eyewitnesses said the party headquarters appeared intact and reported no significant security deployment around it.

If true, the Damascus attack on the Baath Party's main building would signal a significant shift in the eight-month revolution against President Bashar Assad, bringing the violence that has engulfed much of the rest of the country to the heart of the Syrian capital, which has so far been relatively untouched.

In Cairo, the Arab League said it has rejected amendments proposed by Syria to a peace plan to end the crisis, saying the changes put forward by Damascus alter the plan's "essence."

The 22-member organization did not give details of Syria's proposed amendments. But it said in a statement Sunday that Damascus' proposals were unacceptable because they introduce "drastic changes" to the mandate of an observers' mission the league wants to dispatch to Syria to ensure the implementation of the peace plan.

The Arab League has already suspended Syria's membership over its failure to abide by the plan, which calls for the withdrawal of the government's tanks from the streets, the release of political prisoners and a halt to attacks on civilians.

An Arab League official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media said the Syrian government was required to implement the peace plan in its entirety.

Assad, meanwhile, vowed to continue with a security crackdown to crush "militants" who he says are massacring Syrians on a daily basis.

"The role of the government is to fight those militants in order to restore stability and to protect civilians," he said in an interview with Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. He also repeated earlier warnings that any foreign military intervention in Syria would "shake the entire Middle East."

On Sunday, activist groups said at least three people were killed in continuing operations by security forces, including two in the flashpoint central city of Homs and one in northern Syria.

Syria's uprising against Assad, although largely peaceful, has grown more violent and militarized in recent weeks, as frustrated protesters see the limits of peaceful action. Army dissidents who sided with the protests have also grown bolder, fighting back against regime forces and even attacking military bases, raising fears of a civil war in Syria.

The Free Syrian Army group of dissident soldiers this week staged their boldest operation yet, striking a military intelligence building in a Damascus suburb.

If Sunday's attack on the Baath Party headquarters in Damascus is confirmed, it would mark the first assault on a government building in what has so far been a relatively quiet central Damascus.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network and several residents reported several explosions in the district of Mazraa in the heart of the Syrian capital.

The LCC said in a statement that the building had been hit at daybreak Sunday by several rocket-propelled grenades and that two fire brigades headed toward the area amid a heavy security presence. The group said it had no further details.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unknown gunmen on motorcycles threw first a sound bomb and then fired RPGs at the Baath party headquarters, hitting the external wall of the building. Two other grenades missed the target, it said.

Residents in the Syrian capital said they heard two loud explosions but could not confirm whether the building had been hit.

"I woke up to the sound of two loud thuds," said a resident of the area who asked that he remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. "We have no idea what they were."

The U.N. says more than 3,500 people in Syria have been killed in the crackdown since the start of the uprising in mid-March. Assad, in the interview, said more than 800 Syrian officers and security forces were killed.

"We are not talking about peaceful demonstrations, we are talking about militants," he said.

Syrian TV said the country's foreign minister will announce Damascus' position on the Arab initiative later Sunday.

Assad, however, lashed out at the Arab League and said the peace plan was aimed at giving the international community an excuse to meddle in his country.

"It's been done to show that there's a problem between the Arabs, thus providing Western countries with a pretext to conduct a military intervention against Syria," he said.

The consequence of any such intervention, he warned, would be "an earthquake that would shake the entire Middle East."

In the interview, Assad said he feels "pain and sorrow" for the bloodshed but added the solution was to eliminate the militants he blames for much of the violence. The Assad regime maintains the militants are playing out a foreign agenda to isolate and weaken Syria.

"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will also continue," he said. "However I assure you that Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it."

Assad, who took over power from his late father, Hafez, in 2000, said there would be parliamentary elections in February or March, after which there would be a new government and new constitution.

