Ocean Conservancy's aquaculture director George Leonard calls tuna ranching "the least sustainable form of aquaculture on the planet," for an array of reasons. Catching young bluefin to fatten them up for sale doesn't help sustain wild tuna, they say; it just kills off the next generation. Moreover, because anywhere from 10 to 30 pounds of forage fish is needed to produce a single pound of bluefin tuna, the practice ends up depleting wild stocks beyond tuna. Kindai bluefin represent what a handful of researchers say is a third way. Scientists at Japan's Kinki University and Australia's Clean Seas Tuna Ltd., a commercial operation, have produced the Kindai from hatched eggs rather than captured juveniles. Clean Seas, which is consulting with Kinki, has yet to start marketing its fish, but it reported in March 2009 that its separate brood stock of bluefin from the Southern Ocean have started spawning. Many environmentalists have encouraged the efforts, saying they may represent the best chance of staving off the tuna's extinction. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031000677.html
Should human genes ever be the subject of patent protection? That's the provocative question asked Thursday by Nathan Koppel in the WSJ's weekly Law Journal column. The Patent and Trademark Office doesn't grant patents over actual genes in the human body, but does award patents for genetic sequences that have been identified by researchers. Patents also extend to genetic tests and to correlations that scientists have drawn between genetic sequences and medical conditions, such as hearing loss, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. But should such gene sequences be patentable? Many doctors, patients and academics say no, that they're the products of nature and should never give rise to property rights. Gene patents, they say, create monopolies, allowing patent holders to block alternative tests and research that might ultimately yield better, and cheaper, medical care. WSJ Law Blog December 10, 2009
Scientists accidentally created a new blue pigment by doping white and black compounds with manganese. The new blue may end up in a variety of paints and inks, perhaps replacing some old standby pigments that can be toxic or unstable.
Scientists led by Mas Subramanian of Oregon State University in Corvallis were studying manganese oxides because of the compounds’ interesting magnetic and electronic properties. When a tray of samples came out of the furnace where they had been baking at about 1,200 degrees Celsius, the powders emerged a startling blue.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49963/title/Metal_gives_pigment_the_blues

Emilia-Romagna is a kind of lost region for foreigners, known, if at all, for its gemlike cities—Parma, Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna. It is heart of Italian agriculture because of Po valley dirt—the soil that grows the grass that feeds the cows who give the milk to make Parmesan cheese—the soil that grows Trebbiano grapes that is boiled down to balsamico di Modena. Half of all pasta shapes come from Emilia-Romagna.
http://www.internationalcookingschool.com/conde_nast_traveler_sept_2009.pdf

Would you like to buy an adobe castle in Taos? Featured in New Mexico Magazine's 2007 Homes issue and on Discovery Channel's 'World's Greenest Homes' show, this lavishly appointed architectural original is a green showplace. 2.6Kw of solar and wind power connected to the grid with an intertie system provide electricity. Heat and hot water come from six solar hot water panels with propane back up. Castle is oriented and designed to capture the maximum winter passive solar heat and is protected from the north by a massive earthen berm. There is a separate grey water system and 5100 gallon rainwater catchment system. http://www.greenhomesforsale.com/listing.php?id=18121

Most parodied paintings
AMERICAN GOTHIC (Grant Wood, 1930). Chicago Art Institute.
MONA LISA (Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-1505). Louvre, Paris.
THE SCREAM (Edvard Munch, 1893). Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.
http://www.cassavafilms.com/list9_2001/list9_051701.html

Dow Jones reports that Thomson Reuters will lay off 240 employees from one of that division’s sub-sectors. According to Dow Jones, the cuts will come from Thomson Reuters’ legal division, which includes the Westlaw database and other information and services for legal professionals. The division employs 13,000 people, meaning layoffs of this size will decrease the staff by less than two percent. Access the Complete Article
Source: FishbowlNY

Carnegie Mellon University Libraries and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh have created a joint digital archive of Andrew Carnegie materials on the Web at http://diva.library.cmu.edu/carnegie/. Integrating five physical collections in one searchable full text resource, the site demonstrates a larger vision, which is to facilitate and host a digital repository of Andrew Carnegie materials held by institutions worldwide. The inaugural Andrew Carnegie Collection online was funded by Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants from 2007 to 2009.