Nostradamus, Obama and 2012...

Nostradamus strikes again. Google “Obama”, “Antichrist”, 2012… and I predict you will get a massive number of hits. There are circulating on the worldwide web some really idiotic but also possibly dangerous rumours, featuring Nostradamus, Barack Obama, Antichrist III and the End of the World (2012). The theories are extremely silly, undoubtedly. But they get quite dangerous too when you think of the idiots who might be taking some action, just because of that sort of rumours. They created already an “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool” in Maine, because they just KNOW Obama is the AntiChrist (his name rhymes with Osama, says Mister Arkwriter).

And then there are video’s like this one… Take the last two letters from “Obama” and the first three of “Bush” and you get “Mabus”. Some self-declared experts say that “Mabus” is the name of the guy who, according to the 16th century prophet Nostradamus, would be the third Antichrist (after Pau Nay Oloron who was Napoleon, and Hister who was Hitler). Now, I really don’t understand why Obama has to be the Antichrist. Why can’t it be George W. Bush? Or, for that matter, Osama bin Laden? You’ll get also a “Mabus” if you combine the names “Osama” and “Bush”! Okay, Osama or George W. Bush are not living in Chicago and Barack Obama is… and what is the zipcode of Chicago? 60606! Eliminate the zero’s and you get 666, the Number of the Beast! It’s that simple, really.

There is only one minor problem with this whole theory: Nostradamus has never said a Mr. Mabus will be the Antichrist. In Century 2, Quatrain 62 he states that “when Mabus will die”, there will be “a horrible undoing of people and animals”. That’s all, folks.

Interesting footnote in the Mabus=Antichrist Hoax: the former Governor of Mississippi, Ray Mabus, served in the Clinton era as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and is working now as Obama’s adviser on Middle Eastern issues. This leads other Nostradamiacs to speculate about the assassination of Mr. Mabus, working somewhere in the Middle East in the Obama Administration, which could fuel a horrible counter-attack by Obama. Quatrain 62 mentions “a vengeance” and “a comet”, and of course this comet has to be the nuclear missile that will start the Final Countdown to an apocalyptic World War III!

Still not convinced that Nostradamus tells you Bad **** Will Happen when Obama goes to the White House? Okay, then listen to this argument… Barack Obama is the first Black President in the White House, am I right or am I right? And who is described as “black in attribute”? The Man in Black, Johnny Cash? Yeah, but he is no longer among us… The Men in Black, coming from Outer Space? No, my dear friends, let the aliens out of it and let’s talk about Satan, who will now take over the White Mansion, also known as Heaven! He will be there until 2012, and who said the world would end in 2012? Nostradamus, indeed!

There is only one minor problem with this theory… During the nineties, you could read everywhere that, according to Nostradamus, the world would come to an end in 1999: “In the year 1999 and seven months, from the sky will come a great and frightening King.” In his book “The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus”, published in 1999, Ned Halley stated that the Apocalypse didn’t need to be a military one. It also could be “industrial competition from booming China, a new flu epidemic similar to the catastrophic pandemic of 1918 (…) or revolution against the Communist regime (of China).”

There was the usual bad **** happening, but did there some really Very Bad & Apocalyptic **** happen? In China? In 1999? No, it did not. And why not? Well, Nostradamus simply didn’t see Apocalyptic Bad **** happen in 1999. He didn’t see it in 2012 either. His prophecies go to 3797!

Did Nostradamus see the nearly Apocalyptic Bad **** of 9/11 happen then? No, he did not. The famous quatrain attributed to him, about a “great thunder” that would be heard in the “City of God”, with “two brothers torn apart by Chaos” and a “third big war” that would begin when “the big city was burning”, was invented by a college student. Neil Marshall was his name and he wanted to demonstrate how a Nostradamus-like quatrain could be interpreted in so many ways as there were interpreters.

Did Nostradamus predict the election of Barack Obama, the first Black President in the White House? Professor Eugene Randell, Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, declared that the Institute was holding some very rare Nostradamus manuscripts. One previously unreleased quatrain spoke about a “great empire” that would be “torn from limb” and a “great power given to the dark one from slaves come”. The lines were eagerly copied and pasted on numerous blogs and websites, but all these “believers” forgot to mention (or didn’t know) that the original article was published by “The Daily Squib”, the World’s Finest (Satirical) News Source.

Professor Eugene Randell did not exist and the previously unreleased quatrain definitely was a hoax.

Source: Nostradamus, the Black President and the End of the World in 2012

More debunking: Nostradamus, Obama, the Antichrist & the End of the World in 2012

Copyright by Patrick Bernauw, Historical Mysteries

Article Copyright© Patrick Bernauw - reproduced with permission.

Seriously haunted cemeteries....

Nancy Bradley: As I have said many times before, rarely to never will you find a spirit in a cemetery among the rotting remains of what and who. You are much more likely to find spirits in the places they loved in life, their homes, fishing on a river, and it is not even uncommon to find a person who was a workaholic in life still hanging around their office. But sometimes, just sometimes, you will find a wayward spirit in a cemetery.

One such case was a man named Malcolm that we encountered in a New York Cemetery. He had been a groundskeeper there in life, for many years, and he held that job as very important. He was convinced that even in death his services were still needed. The final resting place of those that he cared for over the years had gone to ruin, it is now in what is considered and obviously apparent in the worse part of town. The cemetery is overrun with weeds, tombstones barely visible any longer for debris. It is full of trash, people throwing the nearby fast-food bags over the fence and beer and soda cans strewn on the ground. We saw used plastic wrapped diapers tossed aside and boxes of trash having been opened by critters all over the place. There seems to be little respect for the old cemetery as people party at all hours at the site, leaving refuse behind, needles and much ugliness. Sadly, in his death, there is nothing much that Malcolm can do to fix this any longer. We tried to reason with him, but to him it is a matter of principal and pride. It means something to him as he took this job seriously. Even if his presence could be seen and he could frighten just one person away from his beloved cemetery he would feel happy. I had to understand what he meant about these people and the place he respects and honors. The people he now deals with do not respect the living, and therefore unable to respect the resting places of the dead.

But more likely than spirits in cemeteries, you will find ghostly imprints. The spirit of the person of course no longer remains (ah another pun – sorry!), but we are dealing with the image or imprint of when they were there. And this is more prevalent in places where there was charged energy around at the time of a death, perhaps a war situation, murder, or other disruptive activity. Imprints abound mostly where there is unexpected, unanticipated, fearful, strife ridden, and otherwise avoidable death. Some such places in the United States would be the Civil War battle fields, in New England all through the areas of witch hunts. In Europe, war areas.

There are also the stories of gasses that escape from the bodies of deceased in electrical storms making their way to the top dirt floor in cemeteries, leaving the appearance above their headstones of being haunted. Even when embalming a body for viewing purposes with today’s technology it is believed by most that it is impossible to remove all the gasses and bodily fluids from a decedent. After burial it is anyone’s guess how much this would impact a cemetery if those gasses were to come to the top of a plot in an electrical storm. Encased in cement? Would it be more likely with older graves not so well protected? Stories abound and we have been called out on many of them…

Still, these are stories for another time. Right now it seems fitting to talk to you about some other aspects of ghosts that make some resting places seriously haunted cemeteries.

The McDowell Cemetery in Fairfield, Virginia is likely the most haunted cemetery that we have explored. The story of a headless soldier in the cemetery wearing a long overcoat and appearing cold and ragged has been reported endlessly here. The cemetery is the site that on a cold day in December of 1742 Captain John McDowell and seven of his men killed and mutilated a band of Oneida Indians, some reports say they carelessly left the bodies for animals to feed on or their loved ones to find. So gruesome was the attack that is retold for all time.

On our visit, we did not see the headless soldier, but we did see phantom soldiers marching, and much evidence of the attack. This is one that should be explored.

The St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana is a very interesting place too. Now over populated daily with visitors as the rumors of ghosts increase, it is hard to get away by yourself for a good and clean investigation. Still, time allowing, this is a treasure trove for ghost enthusiasts.

