Lunchtime Quick Hits
- Stop Phishing - A new means to deter phishing scams when you are trolling on the internets. Probably a competitor to Netcraft.
- Bushie is at a new all-time low...and so soon after his SOTU speech, in which he received, well, no bump. 34 percent is...just...wow. And a 59% disapproval to boot. Even a majority of republicans are against the UAE port deal. Stunning.
- Economy continues to slow - housings starts slowed for the 5th straight month. Boom is over.
Sunday Morning Science Roundup
A quick trip through the blogosphere reveals:
O’Connor and his colleagues from Ireland and Germany, utilized pyrolysis, a process that transforms materials by heating them in the absence of oxygen, to convert polystyrene — the key component of many disposable products — into styrene oil. The researchers then supplied this oil to P[seudomonas] putida, a bacterium that can feed on styrene, which converted the oil into a biodegradable plastic known as PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates). The process might also be used to convert other types of discarded plastics into PHA, according to O’Connor.
"Engineers have found a way to pinpoint and identify the tiny iron oxide particles associated with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases in the brain. The technique is likely to accelerate research on the cause of the diseases and could lead to the first diagnostic procedure for Alzheimer’s in patients while they are alive."
Now, I had thought that there were already diagnostic tests out there that looked for a particular protein excreted through your tears...as well, that's going back 10 years now, and perhaps that proved to not be accurate. Although this Fe2O3 analysis is not simply a "yes/no" qualitative analysis like a protein dip test is - if successful it would be quanitative, especially if they are able to start using NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance - health care calls it "MRI") as a means. Wonder what they could use to dope the rust particles...
Update:
Marc Maron Is Back
I got this email this AM from his site:
Geniuses, Philosopher Kings and Queens, Working Class Heroes, Progressive Utopians with no sense of humor, Lurking Conservatives-
Marc Maron's Fire Truck Productions and Air America Radio are proud to announce the impending birth of The Marc Maron Show, by C-Section, Tuesday February 28th at 10:00PM on KTLK AM 1150 in Los Angeles California.
Those present at the birth will be comedian Jeff Ross and Oscar nominated screenwriter of A History of Violence, Josh Olson. And, of course, Jim Earl and Brendan "PW" McDonald will be assisting during the procedure. As you all know, it might get messy.
Maron
My First Of Media Matters News Cap On My Blog
This is just patently rediculous. Tough to accuse Bryant Gumbel of reverse racism...This is currently in the media matter news box on the right hand side of this blog. Feel free to scan it more!
Cheney In LEGOVision!
This didn't take long...
LEGOVision is long the choice of Bat Girl when it comes to depicting her favorite Twins plays...
but let me make this clear that Bat-Girl had nothing to do with this depiction - I am linking to a mydd.com article.
Nail On The Head
From Simon Rosenburg at the NDN. I did not hear about the part in the 1st paragraph (in bold):
Their strong and resolute leader gets no bounce from his State of the Union, and has now dropped below levels no one thought possible. News in recent days show that the many parallel criminal investigations into GOP leaders are gaining additional momentum, and will likely become a very big problem later this year. Their domestic policy advisor, the quarterback for any major new domestic initiative, resigns suddenly a few days after the State of the Union indicating deeper troubles inside the White House than is commonly understood. Bush's budget is declared dead on arrival by even Republican analysts.
The Medicare prescription drug rollout has been a disaster, with millions of seniors not getting their medicines. Millions who do have the benefit will be hitting the infamous "doughnut hole" for the first time in the months right before the election. Energy costs are more likely to rise than fall this year. Health care costs will continue to rise, further squeezing workers and corporations. The Republicans are deeply divided on the volatile immigration issue, and so far have allowed loony demagogues to define their position. Corporate pension troubles will mount. Economic forecasts predict that national economy will slow later this year.
Bad you say, but what about their ability to exploit their advantages on security issues to help turn the table on Democrats? But what can they point to here? The 9/11 Commission giving their efforts on homeland security Ds and Fs? The rise of terrorism across the world? The incredible failures of the Department of Homeland Security on Katrina? The rise of anti-Americanism throughout Latin America?
