The Physics of Transparency

"When a package of light energy (or photon) hits a solid object, three things can happen:
1) light can disappear - if the photon has the same vibrational frequency as the electrons and the material it strikes, those electrons absorb its energy, changing the photon from light into heat.
2) light can also be scattered - the surface electrons can grab the photon's energy and then eject a photon of the same wavelength, which is how you see pretty much everything that doesn't emit light on its own.
3) transparency - if the photon doesn't have the right vibrational energy for absorption and if the atoms and the material are arranged and patterns that discourage reflection (such as the random jumble of molecules in glass or air), then the photon's energy passes from atom to atom, some emerging on the other side still bright and shiny. Then you have transparency."

from Discover magazine
July 2012
by Jason Daley

Alzheimer's Slowed By Vitamin E

High doses of Vitamin E slow down deterioration of moderate stages of Alzheimer's disease by about six months when high doses were given daily for two years. This translates to about two hours less help from caretakers per day, which is not insignificant.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-31/vitamin-e-slows-decline-in-patients-with-mild-alzheimer-s.html

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/newoldage/2013/12/31/alzheimers/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Airport Security: Spoons As Distress Signals

A British charity is telling girls whose parents want to send them abroad
for a forced marriage to put a spoon in their underwear. Airport
security officials who spot the spoon in the metal detector will take
the girls side for a search. They will be taken to a safe space where
they have that one last opportunity to disclose they are being forced to
marry.

British authorities handle nearly 1500 forced marriage cases a year most involve in ethnic Pakistani girls.

My Comment: Since this trick might soon uncovered in the "misogynistic"
tribal subculture perpetuating these ancient practices, I'd suggest that
the girls consider other ways to conceal a metallic object in the
genital area.

Note: it occurs to me that anyone could employ metal deployment in genital area tactics to alert airport personnel for other reasons.
Key: making sure that the metallic item is so
incongruous in the genital area so as to be obviously out-of-place. That
is, a "something is not right here" message.
But in case the metal detector alarm is not triggered, the person needing assistance can at
least exhibit wild unsubdued behaviors (or feign fainting or even a
seizure) and force the issue. Submissiveness will be rewarded with
sexual abuse in a land that is in another world.

The Week -- Aug. 30, 2013

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3759299
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/girls-escape-forced-marriage-by-concealing-spoons-in-clothing-to-set-off-metal-detectors-at-the-airport-8764404.html