Archive - 2009

(quote)

*update* 2013
On 22 April 2009, she became the first Nobel laureate ever to reach the age of 100 - at the time of her death, she was the longest lived Nobel laureate

This astonishing woman - who studied medicine, survived Fascism and prejudice, and went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1986, who still takes an active part in politics in the Senate, is planning another book and campaigning for the rights of women in Africa.

In her autobiography she writes that she and her twin sister Paola (an artist who died in 2000 and whose artworks decorate her office walls) were born to Adamo Levi, “an electrical engineer and gifted mathematician”, and Adele Montalcini, “a talented painter and an exquisite human being”. There were two older siblings, Gino and Anna, also both now dead. “The four of us enjoyed a most wonderful family atmosphere,” she writes, “filled with love and reciprocal devotion. Both parents were highly cultured and instilled in us their high appreciation of intellectual pursuit. Her father “was a person of great intellectual and moral value, but he was a Victorian. As a child, I saw him as a person who dominated everything I did.”  read more »

(quote)

*update* Mar 15, 2018
Brazil is the third largest renewable energy generator
In addition to clean energy, Brazil stands out for its biofuel production. Influenced mainly by ethanol, Brazil is the second largest biofuel producer in the world.

Ethanol Biofuel

The largest national use of ethanol biofuel exists in Brazil (gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 20% ethanol and hydrous ethanol is also used as fuel). In order for ethanol (ethyl alcohol) to be suitable for use as a replacement to petrol in its pure form, it must be distilled to at least 70-80% purity by volume before use.

Today almost 50% of Brazilian cars are able to use 100% ethanol biofuel, that includes ethanol only engines and flex fuel engines. Flex fuel engines are able to work with all ethanol, all gasoline or any mixture of both, giving the buyer a choice between price and performance.

 read more »

(quote)

A Late Walk
poem by Robert Frost

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

(unquote)

(quote)

While Indonesia's bird flu death toll climbs to 119, deadly strain (a nasty mash-up of swine, avian, & human viruses) of swine flu gets under radar of the immune system and pushes death toll in Mexico to 152 and climbing. "Residents [of La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak."  read more »