j7uy5 | May 4, 2007The
work of Li-Huei
Tsai on the partial restoration of memory was in the news a
few days ago. Although the experiments were done on mice, it
was hoped that the results could indicate a reason to hope that humans
with dementia could be helped.
The study showed that an environment enriched with varied stimuli could
help organisms regain long-term memories.
This
recovery of long-term memory was really the most
remarkable finding. It suggests that memories are not really erased in
such disorders as Alzheimer’s, but that they are rendered
inaccessible and can be recovered...
...The…
j7uy5 | May 4, 2007
Two US senators,
href="http://byrd.senate.gov/newsroom/news_may/byrd_clinton_call_for_ending_2002_iraq_resolution.html">Robert
Byrd and one other, are suggesting now that Congress try a
href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/?hpid=news-col-blogs">different
approach for ending the war in Iraq. That would
entail legislation that would end the authorization to the use of
military force. It would cause the original AUMF to "sunset"
in October of this year. A White House spokesperson,
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Perino" rel="tag">
Dana Perino,
href="…
j7uy5 | May 3, 2007According
to
href="http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/NEWS07/70503070">a
study done at the University of Michigan's
href="http://www.isr.umich.edu/home/">Institute for Social
Research, fewer people are identifying themselves as
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiracial" rel="tag">multiracial.
Reynolds
Farley Ph.D. reported:
The
annual ACS, which samples about 3 million households, shows a clear
trend, Farley says. In the 2000 survey, 2.1 percent checked more than
one race. In 2005, it slipped to 1.9 percent. ”It’s
a slight decrease but…
j7uy5 | May 3, 2007
Congress sent the President an appropriations bill that suggested a
timetable for the withdrawal of US military forces from Iraq. He vetoed it. When
President Bush vetoed the bill, he
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202410.html">signed
the veto with a pen handed to him by the father of a Marine
who'd been killed in battle.
Although I disagree with the veto, I do think it was a nice touch for
him to include a citizen in a ceremony that was meaningful to that
citizen.
It was only the second time Bush has vetoed anything, so these…
j7uy5 | May 3, 2007
A study has shown that the world's fastest average pedestrian pace is
in
href="http://article.wn.com/view/2007/05/02/Singapore_Worlds_fastest_walkers/"
rel="tag">Singapore. The
href="http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/artsandlife/story.html?id=58d385b6-4db2-481f-97ca-d16e16deb7c9">top
ten?
1) Singapore (Singapore): 10.55
2) Copenhagen (Denmark): 10.82
3) Madrid (Spain): 10.89
4) Guangzhou (China): 10.94
5) Dublin (Ireland): 11.03
6) Curitiba (Brazil): 11.13
7) Berlin (Germany): 11.16
8) New York (United States of America): 12.00
9) Utrecht (Netherlands): 12.04
10) Vienna (…
j7uy5 | May 3, 2007
href="http://inkhornterm.blogspot.com/2005/12/7-drinks-of-mankind-tea-joe-mooney.html">
class="inset" alt="The image"
src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/361/69/1600/pick.jpg"
border="0" height="500" width="464">
It is
time to pick the tea leaves. May 2 is the traditional date to
begin
href="http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstPhotos/index.php?photoid=21162">picking
tea leaves in Japan.
j7uy5 | May 2, 2007The
Australian beer maker, Fosters, is installing a
href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-australia-beer-power,0,2942622.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed">prototype
fuel cell. Nothing remarkable about that, except
this fuel cell uses wastewater from the manufacture of beer.
The carbohydrate-rich effluent is expected to generate 2
kilowatts and make the water cleaner in the process.
In tangentially-related news The BBC is reporting that hemp can be used
to produce eco-friendly concrete.
Production
of concrete, that staple of modern building, alone accounts for up to
10% of…
j7uy5 | May 1, 2007
Every once in a while one of the world's most physically fit persons
drops over and dies. In fact four persons have died during
or shortly after running the Boston Marathon.
It has been
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/352/15/1550">known
for a while that the cause, in at least some cases, is an abnormally
low concentration of sodium in the blood (hyponatremia.)
The reason is that some people, especially the slower runners, drink
too much water during the race. But the exact mechanism
(pathophysiology) has not been fully understood.
Now, in a short piece on Medpage…
j7uy5 | May 1, 2007Data
presented at a Neurology conference shows structural changes in the
brain of Gulf War vets who are highly symptomatic of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_Syndrome" rel="tag">Gulf
War Syndrome.
It appears that the findings have not yet been published; in fact, the
study has not been completed. So it is early to draw firm
conclusions. They've done MRIs on 36 persons; 18 with a high level of
symptoms, 18 with milder symptoms. The findings were
presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Academy of
Neurology. The study is being done at Boston
University and…
j7uy5 | April 30, 2007Just
in case you are a physician looking for a reason to avoid drug reps,
you should read this article on PLOS Medicine. It is an
enlightening, if sickening, inside view of pharmaceutical sales
practices.
