Free Republic

Contact: Mary Tobin mtobin@ldeo.columbia.edu 845-365-8607 The Earth Institute at Columbia University Climate linked to the quality of musical instrument making Little ice age and maunder minimum enabled stradivari violins Image credit: Mark Inglis There has been considerable debate surrounding the reasons why instruments crafted in the late 17th and early 18th centuries are tonally superior to modern instruments. Theories range from the skill of the craftsman to secret techniques such as a special varnish, the drying of the wood, the storage time, or even the use of old wood from historic structures. Lloyd Burckle of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia...

BLOODY KING LINKED TO SAXON BEACH FIND By Richard Wright A RARE gold sword belt ornament which could have belonged to the seventh century Saxon king, Caedwalla, has been found on an Island beach - and there could be another hidden under the sands. Discovery of the intricate gold decoration encrusted with garnets is regarded as being especially historically significant because it could have belonged to the king reputed to have put a quarter of the Island population to the sword in his attempt to convert them to Christianity. Enthusiast Darren Trickey, 21, had gone out for a few minutes...

<p>Washington -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, who admits he used then-legal steroids to help create the mass of muscle that made him a bodybuilding champion, movie star and candidate for governor, says today's athletes shouldn't use the same chemicals that aided him.</p>

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Suicide rates have fallen dramatically in many countries following wider use of modern antidepressant drugs, according to study results reported on Wednesday. This finding contrasts with charges from some patients and advocacy groups that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are addictive and can trigger violence and suicide. A jury awarded $6.4 million in 2001 against GlaxoSmithKline after deciding Paxil was partly to blame for the behavior of Donald Schell who, after taking the drug, shot dead his wife, daughter and granddaughter and then himself. Earlier this year UK regulators said that the Glaxo drug and Wyeth's...

Saudi princes 'linked' to bin Laden By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 01/09/2003) Strained Saudi-US relations were dealt another blow yesterday with the publication of allegations directly linking Osama bin Laden to leading Saudi princes. Time magazine will today carry details from a new book alleging that Abu Zubaidah, the leading al-Qa'eda terrorist captured in Pakistan last year, was duped into revealing details of support from members of the Saudi royal family. Why America Slept, by Gerald Posner, claims that Zubaidah resisted CIA interrogation, despite the use of "quick-on, quick-off" painkillers and truth drugs. Posner describes how, in an attempt...

Washington(Reuters) - Young women who eat more red meat and full-fat dairy products such as cheese may be raising their risk of breast cancer (news - web sites), researchers reported on Tuesday. They said their study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (news - web sites), provides yet another incentive for women to shun fatty foods and consume fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. "When we compared the women in the highest fat intake group with women in lowest intake group, those with the highest intake had a 33 percent greater risk of invasive breast cancer," Eunyoung...

Shyness linked to brain differences 19:00 19 June 03 NewScientist.com news service A new neuroimaging study provides the strongest evidence to date that unusual shyness in children may result from differences in their brains. Researchers at Harvard Medical School used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine adults who had been unusually shy in childhood. When these people were shown pictures of unfamiliar faces, they displayed significantly higher activity in the amygdala than people who had been unusually outgoing as children. The amygdala is a brain structure involved in vigilance and fear. It has long been hypothesised that extreme shyness,...

Deadly pneumonia linked to China flu By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor 27 March 2003 The lethal strain of pneumonia that is causing panic in the Far East was linked for the first time yesterday to the outbreak of a mystery flu-like illness in China last year by the World Health Organisation. The Chinese authorities said the disease had killed at least 34 people in China since November – 31 in the south and three in Beijing – and 792 people had developed symptoms of pneumonia. Of those, 680 were in Guangzhou, capital of the southern Guangdong province where the disease...

J. P. Morgan Chase has dismissed two investment bankers, one of whom was a managing director, after a fellow banker complained that they had sexually accosted a woman who worked with them, current and former employees at the company said this week. The two bankers who were dismissed, Palden Gyuimed Namgyal and Norman Gretzinger, made unwanted and inappropriate advances toward the woman in a bar, these people said. When the woman, a less-senior investment banker at J. P. Morgan, protested, another high-ranking investment banker who was there intervened, they said. He later reported the incident to the firm's personnel department,...

Intercepted call linked Saddam to al-Qa'ida terror cell By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 07 February 2003 He was supposed to have been a professional. He should have known better, but in the end he could not resist. Using a satellite phone, the senior al-Qa'ida operative excitedly called two associates and congratulated them on their cold-blooded assassination of an American diplomat. The call cost the man his liberty. It may yet cost him his life but, more importantly, it could have provided America with the "smoking gun" evidence it has long sought and which apparently links the Iraqi regime to an...

Saturday, 19 October, 2002, 12:36 GMT 13:36 UKCosmic rays 'linked to clouds' The influence of clouds on climate change is poorly understood By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent German scientists have found a significant piece of evidence linking cosmic rays to climate change. They have detected charged particle clusters in the lower atmosphere that were probably caused by the space radiation. They say the clusters can lead to the condensed nuclei which form into dense clouds. Clouds play a major, but as yet not fully understood, role in the dynamics of the climate, with some types acting to...