Even if you're a caricature of the worst kind of maintenance person, such as Groundskeeper Willie in "The Simpson", there's a lesson for real life teachers.

Apparently, the lesson is 'don't be like that.' And the rest of the Simpsons supporting cast can teach educators a thing or two as well, say two academics in their paper, “Images of the Teacher in The Simpsons: Subversive, Superficial, or Sentimental?” which was presented at “The Teacher: Image, Icon, Identity” conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

“Given the often central role that the figure of the teacher plays in ‘The Simpsons,’ there is a…rich vein that could be mined for the purposes of teacher education, whether through initial training or continuing professional development,” says Gavin Morrison, curator of the University Galleries at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and co-author Alan Britton of the University of Glasgow.

Few things say as much about our culture as the food we eat. A new book, Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut by Paul R. Mullins, Ph.D., an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis anthropologist, explores the development of America's consumer culture through our relationship with the doughnut; beloved by all but a symbol of temptation and unhealthiness to some.

It's unknown when in in pre-history someone dropped flour into oil but it happened and the ancestor of the doughnut was born. Since then, every culture has fried flour and many add something sweet to the dough.

Mullins is certainly a fan of his subject. He enjoys his doughnuts at an Indianapolis mom and pop shop which has been serving up those fried delicacies for 55 years, though he is also an avid runner who logs approximately 45 miles per week, often past that doughnut shop.

Nutrients from the Amazon River spread well beyond the continental shelf and drive carbon capture in the deep ocean, according to the authors of a multi-year study. The finding does not change estimates of the oceans' total carbon uptake, but it reveals the surprisingly large role of tropical oceans and major rivers.

The tropical North Atlantic had been considered a net emitter of carbon from the respiration of ocean life. A 2007 study estimated that ocean's contribution to the atmosphere at 30 million tons of carbon annually.

LONDON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- New research from PowWowNow finds that businesses waste GBP55m of the GBP210m spent each year on conferences-by-'phone, according to a new study.

There's no doubt that 'phone conferencing is an important aspect of mobile working. Workers at all levels need to be able to reliably stay in touch with co-workers and clients. And it's a powerful indication of how important it has become, particularly to people running small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs - typically up to 100 staff), that British business now spends a staggering GBP210m on conference call charges every year!

PALO ALTO, California and SYDNEY, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Kx Systems, the leader in high-performance database and timeseries analysis, is delighted to announce that it has signed a partnership agreement with Hologram Business Intelligence, the Australian-based supplier of business performance management solutions.

The relationship between the two companies goes back a long way and means that they already have an in-depth understanding of each other's products and businesses. The deal will see Hologram taking on the sales, support and consultancy of Kx's Kdb+ database and its q language in Asia-Pacific. Kx products may also be incorporated into Hologram's offerings in the future.

For generations, people have consumed cranberry juice, convinced of its power to ward off urinary tract infections, though the exact mechanism of its action has not been well understood. A new study by researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) reveals that the juice changes the thermodynamic properties of bacteria in the urinary tract, creating an energy barrier that prevents the microorganisms from getting close enough to latch onto cells and initiate an infection.

The study, published in the journal Colloids and Surfaces: B, was conducted by Terri Camesano, associate professor of chemical engineering at WPI, and a team of graduate students, including PhD candidate Yatao Liu. They exposed two varieties of E. coli bacteria, one with hair-like projections known as fimbriae and one without, to different concentrations of cranberry juice. Fimbriae are present on a number of virulent bacteria, including those that cause urinary tract infections, and are believed to be used by bacteria to form strong bonds with cells.

LONDON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche, the healthcare company, announced today that it has proposed to acquire the outstanding publicly held interest in biotech company Genentech for US$89.00 per share in cash, or a total payment of approximately US$43.7bn to equity holders of Genentech other than Roche. Roche acquired a majority in Genentech in 1990 and currently owns 55.9% of all outstanding shares.

In a video interview Franz Humer, Roche Chairman, said the two companies had collaborated for over 20 years but it was time to put the partnership "on a new level".

"We are absolutely convinced that it is in the interest of both parties that we acquire the 100 per cent and then structure it in a way that strengthens both sides of the operation."

For millennia, humans and viruses have been locked in an evolutionary back-and-forth -- one changes to outsmart the other, prompting the second to change and outsmart the first.

With retroviruses, which work by inserting themselves into their host's DNA, the evidence remains in our genes. Last year, researchers at Rockefeller University and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center brought an ancient retrovirus back to life and showed it could reproduce and infect human cells. Now, the same scientists have looked at the human side of the story and found evidence that our ancestors fought back against that virus with a defense mechanism our bodies still use today.