"That constitution will set the basis of how to elect a president ... the ballot box should decide who should be president."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-20-ML-Syria/id-187981fe866748338faed2677648b782

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The Big Data Bottleneck In The Consumer Web

Earlier in the year, I wrote an opinion column on TechCrunch that big data ?needs to think bigger.? At the time, I kept hearing the term ?big data? over and over, and wondered how much of the emerging insights and techniques would be applied toward the Internet versus the larger problems society faces, such as detecting fraud in financial markets, finding new deposits of natural resources, or helping discover the next big pharma drug. Yet in some of my experiences monitoring the space since then, I?ve come to conclusion for now that my March 2011 column meant well, but that reality is much further behind than we?d like to think. While I believe that eventually the best data science will emerge to help these industries grow in new ways, for now at least, the best opportunities lie in the one area I wanted to gloss over last time: the consumer and mobile web.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/0x8ySvPxRXk/

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[Penny Stocks] Penny Stock Investing | Penny Stock To Watch

November 20, 2011 ? 6:13 am

For any person new to investing in penny stocks, you ought to 1st be manufactured conscious of the variations in between these micro-cap shares and the much more typical blue-chip and mid-cap investments. In contrast to purchasing shares in a significant, steady firm like Ford or IBM, you are dealing with speculative investments.When penny stock investing some accessible stocks to trade are incorporated in the Pink sheet stocks and the OTCBB (Over the Counter Large Board). These penny stocks are most most likely new businesses rolling-out new merchandise. When they are established, these shares will move on to one of the key markets. Shares that trade in the major markets are more than most likely stocks from firms that have little growth potential or are companies that are losing cash in regards to penny stock investing. To summarize, most publicly traded businesses that are now outlined on 1 of the key stock exchanges (NASADAQ, AMEX, NYSE) had been penny stocks listed on the Pink Sheets or Bulletin Board at one time. Please, even so, be cautious to avoid investing blunders when penny stock investing by means of the pink sheets and OTCBB.

There is a lot of info out there about penny investing and trading. Nonetheless, discovering the correct information to make great penny stock buys can be challenging. Therefore, getting an newbie penny trader is not easy ? it requires a great deal of diligence and work. It is greatest to go with a manual or tactic to aid you turn into a better penny trader and investor.A persistently substantial quantity of shares that are in fact getting traded is a single thing that you should undoubtedly appear for in a penny stock investment. But be cautious here, due to the fact it is feasible to skew the results of common quantity buying and selling, go with the steady quantity to get a great concept of what the stock will supply as an acceptable price of return. Also, make certain the liquidity of the penny stock is a thing you make a note to look at, how many people are promoting and buying every day?Stocks which look in the main exchanges are required to possess specific monetary position proofs. These proofs permit investors to know the genuine value of their investments, producing it probable to make better and much more well knowledgeable choices. The shares which appear in other markets do not carry the very same degree of strong monetary details, and can as a result be significantly riskier purchases.

This does not give you a steady rate of return. In buy to get an acceptable charge of return it is required for you to have consistency in the quantity of shares you make investments in. You should very first look out at the liquidity simply because if there is no quantity, you may stop up with lifeless money. This is wherever you have to promote of your shares at the bid, which will supply a lot more marketing strain, resulting in lower price tag.One more kind of speculation is penny stock buying and selling. Penny stocks, as custom states, are any stock that trades underneath 5 pounds. Even so, for the purpose of this post, any stock trading under 1 dollar is a accurate penny stock. A lot of people are attracted to penny stocks because of their very low price tag and the amount of shares that can be purchased for much less money than more substantial shares. A single major drawback of penny stocks is that they are thinly traded and can go weeks or months without a single trade currently being executed by marketplace makers.

Tags: Investing, Penny, Stock, Stocks

Source: http://pennystocks-towatch.com/penny-stocks-penny-stock-investing-2/

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Spain election dominated by its economic woes

Conservative Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy talks with journalists after voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Conservative Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy talks with journalists after voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Conservative Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy waves after voting at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero leaves after voting and giving a speech at a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero gives a speech at a voting station after voting in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

People choose their candidates before casting their vote in a voting station in Madrid, Sunday Nov, 20, 2011. Spaniards are voting Sunday in the general elections likely to oust the ruling Socialists in favor of the conservative Popular Party. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

MADRID (AP) ? Spaniards braving 21.5 percent unemployment and bleak prospects for economic growth voted Sunday in a general election expected to yield a landslide win for opposition conservatives.