There are two unmarked tombs of most interest here, both covered with graffiti and gifts that are left daily. They are the tombs believed to contain the remains of not one, but two Marie Laveaus. The original Marie Laveau was a Voodoo Queen in New Orleans in the 1700, early 1800s. By all accounts she had strange powers and was feared and/or loved and honored by those of her time. Sneaking in and out of places, appearing to be able to hide when encountered did not help her to appear in any way to be normal by any standards of the time. It is said that she saved several men from hangings with her magical powers and potions. Even in old age people would remark that she always appearing youthful, giving credence to the story that, as many speculated there was actually TWO Marie Laveaus, one the mother, the other her daughter.

Whether there was one or two Marie Laveaus, (from my psychic perspective there were two) they disappeared in life by 1895. Still, the ghostly legend of Marie Laveau remains to this day and rituals and ceremonies continue on in their honor.

There are two tombstones belonging to the Laveaus in the old cemetery in the French Quarter. People leave voodoo offerings. They ask them to help with problems and worries. Often at the sites you can see a big X that is left there for good luck. Superstitiously people knock three times on the sites to awaken the spirits so that they can help.

Over the tombs people remark of constantly seeing a black crow, hovering. Some believe this is a sign that she is listening. Many folks living in the French Quarter talk of seeing the original Marie Laveau all the time. Some say she takes on the appearance of a large black dog when she walks through the cemetery.

On our visit, yes, there was a black crow. Are there crows in the area, sure, we saw many of them. We did record ectoplasmic activity at both sites, but more at site 1. Orb activity was high in infra-red and also on elaborate camera equipment. There was a dog that accompanied us that night, but he was large, brown, and had his updated tags on. His name was Buster.

Still, I felt the presence of someone pushing me at the first site, there were rattlings going on inside the area where the first Loveau grave is. We are scheduled to go back again in the near future. In the last month Bob King and Judy Cooper of GRG/ITU did a preliminary investigation making it official to us that there is reason to re-explore.

I would leave this one to you, but certainly if nothing else, if you live in the area or go to vacation there, do not leave this one behind. The first Marie Laveau’s grave is about 30 feet from the entrance to the St. Louis Cemetery (1) on the left. The second Marie Laveau (thought to be the daughter, and we felt less presence there) is at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, 400 Basin Street, New Orleans.

We introduced you to the Coloma, California cemetery earlier, but here is another California cemetery worthy of note. The Old City Cemetery located at 10th and Broadway in Sacramento, houses (if you like that word) the remains of over thirty-six thousand people. From this number, it would be insanity to not believe that the ghostly appearance of any number of them in imprint would not be able to be seen by those able to do so. And just one such imprint in this historic graveyard is railroad engineer William Brown, who died September 26, 1880 after having saved the lives of hundreds of people from a watery grave in the San Francisco Bay. It is told that someone threw a wrong switch on his train and it headed head onto a ferry wharf leading into the direct path of the water. He unhitched the passenger cars from the locomotive just moment before the rest of the train plunged into the bay. Unfortunately, he was not so lucky to survive. When they found what was left of the train and the engine in the bay, they found a brave Brown still holding the controls as if still trying to break the machine. It is said his ghostly image, perhaps even his spirit, likely because of his charged and unexpected death, followed the funeral procession to the cemetery. For whatever reason, he is still seen here, only not in his working clothes, in the afterlife in a black suit. How do we know it is him? Because he stands at his burial site.

Of course of all the ghostly stories at the Old City Cemetery it would be completely unfair to not remind you of the story of John Wesley Reaves and his daughter Ella. After being interred ninety years in old iron coffins, when exhumed, people were amazed that there bodies were still in perfect condition, even down to Ella’s pink lips. Their fingernails had not grown, and their hair was in perfect order as if just combed. The skin on their bodies was perfect appearing as if they were just sleeping, there was no deteriorated at all, still smooth and in perfect color, their clothes appeared brand new.

One such a story I was a part of in another cemetery years ago. It was a woman that lost a child 50 years prior to her death, and because of this incident she went insane. For years she sat and rocked on her rocking chair, not speaking to anyone, simply looking forward. She had to be force fed and cared for. The moment she died, the interred body of her child shot from the ground in the cemetery where it had been buried fifty years before. When the wooden coffin was opened, the toddler was in perfect shape. Within 20 seconds of the lid being taken off the little coffin, the body crumbled to ash. Interesting, there is so much we can learn from cemeteries.

So I say never omit cemeteries on your quest for TRUTH in paranormal work. And NEVER omit the cemeteries of the stars, Forest Lawn, Hollywood Memorial Park, etc. How wonderful would it be if it were you who secured a photograph of a known deceased celebrity?

It is my belief that NO cemetery and NO ghost town should ever be overlooked by serious investigators. Even if such places only represent the ghostly imprints of the inhabitants and interred, it is an amazing study into still unknown realms.

Happy hunting!

Nancy Bradley

Article Copyright© Nancy Bradley - reproduced with permission.

Soon 39-day trips to Mars ..

There's a growing chorus of calls to send astronauts to Mars rather than the moon, but critics point out that such trips would be long and gruelling, taking about six months to reach the Red Planet. But now, researchers are testing a powerful new ion engine that could one day shorten the journey to just 39 days.

Traditional rockets burn chemical fuel to produce thrust. Most of that fuel is used up in the initial push off the Earth's surface, so the rockets tend to coast most of the time they're in space.

Ion engines, on the other hand, accelerate electrically charged atoms, or ions, through an electric field, thereby pushing the spacecraft in the opposite direction. They provide much less thrust at a given moment than do chemical rockets, which means they can't break free of the Earth's gravity on their own.

But once in space, they can give a continuous push for years, like a steady breeze at the back of a sailboat, accelerating gradually until they're moving faster than chemical rockets.

Several space missions have already used ion engines, including NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which is en route to the asteroids Vesta and CeresMovie Camera, and Japan's spacecraft Hayabusa, which rendezvoused with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005.

But a new engine, called VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), will have much more "oomph" than previous ones. That's because it uses a radio frequency generator, similar to transmitters used to broadcast radio shows, to heat the charged particles, or plasma.

The engine is being developed by the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which was founded in 2005 by plasma physicist and former space shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz.
As hot as the sun

VASIMR works something like a steam engine, with the first stage performing a duty analogous to boiling water to create steam. The radio frequency generator heats a gas of argon atoms until electrons "boil" off, creating plasma. This stage was tested for the first time on 2 July at Ad Astra's headquarters in Webster, Texas.

The plasma could produce thrust on its own if it were shot out of the rocket, but not very efficiently. To optimise efficiency, the rocket's second stage then heats the ions to about a million degrees, a temperature comparable to that at the centre of the sun.

It does this by taking advantage of the fact that in a strong magnetic field – like those produced by superconducting magnets in the engine, ions spin at a fixed frequency. The radio frequency generator is then tuned to that same frequency, injecting extra energy into the ions.
High power

Strong magnetic fields then channel the plasma out the back of the engine, propelling the rocket in the opposite direction.

Thanks to the radio frequency generator, VASIMR can reach power levels a hundred times as high as other engines, which simply accelerate their plasma by sending it through a series of metal grids with different voltages. In that setup, ions colliding with the grid tend to erode it, limiting the power and lifetime of the rocket. VASIMR's radio frequency generator gets around that problem by never coming into contact with the ions.

"It's the most powerful superconducting plasma source ever, as far as we know," says Jared Squire, director of research at Ad Astra.

Scientists at Ad Astra began tests of the engine's second stage – which heats the plasma – last week. So far, team members have run the two-stage engine at a power of 50 kilowatts. But they hope to ramp up to 200 kW of power in ongoing tests, enough to provide about a pound of thrust. That may not sound like much, but in space it can propel up to two tonnes of cargo, reaching Jupiter in about 19 months from a starting position relatively close to the sun, says Squire.
Orbital boosts

Ad Astra and NASA have agreed to test fire the rocket in space, attached to the International Space Station in 2012 or 2013. Potentially, VASIMR could provide the periodic boosts needed to keep the ISS in its orbit.

At its current power level, VASIMR could be run entirely on solar energy. Squire says it would make a good Earth-orbit tugboat, pulling satellites to different orbits. It could also shuttle cargo to a lunar base, and because it could travel relatively quickly, it could be deployed to dangerous asteroids to gravitationally nudge them off course years before they would reach Earth.

