Body checking in hockey, intentionally slamming an opponent against the boards, is regarded as violence under the guise of sports, according to hockey detractors, but injury numbers don't agree - at least in young players.

Findings from a new study show that 66 percent of overall injuries were caused by accidentally hitting the boards or goal posts, colliding with teammates or being hit by a puck.   Only 34 percent of the injuries were caused by checking. Moreover, the accidental injuries were more severe than those from body checks. 

The results appeared in June issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and were a surprise to the researchers at the University at Buffalo who conducted the five-year study. 

Calcium supplements are commonly taken by older people for osteoporosis but have now been associated with an increased risk of a heart attack, according to a study published in BMJ-British Medical Journal.   

The results seem to indicate that a reassessment of the role of calcium supplements in osteoporosis management is needed.  Calcium supplements are commonly prescribed for skeletal health, but the recent trial suggested they might increase rates of heart attack (myocardial infarction) and cardiovascular events in healthy older women.

One of the problems that gave rise to the gene-centric view is the prevalence of the notion that individuals tended to evolve for the "good of the species".  In essence the gene-centric view argued that natural selection operated for the "good of the individual" and specifically for the genes that would be capable of transmitting information to future generations.

Therefore if the genes are the information carriers, then they would represent the only means by which future generations could carry on from previous successes.

A Climate Science Balancing Act


The 2009 State of the Climate report released by NOAA July 28 2010 -

draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.

Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana, or the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat to you and I, is a superlative species.  Not only do they form the largest congregations of mammals in the world, but less well known is that these little guys are also the fastest bats on the planet. 

This is a species that's close to my heart.  Just a short drive from my home in Davis, California underneath a freeway bridge that takes cars over the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife area (the largest wetland restoration project west of Florida) to Sacramento, roost a colony of an estimated quarter of a million of these bats.

As I bask in media attention for my Project Calliope, it's worth noting I'm not the only Antunes getting media coverage in the space/IT world.  This is one story of 'the other Antunes', and of NASA's Spacebook.

NASA created an internal social network called Spacebook.  As with any social media project that makes it past its first year, it has morphed from its original intent into a compromise of various agencies. But what was its original point, its creation story?

Peak Oil And Global Warming

"Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know."

M._King_Hubbert

I am confident that, if he were still with us, M. King Hubbard would be strongly in favor of the pursuit of alternatives to fossil fuels.  He demonstrated that our use of fossil fuels was not only unsustainable, but could lead to a reversion to an agrarian economy if we failed to address the problem of our dependence on fossil fuels.