Spain would thus become the third eurozone country in as many weeks, after Greece and Italy, to throw out its governing party in an attempt to dig itself out of an economic crisis. The governments of Ireland and Portugal, both of which received huge bailouts when their borrowing costs got out of control, also have changed hands in elections as part Europe's worst financial crisis in decades.

Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy and his conservative Popular Party were expected to win control of Parliament and oust the ruling Socialists, although Rajoy has said little about what his party would do to fight Spain's sky-high unemployment and piled of debt or where he might exact more painful austerity measures.

A win for Rajoy, 56, would bring the conservatives back to power after nearly eight years of rule by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

On social policy, Zapatero put a patently liberal stamp on traditionally Catholic Spain by legalizing gay marriage and ushering in other northern European-style reforms. But on economic matters he has been widely criticized as first denying, then reacting late and erratically, to Spain's slice of the global financial crisis and the implosion of a real estate bubble that had fueled Spanish GDP growth robustly for nearly a decade.

Zapatero slumped so badly in popularity that he decided not to run for a new term, and former Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba ? a veteran figure and powerful force within the party ? emerged as the candidate to succeed him.

Unlike Italy and Greece, which recently replaced their elected governments with bureaucrats in an attempt to better cope with the euro crisis, Spain will stick with the winner of a general election.

"I am ready for whatever Spaniards may want," said Rajoy after casting his vote Sunday.

Rubalcaba, 60, urged his supporters not to let a low turnout reduce his Socialist party's chances. "The next four years are going to be very important for our future," he said. "The big decisions that have to be taken must be made by citizens, so it's important to vote," he said.

But poor weather caused some polling stations to open late, and a station in the country's south had to be relocated because of flooding, said election office spokesman Felix Monteira. He also said voter turnout was running lower than during Spain's 2008 election.

Voters are casting ballots to elect 350 members of the lower house of Parliament and 208 senators.

In Barcelona, Spaniard Juan Sanchez said he had voted for Rajoy's party because when it was last in power from 1996 to 2004 unemployment had fallen, whereas under the Socialists that figure had risen to five million.

"Hundreds of small and big businesses have closed down," Sanchez said.

In Madrid, civil servant Diana Bachiller said: "I voted for the Socialists because I am sure that if the Popular Party comes to power it is going to begin to cut everything."

Almost two years of recession have left Spain with a euro-zone high 21.5 percent unemployment rate and a bloated budget deficit. The country's key borrowing rate rose above 6 percent for five consecutive days last week, just one percent below a rate considered unsustainable.

The winner of Sunday's election will have little room for maneuver and will almost certainly need to continue implementing austerity measures begun by the outgoing government.

Maria Angeles Redondo, a doctor in Madrid, said she had voted for the Popular Party but doubted an incoming government would be able to improve matters in the short term. "I am not sure if a change of government is really going to usher in the improvements we want and need," she said.

The increasing severity of the recession forced Zapatero to cut civil servants' wages, freeze pensions and, with a hard-bargained agreement of the trade unions, pass legislation making it easier for companies to hire and fire workers.

Rajoy faces the dilemma of trying to lower Spain's budget deficit ? and thus boost investor confidence to reduce Spain's borrowing costs ? without cutting spending or raising taxes so much that it puts a brake on the already listless economy and drag it into another recession.

During the campaign, Rajoy was vague about his plans, but his platform included plans for business tax cuts to encourage hiring and lower the country's staggering unemployment rate. Rajoy also said he would meet Spain's commitments to the European Union on deficit reduction, although with economic growth at a standstill hardly anybody thinks the current government's goal of cutting it to 6.0 percent of GDP this year from 9.2 in 2010 is achievable.

"What we need is work and to maintain our health care," said Raquel Melgar of Madrid, who said she voted for Rubalcaba.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-20-EU-Spain-Elections/id-4b47bfe931fe4ee6bd1cc290f04a236d

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NASA Has Completed the Highest-Resolution Map of the Moon Ever [Space]

Using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA has created the highest-resolution, most accurate map of the surface of the moon ever. Great. Now let's pick a spot to park our spaceships and let's get back there pronto. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2vE67feitV4/nasa-has-completed-the-highest+resolution-map-of-the-moon-ever

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Obama's uncle makes court appearance in Mass. (AP)

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. ? Police did not have the right to stop a car being driven by President Barack Obama's uncle before his drunken-driving arrest, his lawyer said in court Thursday.