To travel to Mars in 39 days, however, the engine would need 1000 times more power than solar energy could provide. For that, VASIMR would need an onboard nuclear reactor. Early versions of the reactor technology were used from the 1960s to the 1980s by the Soviet Union, but have not been used in space since and would take time to develop. "That would be quite a ways down the line," Squire says.
'Game changer'

But the possibility of such a short trip to Mars was recently lauded by Charles Bolden, NASA's new chief. He said NASA had provided a small stipend towards VASIMR's development, and said the collaboration was a good example of a partnership with private industry that could help the agency meet its goals after the space shuttles are retired in 2010.

John Muratore of the University of Tennessee Space Institute and a former lead engineer for NASA's space shuttle programme, says engines like VASIMR could enable the first human trips to Mars.

"The bottom line is with the current propulsion technology, Mars missions are undoable for humans," he says, explaining that such long trips outside of the Earth's protective magnetic field would expose astronauts to greater amounts of dangerous space radiation.

If engines, such as VASIMR, could be developed to take people to the Red Planet in 40 days, "that puts it inside the range of what we feel comfortable of doing with humans," he told New Scientist. "Something like VASIMR – that's a game changer."

India's First Nuclear Sub Undergoes Sea Trials

India's First Nuclear Sub Undergoes Sea Trials
NEW DELHI, July 26 -- India on Sunday launched its first indigenously built nuclear-powered submarine for sea trials, making it the sixth nation in the world to possess such sea attack capabilities.

The dream of over a quarter of a century will be fulfilled today when Ms Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, breaks the coconut on the hull of India’s first indigenously constructed nuclear- ,ballistic missile submarine — called a boomer in popular parlance — at a super- secret Naval base in Visakhapatnam.

At that moment, the 112- metre long black marine monster, now named Arihant ( destroyer of the enemy), will be pulled out of its lair — a covered dry dock, nearly halfa- kilometre long and 50 metre deep — where it has been conceived and grown. The building, called the Ship Building Centre at INS Virbhau, the Navy’s base in Vizag, is at the very end of the harbour.

The Indian Navy and the Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO) have expended a great deal of treasure and sweat to reach this point. A year from now, after harbour and sea trials, the Arihant, with a complement of 23 officers and 72 sailors, will join the naval fleet.

What is so special about a boomer? Everything, if you see it from the point of view of the country’s nuclear deterrent.

Because of India’s “ no first use” pledge, our weapons must survive a first strike for retaliation.

So the Arihant’s primary weapon is stealth. It can lurk in ocean depths of half a kilometre and more and fire the Sagarika from under the sea. The key lies in its nuclear propulsion. The nuclear reactor of the sub generates heat to turn water into steam in a generator which, in turn, drives the turbine generators which supply the ship with electricity and drive the main propulsion turbines and propeller. There is no stage which requires air or oxygen.

SUBMARINES can be detected by sonar, or sound ranging, and so not only has the Arihant’s propulsion system given a double shield, its outer hull is covered by thick rubber tiles studded with conical gaps that trap sound.

After the first trial of the steam cycle and turbines, the Arihant will be hooked up to the nuclear reactor. The reactor’s fuel rods are currently locked and sealed.

They will be unlocked and neutrons will be introduced to start up the 85 MW pressurised water reactor. The reactor will work continuously for anything up to 10 years till the fuel runs out.

Then it will be brought back to the dock, the reactor compartment will be cut open, new fuel rods inserted and resealed.

Arihant’s construction got underway in 1998 with Larsen & Toubro machining 13 sections of the hull at its plant in Hazira to a design provided by the Malakit design bureau of Russia. These were then taken in a barge to Vizag and outfitted with their respective equipment — missile launchers, combat information systems, torpedo tubes, ballast tanks, living spaces, sonars, steam generator and turbine and so on. Then they were welded into three distinct sections.

The first contained the sonar equipment, torpedo tubes and control systems. The second section comprised of the combat information systems and an array of electronic equipment, accommodation as well as the ballistic missile launchers. The third section, distinct and specially shielded, comprised of the reactor and the steam turbine and gearings.

Considering that India began its first project for the sub in the late 1970s, you could well ask why it has taken so much time.

The short answer is that we are not as advanced as we think we are when it comes to engineering, metallurgy, and nuclear science.

The first glimmer of this was visible when in the early 1980s the first project ran aground after spending some $ 4 million ( Rs 20 crore). The second project under the auspices of the DRDO worked on different assumptions, but even it has had a rocky ride.

The plan was for India to acquire the drawings of the Russian Charlie II submarine and fabricate it, and at the same time design its own 100 MW reactor. A new Advanced Technology Vessel programme was created. At the same time, in 1988, a Charlie II, renamed Chakra, was leased from the Soviet Union. The idea was to run it till we had made our own.

UNFORTUNATELY, the Soviet Union collapsed and there was no extension of the lease. By then we had created a number of facilities which included a special pier with a 60- tonne crane, radiation safety services, swimming dock, slipway and workshop, but the project remained in the doldrums.

This was the time, in the mid- 1990s, when the ATV organisation realised how much of a long haul it would be. Components and assemblies for nuclear- propelled submarines had to have a very high quality requirement, something the country lacked.

For obvious reasons, precision welding is one of the most important aspects of submarine construction.

More troubling was the fact that the reactor made by the Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre, Kalpakkam could not make grade. Once again the Russians helped, quietly.

They provided equipment for two VM- 5 pressurised water reactors, one of which was assembled and tested at Kalpakkam’s Prototype Testing Centre in 2004. The Russians have also been helping with the design of the Sagarika, the ballistic missile that will be the main weapon of the Arihant.

The big challenge for the engineers was to use the Charlie II design and modify it by adding one more compartment, the one that carried the ballistic missile tubes which increased its length by 10 m or so. But they managed this and earlier this year the reactor and propulsion unit was finally welded to the other two units. Many Indian companies have been involved. The uranium, enriched at around 20 per cent, has been provided by the Indian uranium enrichment facility at Ratnehalli, near Mysore.

India has another nuclear- propelled submarine en route in 2010, an Akula- class Russian attack submarine which differs from the Arihant which is a ballistic missile sub. Such subs are used to hunt down enemy submarines and ships. Curiously, no one seems to know who wants the Akula. The Navy brass insists it is not them. But the country is expected to spend $ 700 million ( Rs 350 crore) to lease it for a period of 10 years. But then this is what keeps the country’s defence purchases booming.

Cooler Than Ever

Alex Katz Is Cooler Than Ever
At 82, the pathbreaking painter known for stylized figurative works has never been in more demand
By Cathleen McGuigan
Photographs by Stephanie Sinclair

The cavernous lobby of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art is jammed with people, but it is impossible to miss Alex Katz. The artist famous for his bright figurative paintings is standing by the information desk wearing a parka so blindingly orange it looks radioactive. Orange is one of Katz's favorite colors, and the jacket, adorned with reflective silver strips, is the kind that a guy on a road crew might wear to direct traffic in a rainstorm. But this French-made parka is downright chic, rather like its owner, who looks at least a decade younger than his 82 years, with a smooth head (he shaves it daily) and features as sharp as those of the suave figures who populate his paintings.

He has come to the Met to see an exhibition of works by Pierre Bonnard, the French Post-Impressionist who was a big influence when Katz was starting out. "Bonnard was very important in the early 1950s," Katz says. "His painting was in the same direction as [Jackson] Pollock—away from a contained plane. It was all over light, just light and color." He goes on: "They're great paintings; they have great atmosphere. Bonnard's great with reds and oranges—it is very hard to get transparency with red!"

A maverick from the beginning, Katz came of age when Abstract Expressionism still reigned, yet he turned to painting landscapes and the human figure. Over time, his paintings got bigger. "Appropriating the monumental scale, stark composition and dramatic light of the Abstract Expressionists, he would beat the heroic generation at their own game," the critic Carter Ratcliff wrote in a 2005 monograph on Katz.

"It was an open door," Katz says today. "No one was doing representational painting on a large scale."

Taking cues from Cinemascope movies and billboards, his highly stylized pictures also anticipated Pop Art. His deadpan evocation of flat, bright figures had an everyday quality that linked them to commercial art and popular culture. Early on, his work was often panned. Clement Greenberg, the critic famous for championing the Abstract Expressionists, "actually went out of his way to say how lousy I was," Katz recalled in an article he wrote for the New Criterion.

