March 29, 2015

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Walter Issacson’s biography of Steve Jobs made a big splash and sold three million copies. Turns out many at Apple were not delighted with the book and they have cooperated with a competing tome. Times of India reviews the new attempt – “Becoming Steve Jobs.”

Steve Jobs prized secrecy from his executives and employees during his tenure at Apple. Now his top lieutenants are speaking out — to help shape the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Through interviews and tweets, Apple brass, including the chief executive, Tim Cook, are throwing their weight behind a new unauthorized biography of the Apple co-founder, “Becoming Steve Jobs,” which goes on sale on March 24. In the book, executives take aim at another title, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, an authorized biography published shortly after Jobs’ death in 2011.

Isaacson’s best-seller did a “tremendous disservice” to the Apple chief, Cook said in the new book, written by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, and excerpted in the April issue of Fast Company.

“It didn’t capture the person,” Cook said. “The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time.”

Jony Ive, Apple’s longtime design chief, added his criticism of Isaacson’s biography last month in a New Yorker profile.

“My regard couldn’t be any lower” for the book, he said, noting that he had read only parts of it.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s chief of software and internet services, endorsed the new book on Jobs in a tweet last week: “Best portrayal is about to be released — Becoming Steve Jobs (book). Well done and first to get it right.” Apple’s iBooks account also tweeted last week that “‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ is the only book about Steve recommended by the people who knew him best.”  …

  

 

Inquisitr reports on a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s.

Researchers in Australia have devised a treatment that effectively reverses the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

A team from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland has come up with a non-invasive therapy based on ultrasound technology that essentially de-plaques our brain, thereby allowing neurons and their network of connections to work better. The ultrasound based therapy clears the brain of neuro-toxic amyloid plaques. …

… The team used focused therapeutic ultrasound, which beams sound waves into the brain tissue, without opening by the skull. Essentially, these sound waves oscillate at a very high frequency, thereby gently opening the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to move in.

Microglial cells are essentially the body’s waste-removal cells. Once these cells get past the blood-brain barrier, they’re able to scrub out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps before the blood-brain barrier is restored. The ultrasound therapy offers these cells a window of a few hours to do their job, before the barrier has a chance to re-erect.

The results have been astounding. The team claims that 75 percent of the participants had their memory functions fully restored, with zero damage to the surrounding brain tissue. However, these participants were lab-mice. …

 

 

And if you can’t wait for the process to be approved for use, Inquisitr also reports on beer’s magical Alzheimer’s fighting properties. That’s right – BEER! 

Scientists have confirmed what men claimed all along – beer is good for your brain.

A group of Chinese scientists have determined what you always knew deep down in your heart: Beer is good for the brain. The beer draws its superpowers from hops, the female flowers of the hop plant Humulus lupulus, which are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer. However, apart from contributing to the signature taste of the beer, hops releases a chemical — Xanthohumol — that has the potential to fight off neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Xanthohumol, commonly referred to as Xn, has successfully fought off cell damage that could have ruined the brain. Though wine may have been touted as the great protector and healer of cells in the old age, Xn has been previously proven to fend off cancer, viruses, obesity, and inflammation. Its brain-boosting benefits though haven’t been seriously studied — until now. …

 

 

The Wall Street Journal says our demand for healthier food is changing the balance of power in the grocery business. 

Orders for organic burritos, Thai stir-fry and other frozen products from Amy’s Kitchen Inc. have been growing so quickly that late last year the company bought a second factory—an Idaho plant that H.J. Heinz Co. had just shut amid shrinking demand for its frozen food.

Started in 1988 by a married couple who named it after their daughter, Amy’s in recent years has expanded beyond the world of specialty grocers into mainstream supermarkets like Piggly Wiggly and Price Chopper. Sales have surged 72% over the past five years to $443 million in 2014.

“Everyone said when we reached a certain size our growth would slow,” said Andy Berliner, co-founder and chief executive. “We keep waiting for that to happen, but we’re still growing so fast.”

Amy’s and other smaller companies focused on natural and organic foods are feasting on shifts in tastes among consumers distrustful of established food giants’ products and ingredients. The rise of these smaller companies, helped by growing interest from big retailers, is eating into demand for brands that for decades were commonplace in American kitchens, like Kraft Foods Group Inc.’s macaroni and cheese and Kellogg Co.’s breakfast cereals. …

 

 

Another other worldly talent of elephants is reported by National Geographic.

South Africa—Chishuru, a large African elephant bull with a talent for sniffing out TNT, stood in front of a line of seven white buckets.

Inside one of the buckets on a recent morning was a slight trace of TNT on a piece of paper stapled to the bottom. Chishuru’s job was to find out exactly which bucket it was—using his nimble trunk to guide the way.

The elephant ambled between the buckets, snaking his long trunk into each one—there were different, harmless scent traces in each bucket—and taking a big sniff before moving on to the next. At the fifth bucket he paused and raised his right leg, indicating to a research team that this was the one with a trace of TNT inside. Bingo. …

Elephants have 2,000 genes for smell, the most of any animal on Earth—more than twice those of the domestic dog and five times more than those of humans, according to a 2014 study in the journal Genome Research.

A previous study in Kenya found that elephants can distinguish which tribe a person belongs to by their smell, and will actively avoid those from tribes that have been hostile toward them. 

And in postwar Angola, elephants have beenobserved avoiding landmine fields, possibly because they can smell the mines underground.

At the Adventures with Elephants ranch, a safari business about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Pretoria, owner Sean Hensman knows how smart and skillful the giant mammals can be.

“We are only scratching the surface of what we know about this animal,” says Hensman. …

 

 

The fastest growing metro area in the US is the Villages near Orlando. NewMax has the story.

The latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau are in, and the fastest-growing city is not an oil boomtown or a magnet for new immigrants, but a senior living community outside Orlando, Fla., with a reputation for attracting active retirees.

The Villages, a sprawling senior community of 114,000 residents, increased 5.4 percent in the year ended July 2014, making it the country’s fastest-growing metro for the second straight year. That’s triple the growth rate for the state of Florida and far faster than Myrtle Beach, S.C., the second fastest-growing U.S. city, which expanded 3.2 percent. …

 

 

Another wonderful day without articles on the latest disasters from President Bystander.