Attorney P. Scott Bratton said during a brief appearance in Framingham District Court that he plans next month to file a motion to suppress the traffic stop that led Onyango Obama's arrest in August.

"He wasn't committing any motor vehicle violations at the time. That's our position," Bratton said.

Obama, the 67-year-old half brother of the president's late father, has pleaded not guilty to charges of operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to yield the right of way.

Obama did not speak in court Thursday. A hearing on his lawyer's suppression request is scheduled for Jan. 12.

Obama was arrested in Framingham, about 20 miles west of Boston, after police said he rolled through a stop sign and nearly caused a cruiser to strike his SUV. Police said Obama, an illegal immigrant, failed several sobriety tests and blew a reading of 0.14 percent on a blood-alcohol breath test, above the state's legal driving limit of 0.08 percent.

After being booked at the police station, police said Obama was asked whether he wanted to make a telephone call to arrange for bail.

"I think I will call the White House," he stated, according to a police report.

Obama initially was held without bail on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on allegations he violated an order to return to Kenya 20 years ago. He was subsequently released and ordered to regularly check in with immigration officials.

In the book "Dreams from My Father," the president writes about retracing his roots and his 1988 trip to Kenya. In that section, he refers to an Uncle Omar, who matches Obama's background and has the same date of birth.

The White House has said it expects the arrest of Onyango Obama to be handled like any other case.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_s_uncle_arrest

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The science of money ? how you can help

The mosquitoes are so thick John Gust can feel them hitting his arm as he sweeps a branch out of his way. After an hour-long boat ride through the Yucatan, he's hacking his way through the jungle surrounding an old rum distillery. It's hot, muggy and pouring rain, but Gust is on a mission to solve the murder of the distillery's last owner, Robert Stephens, who died in 1875.

Who put Gust, a doctoral student at University of California, Riverside, through this nightmarish trip? You did. His research trip to the Yucatan depends on funding gathered through the SciFund Challenge, a type of crowd-sourced funding where your money decides what science gets done.

The SciFund Challenge, which is being run by the online crowd-funding platform, RocketHub, opened Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 15; those interested in donating can choose between 49 projects ranging from exploding duck penises and zombie fish to math models of political rallies and yeast-based cancer research.

"This is the first time that I know of in human history that science can be powered directly by the people," RocketHub founder Brian Meece told LiveScience. "Here's the chance for the common man or woman to make something happen."

1. More science news from MSNBC Tech & Science

   1. Guide us to the top Science Geek Gifts

      Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Send in your suggestions for the 10th annual Science Geek Gift contest ... you might just win a geeky prize.

   2. New bee or not new bee? 11 species added
   3. What? Yeti nests found?! Not so fast...
   4. Ant-like robots poised to invade the marketplace

And while the researchers involved hope to get their projects funded, they are just as interested in connecting the public with science.

"I see part of my responsibility studying elephants as a conservation effort and to communicate the science that I do," Shermin de Silva, director of the Uda Walawe Elephant Research Project, told LiveScience. "Scientists are typically not really rewarded for doing this ? scientists are rewarded when they publish a paper."

Kristina Killgrove, who is trying to get her project on the DNA of Roman slaves funded, agreed: "It works to get the public involved. It's important for us as scientists to not just sit in our ivory towers and not just make science for other scientists, but also to bring our science to the public. "

Science projects
SciFund donations fund small projects of all kinds. For example, Patricia Brennan and her colleague Diane Kelly, both researchers at the University of Massachusetts, are interested in studying the duck penis, which inflates incredibly quickly when inserted into a female. Brennan and Kelly want to design equipment to test how much force the exploding penis exerts and also to figure out how female ducks avoid injury from the explosive penis.

"People really like it, they find it interesting because it has to do with sex and with violence, which hits at people's interests and imagination," Brennan told LiveScience. "This is the perfect thing to get people to say, 'I want to know more about this story.'"