But critical opinion has never seemed to matter to Katz. "Alex is a man of supreme confidence and clarity," says Adam Weinberg, director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. "He quickly realized what he was about and was absolutely undaunted and single-minded in that pursuit. That persistence enabled him to weather the contradictory movements in the art world."

Today, Katz's popularity is exploding. His quin­tessentially American evocations of people at cocktail parties or the beach and his landscapes of Maine took off in Europe, especially after the collector Charles Saatchi showed off his Katzes in his private museum in London a decade ago. The painter has also found a substantial new audience at home in the United States. As figurative painting made a comeback in the late '80s and '90s, a younger generation of artists began to see Katz with new appreciation. "Artists were looking at their predecessors, but there were not a lot of them who'd continued in that figurative zone consistently, with his level of detachment," says Weinberg. "Coolness is something that artists of all generations admire—cool in the sense of detachment, but [also] cool in the sense of hip."

Like Warhol before him, Katz has no problem bridging the worlds of art and fashion, whether creating artwork for W magazine or getting supermodels such as Christy Turlington and Kate Moss to sit for him. "I've always been interested in fashion because it's ephemeral," he says. Katz himself even modeled for the J. Crew spring catalog this year.

The stylish octogenarian is, by his own account, as busy as ever. So far this year, Katz has had exhibitions in Milan and Catanzaro in Italy, Paris, Vero Beach in Florida, Finland and at his New York City gallery, PaceWildenstein, where he recently showed a series of monumental sunsets.
Smithsonian magazine, July 2009

new scanning technique...

A new scanning technique allows expectant mothers to hold a life-size model of their unborn, developing child.

Data from ultrasound, CT and MRI scans are converted into 3D models, which can then be 'printed' as a plastic representation of the developing baby.

Jorge Lopes, a Brazilian designer, developed the rapid prototyping technique as part of his PhD at London's Royal College of Art.

The technique could allow blind mothers to bond with their babies, or aid doctors with management of foetal malformation.

Heron Werner MD, of the Clínica de Diagnóstico por Imagem, Brazil, said of the project, "I don't know whether I am looking at science or I am looking at art."

(Image RCA / Rex Features)

Galileo's telescope, 1610

A member of staff at London's Science Museum holds aloft a replica of Galileo's refracting telescope from 1610.

The museum today launched its newest exhibition Cosmos & Culture: How astronomy has shaped our world.

Using the telescope, Galileo was able to view unseen parts of the universe.

He studied the moon, discovered the four major satellites of Jupiter, observed a supernova, verified the phases of Venus, and discovered
sunspots.
He also helped prove the Copernican system, which states that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.
Before Copernicus' and Galileo's work, it was held that the sun revolved around the Earth.
























This is a replica of one of the earliest telescopes made by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) after he learnt of the invention of the telescope in 1608. This refracting telescope magnifies only 14 times and gives a very restricted field of view. As a result Galileo was only able to view about a third of the Moon through his telescopes. However, despite these limitations, Galileo published 'Sidereus Nuncius' ('The Starry Messenger') in 1610, which describes the celestial sights he saw with his new telescope. These included craters on the Moon, the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter. This facsimile was made in 1923 at the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale, in Florence, Italy where the original still resides.

Image number:

10315150

Credit:

Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

Date taken:

20 October 2003 14:47

Image rights:

Science Museum

(Image: Nils Jorgensen / Rex Features)
Also Thanks to newscientist

Giant 'soap bubble' found floating in space

IT LOOKS like a soap bubble or perhaps even a camera fault, but the image at right is a newly discovered planetary nebula.

Planetary nebulae, which got their name after being misidentified by early astronomers, are formed when an ageing star weighing up to eight times the mass of the sun ejects its outer layers as clouds of luminous gas (see Why stars go out in a blaze of glory). Most are elliptical, double-lobed or cigar-shaped, evolving after stars eject gas from each pole.

Dave Jurasevich of the Mount Wilson Observatory in California spotted the "Cygnus Bubble" while recording images of the region on 6 July 2008. A few days later, amateur astronomers Mel Helm and Keith Quattrocchi also found it.

The bubble, which was officially named PN G75.5+1.7 last week, has been there a while. A closer look at images from the second Palomar Sky Survey revealed it had the same size and brightness 16 years ago. Jurasevich thinks it was overlooked because it is very faint.

"It's a beautiful example," says Adam Frank of the University of Rochester, New York. "Spherical ones are very rare." One explanation is that the image is looking down the throat of a typical cylindrical nebula. However, it is still remarkably symmetrical, Frank says.


The blinking nebula
Planetary nebulae are the final butterfly-like state that heralds the end of a Sun-like star's energy-generating life. Lasting no more than a few tens of thousands of years, planetary nebulae help seed space with heavier chemical elements that can be incorporated into the next generation of stars.

This nebula is so faint in small telescopes that it appears to blink in and out of visibility. No one knows what has caused the red "fliers" on either side of the nebula.