Iraq? Just in recent days the Administration lost another one in Iraq, with our candidate for Prime Minister losing to a more religious candidate. The CIA analyst in charge of the intelligence leading up to the War says the Administration went too far, essentially manufacturing their case for war. More photos from Abu Grahib surface and get worldwide coverage. In the Plame affair, Libby fingers Cheney as having ordered the leaks, raising the possibility that both Rove and Cheney could be indicted. Even if Bush pulls out troops this year it is hard to see how Iraq possibly becomes an asset for them this year.
A safer Middle East? Religious zealots dedicated to the destruction of Israel have now gained power in Iran and Palestine. Al Qaeda operatives convicted for the bombing an American warship in Yemen "escape" from prison, and now on the loose. Things seem to be getting much worse there, not better.
Domestic warrantless spying? The President has spent perhaps more days this year on this issue than any other. And for what? Is something they really believe will be a big winner this fall? Their Congressional leaders have it made it clear that this program cannot continue without judicial oversight. The White House belief that this is a winner just shows how little they have to work with.
And finally, Cheney. Always a public opinion anchor, he has become an ever bigger liability for the President.
I thought that might get your attention...since this is the industry that I work in, I should talk more about it, but don't...so, the Scientific Activist has beaten me to the punch, in commenting on an
NYT article regarding a Genentech product...
On 15 February, The New York Times published a detailed account in its business section on the exorbitant prices some pharmaceutical companies are willing to charge for their therapies. The report focused on Avastin, a drug produced by Genentech for treatment of colon cancer. The drug is now being prescribed for breast and lung cancer, but a year of Avastin treatment for these conditions can cost $100,000. Ouch.
Surely this steep price tag must mean that Avastin is just a really expensive drug to produce, or maybe Genentech just wants to recoup the money it spent to develop it. Right?
Until now, drug makers have typically defended high prices by noting the cost of developing new medicines. But executives at Genentech and its majority owner, Roche, are now using a separate argument — citing the inherent value of life-sustaining therapies.
If society wants the benefits, they say, it must be ready to spend more for treatments like Avastin and another of the company's cancer drugs, Herceptin, which sells for $40,000 a year.
"As we look at Avastin and Herceptin pricing, right now the health economics hold up, and therefore I don't see any reason to be touching them," said William M. Burns, the chief executive of Roche's pharmaceutical division and a member of Genentech's board. "The pressure on society to use strong and good products is there."
Right on. The biotech houses charge based on back-calculating price per dose, adding about 20% thereabouts and knowing what their costs are. Which are very high, don't get me wrong...but come on, the Genentech scientist in the article is simply naive.
Cheney's Got A Gun...[Update]
An apple Quicktime movie:
click hereOther fun stuff========================================
There's no need to blog over this myself...there are several places that are keeping up on this better than I could ever do:
americablogcrooksandliarsfiredoglake has it in WEEBLEvision
I simply dont know if I really believe this...after Cold Fusion a decade ago...I remain skeptical:Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a tabletop accelerator that produces nuclear fusion at room temperature, providing confirmation of an earlier experiment conducted at UCLA, while offering substantial improvements over the original design. The device, which uses two opposing crystals to generate a powerful electric field, could potentially lead to a portable, battery-operated neutron generator for a variety of applications, from non-destructive testing to detecting explosives and scanning luggage at airports.
Just more grist for the mill regarding the Bushies and the righties disdain for peer-reviewed science. Again, I refer you to
Chris Mooney's book. It's actually depressing to me, so it's been a tough read.
Summary - (
Thu, 02 Feb 2006) When NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft smashed into Comet Tempel 1 last summer, it helped reveal just what's inside a comet. The spacecraft also photographed three distinct patches of water ice on the surface of the comet. While Tempel 1 has a surface area of about 116 square kilometres (45 square miles), these patches of ice only cover about 6% of the comet's surface. It appears that the comet's jets were once inside, but slowly became uncovered over time.
