From NASA…..

NASA’s five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth’s magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to “load up” the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.

“At first I didn’t believe it,” says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction.”

From the Telegraph….

Researchers found that older people with hypertension suffered a drop in IQ and the ability to recall simple information on days when there blood pressure was particularly high.

While the exact link between high blood pressure and reduced mental ability is unknown, scientists said the research showed that sufferers should be extra vigilant about managing their condition and avoiding stress.

“This means that stressful situations may make it more difficult for some seniors to think clearly,” said Dr Jason Allaire, an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State who co-authored the study.

He suggested the effect can be witnessed in people in their 50s, when many people develop high blood pressure and cognitive ability begins to decline.

“If you have high blood pressure it is really important to get it under control.”

From the Associated Press….

An ice storm knocked out power to more than a million homes and businesses in New England and upstate New York on Friday, and authorities say it could take days for all of them to get service back.

From the New York Times…

But in many cases it is just not known whether what is seen on a scan is the cause of the pain. The problem is that all too often, no one knows what is normal.

“A patient comes in because he’s in pain,” said Dr. Nelda Wray, a senior research scientist at the Methodist Institute for Technology in Houston. “We see something in a scan, and we assume causation. But we have no idea of the prevalence of the abnormality in routine populations.”

Now, as more and more people have scans for everything from headaches to foot aches, more are left in a medical lurch, or with unnecessary or sometimes even harmful treatments, including surgery.

“Every time we get a new technology that provides insights into structures we didn’t encounter before, we end up saying, ‘Oh, my God, look at all those abnormalities.’ They might be dangerous,” said Dr. David Felson, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University Medical School. “Some are, some aren’t, but it ends up leading to a lot of care that’s unnecessary.”

Here is a link to FDR’s speech.

From Moscow Times…

At Sterligov’s log cabin about 100 kilometers northwest of Moscow one recent afternoon, hens pecked grain from the snow in front of the porch as he scolded his four sons — aged 4 to 12 — for neglecting to feed the chickens properly and for “messing up the stove.”

His wife, Alyona Sterligova, who wears a traditional Russian Orthodox head scarf, and a teenage daughter also help him run the farm.

Until 2004, Sterligov was, by his own account, a tycoon with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, dozens of businesses, offices on Wall Street and in London and a villa in Rublyovka, a Moscow suburb for the superrich.

If more Russians were like this guy, they would be better off. At the very least, they would not be having the demographic problems they are having now. If you read the whole article, you will find that he even home schools his kids.

Edit: Found this BBC article with more.

I know people like this in real life, and their life is often far from ideal. Sometimes their kids grow up hating their parents, sometimes they grow up grateful. It is a mistake to assume either that Sterligov’s family is happy or that they feel oppressed. But given Russia’s current state, I think his family could have it a lot worse no matter what their family life is like.

From the Telegraph….

The virus that causes cold sores may be a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease and existing drugs could be used to treat the degenerative condition, researchers have claimed.

British scientists had already identified a link between the cold sore virus – known as herples simplex virus 1 (HSV1) – and Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 400,000 people in Britain.

Previous trials had found the virus was often present in the DNA of patients with Alzheimer’s, but different theories have been posed about why this might be so. The new research, published in the Journal of Pathology, adds weight to the theory that HSV1 could be a major cause of Alzheimer’s; it found that the virus was most often found within the protein plaques in the brain which are believed to be the disease’s main cause.

This does not explain why Alzheimer’s seems to run in families. On the other hand, people failed to recognizes what caused ulcers for a long time using similar reasoning, so maybe I should not be so quick to judge.

From BBC….

A species of Argentine ant introduced into Europe about 80 years ago has developed the largest supercolony ever recorded.

It stretches 6,000 kilometres – from northern Italy, through the south of France to the Atlantic coast of Spain – with billions of related ants occupying millions of nests.

While ants from rival nests normally fight each other to the death, ants from the supercolony have the ability to recognise each other and co-operate – even if they come from nests at opposite ends of the colony’s range.