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0040150">Following
the Script: How Drug Reps Make Friends and Influence Doctors
Adriane
Fugh-Berman*, Shahram Ahari
April
24, 2007
...Unlike
the door-to-door vendors of cosmetics and vacuum cleaners, drug reps do
not sell their product…
j7uy5 | April 30, 2007IEEE Spectrum
(free registration required) has a nice little article about devices
that generate heat and electricity for the home. This is a
good idea, except for two problems: one, it is more efficient, and two,
it is more reliable than the current system.
Micro-CHP (combined heat and power) systems eliminate the inefficiency
that is inherent in the process of transmitting power over very long
wires. It also reduces the impact of a failure in any one
point in the power grid.
href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/apr07/5010">A Power Plant for
the Home
Basement
furnaces generate…
j7uy5 | April 29, 2007It is
not often that retired NFL players get published in medical journals,
but apparently it does happen.
Eric
Hipple, formerly a quarterback for the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Lions">Detroit
Lions, has an article in Medicine & Science in Sports
& Exercise. Granted, he is the fourth or four
authors, but it is still impressive.
href="http://www.acsm-msse.org/pt/re/msse/abstract.00005768-200704000-00004.htm;jsessionid=G1nNFn2gynmmw6jdJyypDN9CmTLcf2hpnt4FHWVKpD4gzwGFJ2hl%21-1465501618%21-949856144%218091%21-1">Depression
and Pain in Retired Professional…
j7uy5 | April 28, 2007April 26, 2007
Dr. Joseph *****
**** * ******* St
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103
Dear Dr. *****:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the impeachment of Vice
President Cheney. I appreciate hearing from you.
As you know, impeachment is a very serious matter. The
Constitution sets forth the general principles which control the
procedural aspects of impeachment, vesting the power to impeach in the
House of Representatives, while giving the Senate the power to try
impeachments. In any case, the proceedings would have to be initiated
by the Republican leadership on the House Committee on…
j7uy5 | April 25, 2007OK, I
turned on the TV, in all its 12-inch glory, and watched
href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html">the
show. It is as good as any articles of impeachment
will ever be.
Money quotes, from the
href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html">transcript:
BILL
MOYERS: It didn't make sense to Simon that the dictator would
trust islamic terrorists.
BOB
SIMON:
Saddam as most tyrants, was a total control freak. He wanted total
control of his regime. Total control of the country. And to introduce a
wild card like Al Qaeda in any sense was just something…
j7uy5 | April 25, 2007From
LA Times:
The San Diego Zoo's male giant panda, Gao Gao, nips at female panda Bai
Yun's back. The two adult giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo mated
Tuesday, zoo officials announced, raising hopes of an offspring this
summer.
(
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pandas25apr25,1,4154066.story?coll=la-headlines-california">Ken
Bohn / Zoological Society of San Diego)
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pandas25apr25_jh100unc,1,2512398.photo?coll=la-headlines-california">
I never can resist a good panda picture.
j7uy5 | April 25, 2007George
McGovern takes Cheney to task for, among other things, misunderstanding
political history.
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mcgovern24apr24,0,4084076.story?coll=la-opinion-center">Los
Angeles Times:
VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney recently attacked my 1972 presidential
platform and contended that today's Democratic Party has reverted to
the views I advocated in 1972. In a sense, this is a compliment, both
to me and the Democratic Party. Cheney intended no such compliment.
Instead, he twisted my views and those of my party…
j7uy5 | April 24, 2007
Regarding
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/education/24loans.html?ex=1335067200&en=c2a6501764fefef8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">efforts
to reform the practices of student loan vendors, in
light of the recent scandal:
The
state-by-state regulatory action, so far limited
largely to efforts by Democrats, comes at a time of little progress in
the development of federal rules on lenders’ dealings with
colleges. A bid by the Education Department to negotiate such rules
collapsed on Friday in disagreement among representatives of colleges,
banks and other…
j7uy5 | April 23, 2007From
BBC:
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6575767.stm">Fat-fighting
baby milk criticised
Plans to add a hormone which suppresses hunger to baby formula food is
unlikely to work say experts.
University of Buckingham researchers are looking at adding leptin to
formula milk to curb future over-eating.
But experts said the work detailed in Chemistry and Industry was
"wildly optimistic science fiction" and questioned testing leptin on
babies.
Babies fed with formula grow more quickly than breast-fed babies - who
have a lower risk…
j7uy5 | April 23, 2007
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border="0" height="321" width="500">
photo
credit: Voxphoto.
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