News & Current Events

[michaelflanagansf]

Some particularly good news if you name happens to be 'Bubbles':

Compound may block HIV infection
Page last updated at 00:14 GMT, Thursday, 5 March 2009

Researchers have identified a cheap, commonly-used compound that, applied vaginally, can stop monkeys being infected with a primate version of HIV.

The discovery, by the University of Minnesota, raises hopes of a similar microbicidal treatment to block HIV transmission in humans.

Several microbicides have been tested, but results have been disappointing.

The study - focusing on a compound called glycerol monolaurate (GML) - is published online by the journal Nature.

GML is a naturally occurring compound widely used as an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent in food and cosmetics.

Crucially, it is also cheap, and is likely to protect against other sexually transmitted infections too.

Lead researcher Dr Ashley Haase said that if GML proved to be effective in blocking HIV it could potentially help to save millions of lives.

A majority of cases of HIV worldwide are now contracted vaginally, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the pandemic is at its most intense, women account for nearly 60% of new infections.

Blocking response

After monkeys are exposed to their version of HIV, known as SIV, T-cells from the immune system rush to the scene to try to fight infection.

However, this is actually counter-productive, as the virus merely uses these cells as fuel to aid its expansion throughout the body.

Therefore, blocking this initial immune response - although it seems counter-intuitive - might actually help to stop infection in its tracks.

continues:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7921195.stm

[huntinbuddy]

Yikes!!!
 Demonic General Electric.....demonic NBC...... GE stock today closes at 6.66

http://research.scottrade.com/public/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=ge

[fritzkep]

 

[michaelflanagansf]

Well maybe hell has frozen over, Charlie, but those devils at GE won't have any ice to skate on soon....

Arctic summer ice could vanish by 2013: expert
By David Ljunggren David Ljunggren   – Thu Mar 5, 3:39 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Arctic is warming up so quickly that the region's sea ice cover in summer could vanish as early as 2013, decades earlier than some had predicted, a leading polar expert said on Thursday.

Warwick Vincent, director of the Center for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec, said recent data on the ice cover "appear to be tracking the most pessimistic of the models", which call for an ice free summer in 2013.

The year "2013 is starting to look as though it is a lot more reasonable as a prediction. But each year we've been wrong -- each year we're finding that it's a little bit faster than expected," he told Reuters.

The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world and the sea ice cover shrank to a record low in 2007 before growing slightly in 2008.

In 2004 a major international panel forecast the cover could vanish by 2100. Last December, some experts said the summer ice could go in the next 10 or 20 years.

If the ice cover disappears, it could have major consequences. Shipping companies are already musing about short cuts through the Arctic, which also contains enormous reserves of oil and natural gas.

Vincent's scientific team has spent the last 10 summers on Ward Hunt Island, a remote spot some 2,500 miles northwest of Ottawa.

"I was astounded as to how fast the changes are taking place. The extent of open water is something that we haven't experienced in the 10 years that I've been working up there," he said after making a presentation in the Canadian Parliament.

"We're losing, irreversibly, major features of the Canadian ice scape and that suggests that these more pessimistic models are really much closer to reality."

continues:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090305/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_canada_arctic_2

[michaelflanagansf]

And btw, apparently living in the middle of the country stinks....

Iowans say pig-odor study passes the smell test
By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press Writer Michael J. Crumb, Associated Press Writer   – Thu Mar 5, 5:56 pm ET

DES MOINES, Iowa – On Capitol Hill, a $1.7 million earmark for pig odor research in Iowa has become a big, fat joke among Republicans, a Grade A example of pork. But the people who live cheek by jowl with hog farms in the No. 1 pig-producing state aren't laughing.

They're gagging.

"You hold your breath and when it's really bad you get the taste in your mouth," said Carroll Harless, a 70-year-old retired corn-and-soybean farmer from Iowa Falls.

In Iowa, where the 20 million hogs easily outnumber the 3 million people, the rotten-egg-and-ammonia smell of hog waste often wafts into homes, landing like a punch to the chest.

"Once, we couldn't go outside for a week," said Karen Forbes, who lives near a hog feedlot outside Lorimor. "It burned your eyes. You couldn't breathe. You had to take a deep breath and run for your garage. It was horrid."

She recalls a citywide garage sale held in the town of 420 a couple of years ago that no one attended because of the stink that day.

Continues:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090305/ap_on_re_us/pork_for_pigs;_ylt=Ai7FFJf.QTrLSAcPMVVDUTUDW7oF

[brokebacktom]

Mexico blames US for its drug cartel problems. They are living in denial. But wait it has to be Obama's Fault.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/06/mexico-blames-drug-cartel_n_172455.html

[fritzkep]

One would expect the Republicans to be more sympathetic with the needs of a Midwest farm state. But then, this isn't an election year.

[brokebacktom]

One would expect the Republicans to be more sympathetic with the needs of a Midwest farm state. But then, this isn't an election year.

They only care or take a populist approach to the problems when it is election years or when they are struggling to keep a float as a party.

[michaelflanagansf]

One would expect the Republicans to be more sympathetic with the needs of a Midwest farm state. But then, this isn't an election year.