Distance: 2200 light years

Size: 1.5 light years


(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Thanks to newscientist

Our car is powered by the sun

Our car is powered by the sun.It costs less than half as much to operate as some of the most
efficient gasoline- or diesel-fueled cars, and produces zero tailpipe emissions. Our family had been living a simple rural and remote life using very little energy—except for the vehicle we used to transport us to town, work, and school on a daily basis. Three years ago, we made a commitment to fulfill the long soughtafter dream of environmentally friendlier transportation, following a move closer to town. We came to a point where being energy conscious in our home, but driving—and burning fossil fuels—seemed completely out of balance. Over many years, we’ve endeavored
to increase our energy independence through conservation, efficiency, and lifestyle changes. With the addition of the electric vehicle (and our solar-electric system), we were able to bring our transportation needs into this fold.
Solar Charging
We temporarily charged the vehicle on utility electricity until we were able to refinance our home and invest in a solar-electric (photovoltaic; PV) system to power the car and our household loads. The cost to power the car with utility electricity was about 4 cents per mile. This was stunning, compared to 14 cents per mile that we had paid to fuel our gasoline-engine car. Even a car with gas mileage of 40 mpg would cost more than twice that of the electric to drive, at
about 8.5 cents per mile. Through conservation and efficiency measures, we decreased our household electrical needs to less than the 120 V charger. Aside from adding a couple of gallons of distilled water to the batteries every few months, the electric car requires very little maintenance.An added feature of the electric car that we hadn’t really considered, but find very useful, is the mobile battery bank it provides. When the grid goes down, as it often does here in the winter, we can use the car’s stored energy via a small 400-watt inverter on the car’s 12-volt auxiliary battery, which is kept charged via a DC-to-DC converter from the main battery bank. We operate a small store in town, and can run our cash register, credit card machine, stereo, fax machine, and lights during utility outages. At home, we can plug into the car to watch TV or have some lighting for our evening tasks if the grid is down.
The tractor had been sitting out in the weather for many years, wasn’t running, and was very rusty. First I checked the main drive motor by hooking a 12-volt battery up to it to see if the motor would spin. It did! The mower deck has three motors and the bearings were shot on all of them, so I took them off and had them repaired at the local electric motor shop.
I downloaded the repair manuals and wiring diagrams from the Elec-Trak Owners Club Web site and painstakingly pieced everything back together with the help of Nick Johnston, a friend and fellow EV enthusiast. Once I knew the tractor was operable, the entire machine was stripped of its rusty yellow paint by hand. Parts that were removable were pulled and sandblasted. The bare metal was primed and recoated with a nice John Deere green. Six new 6-volt Trojan T-105 batteries completed the restoration.
Elec-Trak tractors once had numerous accessories, including a snow blower and rototiller, but ours came with just a mower deck. The tractor helps out on our farm, hauling horse manure and compost with a small trailer, and mowing the lawn and orchard. Like our VoltsRabbit, it is charged by our solar-electric system.
Electric Attraction Watching the electric vehicle (EV) rallies and races at renewable energy fairs in nearby Willits, California, in the early 1990s sparked our interest. We built our knowledge base by attending a number of conversion workshops throughout northern California over the years, taught by EV experts Mike Brown and Shari Prange of Electro Automotive, and others.
Shortly after the second Persian Gulf war began in early 2003, we decided that it was time to begin our search for a vehicle that would fulfill our environmental goals and meet our
family’s transportation needs. We felt that our country was going to war to expand
America’s oil interests in Iraq and we didn’t want a part in it. There was no better time for us to make the change from fossil fuel to solar energy for our transportation needs. We decided that purchasing an already converted vehicle would be our best bet for our first electric experience, so we shopped for a conversion with reliable and standardized components. In February 2003, through the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association’s Web site, we found an already converted
Volkswagen “VoltsRabbit.” I contacted the seller, an electric 5 kilowatt-hours per day for our family of three prior to installing our PV system. We had just finished restoring our old farmhouse, which we retrofitted with conservation and efficiency in mind. The 16-cubic-foot Sun Frost refrigerator, efficient Maytag Gemini glass-top electric stove (with a small oven), Eemax electric, on-demand, under-counter water heater for the kitchen sink, and compact fluorescent lighting throughout the house are the techno fixes we provided, as well as adding insulation and installing double-paned windows. Additionally, we effectively eliminated phantom loads
(standby electricity drawn by an appliance when plugged in but turned off) by unplugging all electrical items when not in use and using power strips for the computers. We then sized
our PV system to meet our actual needs—about 5 kilowatthours per day for the house and 5 kilowatt-hours per day for the car. Our 2.9-kilowatt grid-tied system was installed on our
shed with our local solar electrician, Roger, at the helm. John Davis, Rowan Gratz-Weiser, Roger, and I worked on the installation, which took about three days. I was able to work off a significant amount of the labor cost by being involved in the installation and trading out my labor on other projects. Upgrades & Benefits Since purchasing the car in 2003, we’ve had to replace the
original batteries that came with it. I decided to replace the Exides with Trojan T-105s. These were available locally at a good price (about $900 total) and are a dependable, longlived
battery. I found that the individual battery caps the Trojans use tend to have no leakage, keeping the battery tops cleaner. At the same time, I decided to upgrade the 120-volt
charger to a faster and more efficient 240-volt Zivan charger that has an automatic shutoff and equalization features for the batteries. The new charger takes 4 to 5 hours to completely
recharge the batteries, compared to about 8 to 10 hours for For long-distance trips (beyond the car’s 40- to 50-mile range), we drive a 1985 VW Jetta that gets 40 to 45 mpg. We run the Jetta on locally produced biodiesel made from restaurants’ waste cooking oil.
But the Jetta spends most of its time in our driveway, since the electric car is the easiest and most enjoyable car to use for our daily errands. Driving the electric is simply a matter of turning the key and going down the road. There is no start-up, no warm-up, no fumes, no gas stations, and no engine noise to contend with. When you stop the car, it is silent. When you coast down a hill, the car uses no energy.
Electric Tractor
The newest member of our electric fleet is a 1970s General Electric Elec-Trak tractor (36-volt) with a 42-inch mower deck. Many years ago, our friend David Katz from Alternative Energy Engineering purchased a number of Tennessee Valley Authority’s electric vehicles, including an Elec-Trak. I expressed to him by chance that I was looking for an Elec-Trak, not knowing he actually had one, and he offered it for free, providing I hauled it away...!
PV & EV Payback
Charging our electric car and mower with solar electricity from our PV system decreases the payback time for our solar-electric system, since the money saved by not buying gasoline can be included in this calculation. Our system cost was only $5,497 (remember, I traded labor!) after we claimed the California Energy Commission’s “Emerging Renewables Program” rebate, which we hit at the peak refund period, and the State of California’s Solar Energy System Credit (15% of the amount paid for the system, after the CEC’s rebate). The electric car replaced a gas-engine Toyota Tercel station wagon that was getting about 25 mpg. For the 5,000 miles we drive each year, we save between $500 and $700 on fuel costs by driving our electric car instead of our gasoline-engine station wagon or biodiesel-fueled VW Jetta. Added to the annual electricity cost savings of $270 for our household, our solar-electric system saves us almost $1,000 each year.
At this rate, we will recoup our PV system costs in less than six years. The payback period will probably become even shorter, as gasoline and electricity prices continue to climb. The combined costs of our car and solar-electric system was far less than the cost of a typical new car. Plus, factoring in the electric car’s savings on fuel costs cuts the PV system’s payback time by one-third to one-half (see cost table).
Knowing that our electric car is both a smart environmental and economic choice heightens our enjoyment of driving it. Driving an electric car is sensible and forward-thinking. Our little VoltsRabbit makes an impression on all who see it. It reminds people that there is a solution to the oil dependency that plagues us. In some way, I sense that it provides some hope.

Resurrecting EVs
Insistence by the California Air Resources Board that electric vehicles (EVs) could be the solution to California’s air-pollution problems and the development of the ZEV (zero emissions vehicle) mandate in 1990 resulted in the development of General Motor’s EV1 and similar electric vehicles.
EVs suffered a setback by the elimination of this mandate in 2003 and the crushing of many of these cars, but the electric car has not been killed—far from it. Its fate may best be left for us to bring to the forefront as an integral part of our renewable energy future. The electric car lives in our driveway and in the driveways of many today, and its time has come.
I work with a small group of EV enthusiasts—the Humboldt Electric Vehicle Association—to encourage and aid people in our community who are interested in purchasing or converting a car to electricity. Our goal is to replace gasoline-engine cars on the road with electric vehicles.
One of the best things that EV activists can do is to connect with other EV activists in their communities and develop support networks. It helps to meet on a regular basis with this group of folks to share information and build upon ideas for community outreach. Among the ideas we’ve worked with are:
• Bringing vehicles to fairs, car shows, parades, schools, and other events to showcase electric vehicles.
• Organizing workshops or conversion projects, and
inviting the public.
• Working with local and regional governments
to establish electric vehicle charging stations.
• Writing articles and letters to the editor about EVs.
• Sending out press releases when opportunities arise.
• Establishing a Web site for our local EV group.
• Encouraging local governments to incorporate
EVs into their fleets.
In the end, driving your vehicle is absolutely the best way to let others know that EVs are viable, affordable, and user friendly.
System Cost Analysis
System Costs
Cost 16 Sharp NT-185U1 PV modules, 185 W
$10,814 SMA Sunny Boy SWR 2500U inverter, 2.5 KW 2,230
Direct Power & Water PV mounts 1,206
Tax 1,008
Misc. electrical & hardware 302
DC array disconnect 100
Permit 85
AC disconnect 55
Labor (traded) 0
Total $15,800
Less California Energy Commission rebate -$9,333
Less 15% California tax credit -970
Grand Total $5,497
Simple Payback Amount
Recorded annual PV production (KWH) 3,585
Actual annual household electricity usage (KWH) 1,825
Present cost of electricity ($ per KWH) $0.148
Annual household electricity costs ($) $270
Annual mileage 5,000
Gasoline price ($ per gallon) $3.39
Annual fuel savings (EV vs. 25 mpg gas engine) $678
Payback, Considering Both Household & Vehicle (Yrs.) 5.8
Payback Without Vehicle, If Home Consumed
All PV Production (Yrs.) 10.4
Payback Without Vehicle, Considering Actual Household Consumption (Yrs.) 20.4
Access
Kevin Johnson & Sterling Johnson-Brown, c/o Solutions, 1063 H St., Arcata, CA 95521 • 707-822-6972 •
mingo@tidepool.com
PV System:
Roger • 707-826-9901 • Solar-electric system installer
Direct Power & Water • 800-260-3792 •
www.power-fab.com • PV rack
Sharp Electronics, Solar Systems Division • 800-SOLAR06 • www.sharp-usa.com/solar • PVs
SMA America Inc. • 530-273-4895 •
www.sma-america.com • Inverter
EV Resources:
California Air Resources Board •
www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/zevprog.htm
Electro Automotive • 831-429-1989 • www.electroauto.com
Elec-Trak Owners Club • www.elec-trak.com
EV Trading Post • www.austinev.org
Humboldt Electric Vehicle Association • 707-822-6972 •www.heva.org

Buzz Aldrin was the lunar module pilot....

