Will the time come when there are no more homeless people shivering in the snow? Anne Strieber has written about her friendship with a homeless lucky lady and about how she feels homeless herself, but some people REALLY ARE homeless. A sociologist wanted to find out why so many of these people refuse to go to shelters but actually seem to prefer living on the street.
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Erik Davis is an author, award-winning journalist, independent scholar, and lecturer based in San Francisco. He is noted for his visionary eyes as he peers into weirdness and wonder of the dawning of our post-millennial era. In addition to Techgnosis, he is the author of The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, with photographs by Michael Rauner. California is famous for its diversity, its eccentricity, and its prophetic influence on popular culture. Since the 19th century, the Golden State has also been one of America’s most fertile climates for spiritual and religious movements. Beautifully weaving together text and image, The Visionary State is the first book to address the full story of “California consciousness.”
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As more and more people stop smoking, we may find a new use for tobacco in the future: as a biofuel.
Researchers have found a way to increase the oil in tobacco plant leaves, which may be the next step in using the plants for biofuel. According to researcher Vyacheslav Andrianov, tobacco can generate biofuel more efficiently than other agricultural crops. However, most of the oil is typically found in the seeds: tobacco seeds are composed of about 40% percent oil.
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No more organ donar waiting lists – As the population ages and people are healthier (and auto accidents are down), there is a huge shortage of transplant organs. The only solution may be for us to learn how to grow our own. This would also solve the problem of organ rejection. It’s about time!
Big changes are coming soon: In new experiments, a “soup” of cells from your diseased organ is “painted” on a form or scaffolding in the shape of the organ and placed into an incubator. A new organ grows in about six weeks. Bladders, ears, arteries, heart valves, fingers and toes are being grown this way.
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