They only care or take a populist approach to the problems when it is election years or when they are struggling to keep a float as a party.

Wasn't this the whole point of the book "What's The Matter With Kansas"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_Matter_with_Kansas

Part of the problem here is that the talk radio folks who get people excited don't really have much power - they manage to get people angry and they don't deliver.  And then you get guys like James Adkisson who take matters into their own hands:

http://maineowl.net/blog/item/1380

[windriverrose]

One would expect the Republicans to be more sympathetic with the needs of a Midwest farm state. But then, this isn't an election year.

Good morning, All, and happy week-ending from the Deep South.

I've been loitering here for a while, taking advantage of all the fascinating links you guys post to try to broaden my grasp of what's going on in this country, and I have lately come to a conclusion that I really, really HATE - but I just can't see my way around it.

Is it just me, or do all the Republican talking heads and GOP powers-that-be appear to be engaging in a massive, profound bout of pouting?  Given the incredible economic mess in which we're embroiled, is it really possible that individuals charged with maintaining the welfare of our nation are too busy enjoying their snit over being caught with their pants down and held accountable, to step back from their personal vendettas and try to find a way to undo wrongs done over the course of a very long, very focused decline of belief in the American dream?  Is it really more important to them to maintain their stone-faced, nose-in-the-air arrogance, refusing to accept any responsibility for the slide into ruin during the last decade, than it is to put such self-serving posturing behind them and - AHEM - fix the problem?

I don't know; maybe it is.  Maybe it has finally become more politically feasible to ignore one's responsibility and preserve old, out-moded images.

But it sure seems to me that common sense, if not political savvy, should dictate at such dire moments, that one put aside flagrant partisanship and concentrate on pulling together to repair a sinking ship.  Does it really make any sense to just stand on the deck and sink, while refusing to acknowledge the degree of the problem.

Yes, I voted for Barack Obama.  And yes, I believe in his ideals, even if I don't agree with everything he says, and everything he tries.  But at least he IS trying.  He IS making an attempt to stem the tide, and I can't for the life of me understand why Republican congressmen and senators (not to mention demented talk-show hosts) almost to a man, have apparently decided to sit back and hope that he goes under in the flood that is the aftermath of the disastrous Bush debacle.  Do they really think this will absolve them of the responsibility for the original mess?

I am really puzzled, and would appreciate any wisdom anyone here might have to offer.

ETA:  And, on a side note, have you seen the new bumpersticker that is becoming all the rage in the conservative strongholds of our country?  It goes like this:
I'll keep my guns, freedom & money . . . you can keep the "change".  The beauty of right wing bias at work.

[jack]

i'd feel a whole lot better if i thought that standing back and HOPING obama will fail or get caught in a contretemps.  instead, i believe many are actively working TOWARDS that end, since obama's humiliation is the ONLY occurrence that makes the GOP look viable to the less informed.  they are trying to throw monkey wrenches into every machine he sets in motion.   

ps: they should have a moralistic field day with the reinstatement of embryonic stem cell research, not that most of the country doesn't AGREE with obama...

[Marge_Innavera]

Well maybe hell has frozen over, Charlie, but those devils at GE won't have any ice to skate on soon....

Arctic summer ice could vanish by 2013: expert
By David Ljunggren David Ljunggren   – Thu Mar 5, 3:39 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Arctic is warming up so quickly that the region's sea ice cover in summer could vanish as early as 2013, decades earlier than some had predicted, a leading polar expert said on Thursday.

Warwick Vincent, director of the Center for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec, said recent data on the ice cover "appear to be tracking the most pessimistic of the models", which call for an ice free summer in 2013.

I wonder what that will do to the ocean currents that have contributed to temperate climates over the past 10K years?

[fritzkep]

Hey! If they can save a few bucks shipping from Europe to the West Coast via an ice-free Northwest Passage, what difference does it make if the Gulf Stream stops and Europe becomes as cold as Canada? Short-term profits are the most important thing.

[graylockV]

Hey! If they can save a few bucks shipping from Europe to the West Coast via an ice-free Northwest Passage, what difference does it make if the Gulf Stream stops and Europe becomes as cold as Canada? Short-term profits are the most important thing.

And I'm sure the Family Research Council is already working hard to make certain that none of those new Arctic beaches are topless!

[WhenPigsFly]

DES MOINES, Iowa – On Capitol Hill, a $1.7 million earmark for pig odor research in Iowa has become a big, fat joke among Republicans, a Grade A example of pork. But the people who live cheek by jowl with hog farms in the No. 1 pig-producing state aren't laughing.

They're gagging.

"You hold your breath and when it's really bad you get the taste in your mouth," said Carroll Harless, a 70-year-old retired corn-and-soybean farmer from Iowa Falls.

Since no one else has mentioned it, I will!  Annie Proulx's "That Old Ace In The Hole" is all about the literal and ethical stink that's synonymous with pig "farming."

Set in the Texas Panhandle, it's  typical Proulx in that she nails the corporations that manipulate and exploit (animals as well as the land in this story).  Although it's probably my least favorite of her books  -- too predictable --  it still rates pretty high with me because she doesn't pull any punches in shining the spotlight on a horrible business.