Only a dozen men have walked the airless, forbidding surface of our Moon. One day, others will too - but until then, only those 12 can ever know what it is like … and Buzz Aldrin was the lunar module pilot on the very first mission.
Nothing prepared me for the starkness of the terrain. It was barren and rolling, and the horizon was much closer than I was used to. Earth's diameter is such that its inhabitants have no personal awareness of the curvature; it's easy to understand why, for centuries, it was believed to be flat … but on the smaller Moon, my impression was that we were on a ball; or on the knoll of a hill that extended more than 2 km, and was neatly rounded off. I even felt a bit disoriented because of the nearness of the horizon.

In every direction, the surface was pocked with thousands of little craters and many larger ones, 2 to 15 metres across, and littered with angular rocks. It looked like a collection of just about every variety of shape, angularity and granularity of rock. At first, I couldn't see much colour.

I was particularly struck by the contrast between the starkness of the shadows and the desert-like barrenness of the rest of the surface. It ranged from dusty grey to light tan, and it was unchanging except for one startling sight - our lunar module, with its black, silver and bright orange-yellow thermal coating shining brightly in the otherwise colourless landscape.

The colour of the ground depended on the angle of the Sun. It could be shades of grey, or it could be quite bright if the Sun was at my back. If I looked around my shadow, it gave off a whitish colour. But if I looked towards the Sun, it appeared as a dark as charcoal.

I could look around and see the Earth, which seemed small - a beckoning oasis shining far away in the sky. It was almost straight up and was hard to see because of the stiffness of our spacesuits. I couldn't look directly at the Sun. It was too brilliant - almost like a floodlight of pure white light. The amount of light that reflected off the lunar surface was so high, it was as if we were standing in brilliantly lit snow. The sky was utter blackness - I could see no planets or stars.

I remarked to Houston, "Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation."

I was full of goosebumps when I stepped down onto the surface. I immediately looked down at my feet and became intrigued with the properties of the lunar dust. On Earth, if you kick sand in the desert, clouds build up as it scatters in all directions, with some grains travelling farther than others. The Moon dust did not cloud at all. Every grain travelled on a precise path from where it was kicked and fell, uniformly, 10 to 12 cm away in a sort of ring. Our boots sank in only a few millimetres in most places, but on the edges of small craters they sank up to 15 cm.

There was about every type of rock imaginable, all covered with a very light powder. The rocks themselves actually had no colour - until you looked closely at the crystals on their surface. The thought briefly occurred to me that these rocks had been sitting there for hundreds of millions of billions of years, and that we were the first living beings to see them.

But we were too busy to be philosophical for long or to study them closely, so we just grabbed what looked like an interesting assortment. I felt them crunch beneath my feet as we walked around.

It felt buoyant on the surface. My Earth weight with backpack and suit was 163 kilos; on the Moon I weighed only 27 kg.

Our suits were marvels of engineering that worked like thermal bottles, but they hampered our activities. When pressurised, they were as hard as a football and made even bending over extremely difficult. The backpack shifted my centre of gravity - I felt balanced only when I was tilted slightly forward.

As planned, I jogged around a bit to test my manoeuvrability. The exercise gave an odd sensation - I felt like I was moving in slow motion. I noticed immediately that my inertia seemed much greater on the Moon than on the Earth. Earthbound, I would have stopped my run in just one step - an abrupt halt. I immediately sensed that if I tried this on the Moon, I'd be face down in the lunar dust. I had to use two or three steps and sort of wind down. The same applied to turning around - on Earth it's simple, but on the Moon, it's done in stages. And the ground gave the impression of being rather slippery, particularly near the craters, where we tended to slip sideways.

I experimented moving around, trying two-legged kangaroo jumps, but it was too tiring. We eventually hit on a lazy lope that covered about a metre with each stride, floating with both feet in the air most of the time. It looked like fun, and it was. But it was also exhausting.

We had a number of experiments to conduct and precious little time to do them. A solar wind experiment had to be assembled and then taken down; experiments to test the seismic characteristics of the Moon had to be set up; a laser reflector had to be deployed; and after all this was done, rock samples had to be gathered. Because of the large variety of unknowns on this first trip, our surface activity was limited to two hours and forty minutes, and every minute was busy.

I've often been asked about fear: when you're that far from home and a million things could go wrong, aren't you afraid? Well, we weren't afraid. True fear is the fear of the unknown, and all our training had been geared towards eliminating the unknown as much as possible. For a month before the flight we'd worked 12 hours a day, at times on a simulated lunar surface, tromping around in a sand-filled 'litter box' that took up slightly less room than a tennis court, with heavy equipment on our backs. As combat pilots and in flight-testing aircraft, we learned to either cope or get out.
I did feel a tinge of stage fright. I think we both did. Perhaps the worst moment was when Houston announced that the President wanted to talk to us. My heart rate, which had been low during the entire flight, suddenly jumped. One quarter of the Earth's people were listening on radio or watching on TV.

We were alone, but the immense feeling of being watched probably hampered our operation slightly. But it also gave us the adrenalin to keep functioning.

My strongest memory of those few hours on the lunar surface was the constant worry that we'd never accomplish all the experiments we were scheduled to do. There wasn't time to savour the moment. It seemed as though what we were doing was so significant that to pause for a moment and reflect metaphysically was really contrary to our mission.

We weren't trained to smell the roses. We weren't hired to utter philosophical truisms on the spur of the moment. We had a job to do.

I do remember that one realisation wafted through my mind when I was up there. I noted that here were two guys farther away from anything than two guys had ever been before. That's what I thought about. And yet, at the same time, I was very conscious that everything we did was being closely scrutinised more than four hundred thousand kilometres away.

As we left the surface to re-enter the spacecraft, we performed a brief ceremony. I reached into my shoulder pocket, pulled out a packet, and tossed it out onto the surface. It contained a patch commemorating the three American astronauts who had perished when their spacecraft was engulfed in an explosive fire during the simulation test for the first Apollo flight. Next there were two medallions in memory of Russian cosmonauts who had also died. And then there was a disc containing messages from the heads of state of 72 countries.

We had thought long and hard to come up with what was - to me - the most important symbol of our flight: the olive branch of peace, carried to the Moon by our spacecraft, the Eagle (named after the American bald eagle). I had four olive branches made of gold pins. We left one on the Moon, and the three of us - myself, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins (who had been orbiting above on our craft Columbia) - kept one each for our wives on our return.

I thought it would convey a lot more of the significance of our first flight: that the mission was more than just a culmination of a long national effort to reach the Moon by the end of the decade. It carried greater meaning than that.

Dr Aldrin is a retired pilot and astronaut. The first Moon landing by Apollo 11 took place at 9.56pm on Sunday, 20 July 1969 (Houston time). A small crater on the Moon near the landing site is named in his honour. Dr Aldrin is also a member of the COSMOS Editorial Advisory Board.

Back pain

Back pain and exercise

It's the rare adult who has not had low back pain at sometime during his/her life. Fortunately, most episodes of low back pain will heal with time. Approximately 50% of patients will feel relief within two weeks and 90% within three months, regardless of the treatment. The majority of low back pains are due to muscular strain which will resolve with time because muscles have a good blood supply to bring necessary nutriments and proteins for healing to take place.

For persons with low back pain that lasts more than two or three months, or with predominantly leg pain, a specific and definite problem is often the source of the pain. In younger adults (20-60 year olds) a disc is likely to be the pain generator. Specific causes include: lumbar disc herniation, degenerative disc disease and isthmic spondylolstesis. In older adults ( over 60 years old) the source of pain is likely to include: facet joint osteoarthritis, lumbar spine stenosis or degenerative spondylolstesis.

When low back pain episodes last between two and six weeks or if they become frequent, it's time to consider physical therapy for treatment. In general the goals of physical therapy are to decrease back pain, increase function, and provide education on a maintenance program to prevent further recurrences. Physical therapy may start with passive therapy modalities which will focus on decreasing the pain. These can include heat/ice packs, Iontophoresis which delivers steroids through the skin with an electrical current, and TENS units which is a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator, and ultrasound. These you can talk to your physician and physical therapist about. In addition active physical therapy is necessary to rehabilitate the spine. This can include stretching, strengthening/pain relief exercises, and low-impact aerobic conditioning.