Other projects could provide the baseline research needed to apply for larger grants. Zen Faulkes wants to go collect a crayfish that's the closest relative of a mysterious all-female crayfish species. With the data gleaned from setting up a colony and studying the two species, Faulkes can apply for a National Science Foundation grant.

"They aren't that far from me, they live in Florida and I'm in southern Texas," Faulkes, a researcher at The University of Texas-Pan American, told LiveScience. "It's just long and complicated enough that it's not free, it's not zero dollars. But it's just a little bit of time and a little bit of money to go collect some of those animals from the wild."

In comes crowdfunding
Even a little bit of money is hard to find these days, although the public is aware of government funding cuts. Most scientists rely on government funding to pay for their labs, equipment, training, expeditions and personnel. Sixty-five million dollars (about 1 percent) was cut from the National Science Foundation budget between 2010 and 2011; $260 million (0.08 percent) was cut from the National Institutes of Health, according to their websites.

Things look better for the 2012 budget, but previous cuts mean more competition for the remaining money, researchers say. With small preliminary projects funded by a SciFund type program, researchers can strengthen their case for limited government funds.

"In science we have the equivalent of the World Bank, giant-sized funding, but where's the microfinance?" Faulkes asked "How can we support a project that's two-thousand bucks?"

How it works
Crowdfunding, or raising money from small donations made by a large number of people, has successfully made its mark in several different areas: New artists can rally their fan base to produce an album or to rent gallery space. Websites such as Kiva.org crowdfunds microloans to buy a family a goat or build a village a well.

Why would it work in science? Meece believes it's all about the stories scientists are telling: "I think that a lot of the drivers that are driving these science projects for SciFund are the same as for any project. Real people making real things happen with a lot of passion," he told LiveScience. "That passion can be very contagious. The stories are very compelling."

To convince the masses that their project is worth pursuing, the researchers make their case using video, text, blog posts and "rewards" for donations. Some of the rewards include things like a snake skin ($50 donation to The Yin Yang World of Venom project) or the right to name a lion cub ($1,000 contribution to the Serengeti Live project).

Making a successful project
Only a few of the 49 SciFund projects have been successfully funded so far. These include a zombie fish project and a project studying the genes of ancient Roman slaves. What makes for a successful project? Communicating with one's social network helps.

"There was a large group of people that I could connect with, that I know they are already interested in science," Kelly Weinersmith, a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, and lead researcher studying parasites that turn fish into zombies, told LiveScience. "The general public is actually very excited about the science that's going on, but at the moment a lot of scientists don't communicate with them."

Many of the SciFund researchers are also striving to make a personal connection with their audience.

"What all of these crowdfunding campaigns have in common is that to successfully fund your project you need to make a connection with them (the funders)," Jarrett Byrnes, SciFund organizer and researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara, told LiveScience. "That's what will lead to successful funding of these projects."

John in the jungle
The researchers hope the funding will help fill in the end of their science stories. Gust may never discover just why Robert Stephens was killed in his rum distillery in 1845, but his trip to the mosquito-ridden Yucatan will still lead to a better understanding of the historical and even the current state of the citizens of the Yucatan, if public funders get excited about his project.

"We may never really be able to solve the reason for this guy's murder, but you can look at the material evidence of how his workers lived and compare that to conditions elsewhere, and get some idea of what people were living in," Gust said. "He was either a really nice guy who treated his crew very well or a really terrible guy who didn't."

Plans for future rounds of SciFunding haven't been announced, but based on the public and the researchers' excitement, it's very possible Byrnes said. "We've just started this and really interested in finding out where this goes," he said. "People seem to be really excited about it."

In the future, SciFunding may look for non-profit routes, as RocketHub is a for-profit venture that collects 4 percent of the funds donated (if you reach your funding goal, 8 percent if you don't) and the credit card companies get a cut too, typically about 4 percent.

Either way, introduction of a new funding model could be something really important for the future of science funding. "If this is successful I can totally dream up a gazillion other things to do that would be totally doable," Brennan (the duck penis researcher) said. "It can really be transformative in many ways in how science is happening."

You can follow LiveScience staff writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter @ microbelover. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45362324/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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