Customizing Your PC's Desktop - Yahoo! NewsDealing with the failings of XP as far as how to customize it and replace the OS shell (which has never been spectacular), even tho its the best of the Windows brand thus far. I DID like win2000, tho, for its robustness. Excepting of course that when I worked in software, when my company's product was open at the same time as an Office product (word, excel, didn't matter) would give me the
blue screen of death - and that happened when I was training clients on how to use our software!!
Changed my Template - What Do You Think?
Minima was just not doing it for me anymore...besides, I like tequila...
From a Kos diary (click on the title) linking to a WaPo article which also talks about the resignation of George C. Deutsch, aged 24 years, from NASA where is was some sort of Bushie borg trying to assimilate NASA's language into Bushiespeak. He, like other Bush appointees, lied on his resume. He said that he graduated form Texas A&M, which he did not.
Aravosis did a post about this charlatan recently.
By Erik KirschbaumSat Feb 11, 12:54 PM ETBERLIN (Reuters) - A documentary on the perils of runaway capitalism that spotlights Wal-Mart screened at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, and interest among European distributors and television networks has been strong. The feature-length documentary focuses on working conditions at the U.S. retail giant and argues that the company treats its employees shabbily in pursuit of maximum profit.Wal-Mart is the poster child for the worst in corporate behavior," U.S. director Robert Greenwald said in an interview after his film, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," screened to a large and appreciative audience. "But it is not only Wal-Mart, it is these issues that affect all of us all around the world."...The film, which Greenwald partly financed, portrays Wal-Mart Stores Inc as a monster that destroys the fabric of small towns by killing off small business with discount prices, and as a firm paying poverty-level wages without adequate health cover.
Greenwald, who said he tried unsuccessfully to interview Wal-Mart executives for his documentary, shows how Wal-Mart moved into two small towns in Ohio and Missouri, among other places, and how family-owned stores folded after its arrival.
"Wal-Mart is on a rampage across America but no one is doing anything about it," says hardware store worker John Faenza in the film. Greenwald reports that wages and property values fell when Wal-Mart came to town.
Images of boarded-up shops accompanied by haunting Bruce Springsteen songs deliver a powerful message about the excesses of capitalism, one which scares many Europeans.
"Wal-Mart is sucking down standards around the world," the narrator says. Greenwald includes interviews with ex Wal-Mart managers and employees detailing poor treatment of staff.
It's another par for the course for the Bush Administration when it comes to ignoring their science advisory committees. This time, it's not the FDA, but the EPA doing it...this falls right in line with the book that I'm reading (
and that I've linked to on the right) by Chris Mooney.
YOUNG: It's also puzzling to members of the EPA's own Clean Air Science Advisory Committee. CASAC, as it's known, recommended a lower level – somewhere between 12 and 14 – for long-term particle emissions. Congress appointed the diverse panel of experts to give EPA rigorously researched and unbiased scientific advice. Committee chair Dr. Rogene Henderson says this is the first time an EPA administrator has not followed that advice.
HENDERSON: I was surprised and disappointed that the administrator did not choose to follow our recommendations. We're in uncharted waters here. This has never happened before here.
YOUNG: EPA's proposal also would not regulate or even monitor coarse particle dust in rural areas. It would exempt from regulation dusty activities like mining and agriculture. Henderson says the proposal makes it sound as if that idea came from her committee.
Listen to the Living On Earth story
here (mp3).
Random Saturday Musings
Ahh, another Saturday spent at work...well, some quick hits to at least log the things I've found during my breaks:
Have fun with the Noreaster!
Whatever your persuasion, this post describes why the highly-overused statistic "employment rate" is a poor indicator of economic level, since it's a relative ratio that cannot be measured aganst any other month. - it's pertinent only to that month as a relative inicator of employment. And, mathematically, the denominator changes each month (this is like my issue with baseball's OPS). Most importantly, the denominator is a guesstimate of the number of people that COULD be in the workforce.
We need a better indicitator of employment and what it means to the overall economy.
Thanks to Angry Bear.