Active exercises which are done routinely, provides people with a means to help avoid recurrences of low back pain and help reduce severity and duration of future episodes of pain. The first part of any program is stretching. Almost everyone can benefit from stretching the soft tissues--muscles, ligaments and tendons--around the spine. The spinal column and its contiguous muscles, ligaments and tendons are all designed to move, and limitations in this motion can accentuate pain. Persons with chronic pan may find it takes weeks or months of stretching to mobilize the spine and soft tissues, but will find that meaningful and sustained relief of low back pain follows the increased motion.

The hamstring muscles seem to play a key role in low back pain as persons with this type of pain tend to have tight hamstrings. It is not known which comes first, but it is clear that hamstring tightness limits motion of the pelvis and can place stress across the lower back. A hamstring stretching routine should include applying pressure to lengthen the muscle for 30-45 seconds at a time, one to two times a day. Pressure to the muscle should be applied evenly and bouncing avoided as this could trigger a spasm, Here are some ways of stretching the hamstring:

1. Bend over at the waist, with legs straight, and try to touch your toes. Hold this stretch.
2. If this is too difficult, less strain is applied to the back by sitting in a chair and placing the legs straight out in front on another chair. Then reach out to try and touch the toes one leg at a time.
3. An easier way is to lie on the floor and use a towel wrapped behind the foot to pull one leg up and straighten it. Hold the stretch.
4. Another less stressful option is to lie on the floor with the buttocks against the wall, and place the foot up against the wall and then try to push the knee straight one leg at a time. Stretching should be done daily. It is best done each morning when you arise or when you go to bed at night. With time the hamstring will lengthen, reducing the stress on the back

Strengthening/pain relief exercises are used for specific conditions. McKenzie exercises and dynamic stabilization exercises are two physical therapies that can be beneficial. McKenzie exercises, named after a physical therapist in New Zealand, try to extend the spine to reduce pain generated from the disc space. It is also thought to reduce the leg pain due to a herniated disc. In dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises the physical therapist first tries to find the patient's "neutral" spine or position that allows the patient to feel most comfortable. The back muscles are then exercised to teach the spine how to stay in this position. These can be rigorous so they are not recommended for the elderly or persons in significant pain.

The third way to strengthen the low back is low-impact aerobic conditioning. This is useful for both rehabilitation and maintenance of the lower back. Aerobically conditioned persons will have fewer episodes of low back pain and will experience less pain when the episodes occur. Well-conditioned persons are more likely to stay functional whereas those persons with chronic low back pain who choose not to work on aerobic conditioning should expect to experience the gradual loss of functional capabilities. Aerobic exercise should be continuous in order to increase heart rate and keep it elevated. It is thought that 30-40 minutes of aerobic exercise has the added benefit of increasing the production of endorphins which are pain fighting molecules produced by the body. There are several types of aerobic exercise that are gentle to the back and, done on a regular basis, are highly effective in providing conditioning.

1. Walking: Walking two to three miles three times a week is beneficial for many aspects of one's life including conditioning of the back, and improving longevity and mental capabilities.
2. Stationary bicycling: This exercise is less stressful on the back than walking and is an alternative
3. Water therapy: This can be an excellent therapy which minimizes stress on the back. It allows for mobilization with less pain and as a beginner therapy allows for the transition to land exercises. It is especially useful for people who are in extreme pain and for the elderly for whom it may the most effective therapy.


Back 1

Grasp behind one knee and pull toward chest.
Feel stretch in lower back and buttock area.
Breathing deeply, hold the position and count out loud 20 seconds.
Repeat with other knee.
Repeat 10 times 2 times a day

Back 3- Pelvic Tilt

With feet flat and knees bent, flatten lower back into bed
Tighten stomach muscles
Hold and count 10 seconds out loud
Repeat: 10 times, 2 times a day

Back 4- Pelvic Tilt Using the Buttocks

Tighten buttocks and flatten lower back
Count out loud 10 seconds while doing this
Repeat: 10 times 2 times a day

Back 14- Knee Rocks

Lie on back, with knees bent and together, feet flat
Slowly lower knees toward the side. Go as far as comfortable.
Hold 20 seconds to start
Repeat: 10 times 2 times a day

Back 6- Pelvic Tilt Double Arm Raises

Maintaining a pelvic tilt, raise both arms over the head, keeping the lower back flat. Return slowly.
Repeat: 10 times, 2 times daily

Back 11- Press Ups

Place hands in a position for half push up.
Press top half of body upward using arms
Let lower back sag. Hold 10 seconds
Lower body
Repeat: 10 times 2 times daily

Back 10 -Elbow Prop

Prop body up on elbows for 10 seconds to start.
Slowly lower it.
Repeat: 10 times 2 times daily

salt-sodium chloride

As diabetics, it's important that we lower our salt-sodium chloride-intake, as all too often diabetes is complicated by high blood pressure, a major cause of both heart disease and stroke. We're fortunate that many food manufacturers are recognizing the public's growing concern about salt and have begun to offer "reduced salt" or "no salt" alternatives. Restaurant owners are also more willing to prepare food with less salt-especially when asked to do so.

We're not suggesting that you banish salt from your diet. The components of salt, sodium and chloride, are essential nutrients and, with potassium, they are the main regulators of the body's water-balance system. The average person in the United States consumes 1 tablespoon of salt a day-about 20 times the amount of sodium really needed. For most people, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council recommends 2,200 mg of sodium as a desirable daily intake. That is equivalent to one teaspoon of salt. Check with your health care team for their recommendations for you.

Here on this website, we use salt as an optional ingredient in most recipes, calling for it in small amounts when necessary, such as in baked goods. Since recipes’ ingredients give sodium counts, we flag any recipes that are high in sodium (above 800 mg/per serving) and suggest ways to reduce the sodium intake. Reduced sodium versions of soy sauce, canned tomatoes, and canned chicken or beef broth are always called for. Naturally salty foods such as anchovies, capers, dill pickles, canned tuna, etc. are used in moderation.

Here are some ways to keep salt under control:

* Cook without salt, and taste the food before adding it after it's cooked. Once you've cut back on salt, you'll find most foods actually need very little, if any.
* When you do use salt, use kosher salt-you’ll need less than when using table salt.
* Retrain your taste buds to appreciate herbs and spices in place of salt. Basil, bay, dill, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, tarragon, and thyme are particularly good salt replacement herbs.
* Read the labels on the foods that you buy at the store and, whenever possible, choose low-salt, reduced-salt, or no-salt-added versions of a product. This is especially true for tomato-based products and soy sauce as they easily can use up your sodium allowance for a day.
* Check out your drinking water. If your home has a water-softener, drink bottled water. Ask your local water district how much sodium comes out of your tap. If it totals more than 45 parts per million, attach a sodium filter to the kitchen faucets.
* Eat more potassium-rich foods, such as oranges, bananas, mangos, cantaloupe, dried peas and beans-you 'll excrete more sodium in your urine than the average person. However, unless your physician prescribes them, don't take potassium supplements as too much potassium can cause nausea, vomiting, and even irregular heartbeat.

Sodium-Free Herb Seasoning


You can purchase salt-free herb seasoning in the spice section of most grocery stores, but it may contain a salt substitute that can be harmful to some. Besides, it's easy (and much cheaper) to make your own. This is one that we developed for our James Beard Cookbook Award-winning Joslin Diabetes Gourmet Cookbook. Use it as a salt replacement on salads, vegetables, fish, and baked potatoes.

2 tablespoons crushed dried basil
1 tablespoon dried dill weed
1 tablespoon crushed dried mint
1 tablespoon crushed dried tarragon
1 tablespoon crushed dried thyme

1. Combine all ingredients.

Store in a spice jar away from heat and light. Use within 1 month.

Cut the Fat

about reducing fat in your holiday cooking, not only to save considerable calories, but lots of fat grams (especially saturated fat grams) and milligrams of cholesterol. The days of eating unlimited fat in the form of fudge, butter cookies, fruit cake, and others foods loaded with butter are past, but that doesn't mean that you're left with nothing but dull, flavorless food. You just have to know some basic tricks to reduce fat here and there to end up with some really tasty (and healthy) holiday food.

Obviously in low-fat holiday cooking and baking, heavy cream is a no-no. One-half cup of heavy (whipping) cream, which contains 36 to 40% butterfat, obtains 95% of its calories from fat), and contains 420 calories, 44 grams of fat (27.5 grams of which are saturated fat), and 163 milligrams of cholesterol. As a substitute for heavy cream in a sauce, you could use low-fat ricotta cheese or low-fat cottage cheese, whipped in a blender, then stirred into low-fat plain yogurt.

Sour cream is fermented heavy cream. Fortunately there are several excellent brands of low-fat or fat-free sour cream available for cooking or baking. Choose brands made from skim milk (you'll need to read the label). Do not use imitation or nondairy sour cream, as they are frequently made from tropical oils or are made with hydrogenated fat. You can also use low-fat or nonfat yogurt or homemade Yogurt Cheese (see recipe below).

Eggs are an essential part of holiday cooking and baking. They aid in leavening, add richness, and contribute to the texture, structure, color, and flavor of baked goods. A large whole egg contains 75 calories (62% of which comes from fat). The yolk contains all of the egg's fat (5.5 grams of which 1.6 grams are saturated). The yolk also contains all of the egg's cholesterol, 21.3 milligrams. The egg white is friendly to the low-fat baker as it contains zero fat and zero cholesterol. If you're trying to reduce fat in your cooking and cholesterol isn't a factor, you'll get more flavor and better texture by using some egg yolk, for example one whole egg plus two egg whites for every two eggs.

Egg substitutes can also be used not only in egg dishes, but in breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, casseroles, sauces, and puddings. Don't use egg substitutes in creampuffs or popovers, as the creampuffs or popovers won't puff or pop. Try different brands of liquid egg substitute-they don't all taste the same. Settle on the brand that you think gives a flavor closest to the "real thing." One-fourth cup (60 ml) liquid egg substitute equals one large fresh egg. For recipes calling for egg yolks, use three tablespoons (45 ml) egg substitute per yolk.

Cream cheese is a rich, soft cheese made from fresh milk and cream. The most popular brand in the United States is Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It gets 43% of its calories from fat. A Kraft's low-fat variety, Philadelphia Light Cream Cheese has a similar taste and texture to regular cream cheese, with half the fat, and is excellent for cooking and baking. Fat-free cream cheese is greasier, doesn't have the same flavor, and should never be cooked. As another substitute for regular cream cheese, you could use homemade Yogurt Cheese (see recipe below). You can also substitute non-fat or low-fat cottage cheese that has been drained and pressed dry in a strainer, then whipped smooth in a food processor or blender.

Cheese, frequently used in holiday cooking, is also a source of fat. Reduced fat cheese has about half the calories and fat of regular cheese. We've found excellent brands of low-fat mozzarella, cheddar, Swiss, goat cheese, and feta cheese. Again, not all brands are the same-experiment until you find one that you like. Low-fat cheese melts in the same way as mild regular cheese, but will toughen with high or direct heat. Use low heat, and if adding to a sauce, stir in only one direction, adding a smidgen of flour or cornstarch to the shredded cheese before adding it to the sauce. Fat-free cheese will not melt smoothly. We serve it cold or add it to cooked dishes, knowing that we'll get a change in texture and loss of flavor. You can also mix low-fat and fat-free cheeses when cooking to reduce calories but still retain some of the melting capability and taste.

Chocolate seems to be synonymous with the holidays. To reduce fat, and particularly saturated fat, in your holiday baking, use as little solid chocolate as possible. To give the illusion of chocolate, we suggest grating a little on top of a dessert, or use cocoa powder as a substitute for chocolate in the actual dessert. Since it's used for flavoring, use the best brand of cocoa that you can afford. To substitute cocoa powder for solid unsweetened chocolate, use 3 level tablespoons (24 g) of cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon of canola oil (15 ml) per each ounce of chocolate.

Another good way to cut back the fat in holiday cooking and baking is to cut out or cut back on the nuts that you use. Although they impart a unique flavor and texture to cooking and baking, nuts are high in fat-64% calories from fat in walnuts and 65% in pecans. If you use nuts at all, stick to almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, and walnuts. Avoid using Brazil nuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts, which are very high in fat. Keep coconut to a minimum, if used at all. Sometimes, to give the illusion of nut flavor, you can substitute a nut oil for part of the oil in a recipe-we keep almond, hazelnut, peanut, and walnut oil in our pantry for just such uses.

To maintain the desired texture in baked goods, you can use fruit purees in place of some of the fat-applesauce, prune puree, and mashed bananas. To make up for the tenderness contributed by fat that you replace in an original baked goods recipe, sometimes using cake flour in place of unbleached all-purpose flour will help, but cake flour absorbs less moisture than all-purpose flour, so the amount of liquid used will need adjusting. To substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour, use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (140 g) cake flour for each cup (140 g) of all-purpose.

Now that you've learned some new lower-fat cooking techniques, it's time to get into the kitchen and enjoy a lighter holiday.

Yogurt Cheese

(makes about 1 cup)

Not really a true cheese, yogurt cheese is merely thickened yogurt with the whey drained away. It's a staple in our refrigerators since it makes a wonderful substitute for fresh cheeses, such as cream cheese. Yogurt cheese is used throughout the Mediterranean as a spread for breakfast breads.

When you add minced fresh herbs, you get a great low-fat substitute for French Boursin cheese. You can buy a yogurt cheese drainer at a specialty cookware shop, or we find that a coffee filter or a double thickness of cheesecloth inside a fine sieve works just as well.

You'll want to experiment with different brands of yogurt until you find one that pleases you. Be sure that the yogurt you use does not contain any added gelatin or other thickener.

The following recipe is reprinted from our cookbooks: The Joslin Diabetes Gourmet Cookbook (Bantam Books) and The Joslin Diabetes Quick and Easy Cookbook (Fireside: Simon & Schuster).

2 cups plain low fat or nonfat yogurt

1. Line a sieve with a coffee filter or cheesecloth. Suspend the sieve over a deep bowl. Place the yogurt in the filter and refrigerate for several hours or overnight to allow the whey to drain out. When the yogurt has the consistency of a soft cream cheese, scrape the yogurt away from the filter and transfer it to a plastic container.
2. Discard the liquid in the bowl and refrigerate the yogurt cheese. Use within 1 week, discarding any accumulated liquid before using.

Per 1 tablespoon serving made with low fat yogurt: 12 calories (19% calories from fat), 1 g protein, <1 g total fat (0.1 g saturated fat), 1 g carbohydrates, 0 dietary fiber, 1 mg cholesterol, 10 mg sodium
Diabetic exchanges: FREE

Per 1 tablespoon (15 ml) serving made with nonfat yogurt: 11 calories (2% calories from fat), 2g protein, 0 total fat (0 saturated fat), 1 g carbohydrates, 0 dietary fiber, 0 cholesterol, 10 mg sodium
Diabetic exchanges: FREE

Fiber

Essential to Everyone

Everyone benefits from eating more fiber - not just the person with diabetes. Experts agree that fiber has many health benefits, from improving digestion, to protecting against colon cancer, and now some experts believe that it prevents you from absorbing some of the fat that you've consumed. Sadly, most of us find it hard to consume the recommended amount of fiber (25 to 30 grams) in our daily diet.

Here's some ways to increase the fiber in your diet:

* Eat more vegetables, especially raw vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and zucchini. Spinach is high in fiber - 1/2 cup of boiled or steamed spinach contains 6 grams of dietary fiber.
* Eat fruit with its skin (apples, nectarines, peaches, pears, etc.) instead of drinking juice. Especially high in fiber: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
* Choose whole grain pasta, breads and cereals. Add wheat germ to recipes.
* Have legumes (dried beans, peas, lentils, etc) several times a week.
* Eat the edible skins and seeds of vegetables such as the skin of a potato or seeds of a cucumber.
* Eat brown rice instead of white rice and try other grains such as barley, bulgur, couscous, and quinoa.
* Eat dried fruits (careful, they're high in carbs) such as dried apricots, figs, prunes, and raisins.
* 3 cups of air-popped popcorn has 4 grams of fiber-eat it as an evening snack
* Read food labels to help you pick higher fiber foods.

If you take insulin or are on an insulin pump, ask your doctor if you need to adjust the amount of rapid-acting insulin you take before a high fiber meal.