9/03/2010 PERMALINK
The many lies of our politicians. Some readers of my blog and other friends have sent me a letter being ciruclated by Newt Gingrich about the Muslim center in New York.

It is not my wish to defend Islam, which is certainly one of the loopiest religions around. What is it, 72 virgins you are suppose to get in heaven if you die in defense of the faith, what a hoot! LOL!

However, I do also seem to vaguely recall something about Newt being a lying scum bag. Didn't he cheat on his wife and do some other reprehensible things that caused him to have to resign his speakership of the House? There were lies and scandal of some sort back then, and he is certainly lying about the history of Cordoba, Spain. Not good for someone, who if I recall correctly, was a history professor before running for Congress.

The facts are that after Christianity became the dominant religion in Rome, the Roman empire fell, and Europe plunged into a barbaric Dark Ages. Islam was able to rise into the power vacuum this left. Their advances into various parts of Europe, actually required very little force. This was because Europe had fallen so far. That most people were barely able to eek out a hand to mouth existence. They had little strength to resist, especially since when the Muslims arrived, conditions tended to get better, not worse. Christian Europeans didn't approve of their religion but getting pulled out of the hand-to-mouth barbarity of the Dark Ages into some semblance of civilization, probably wasn't so bad.

Despite Newt's assertion in his letter, it is quite true that Cordoba was a shining example to Europe. It was the largest, most civilized and prosperous city in Europe during this era. A place of refinement in a sea of barbarity, where both Christian and Jews could live alongside Muslims relatively free of persecution. This while Jews were routinely persecuted in most of the Christian kingdoms of Europe at that time. The Catholic Church encourage their kings to persecute Jews. Documents released from the Vatican's own archives in recent years have shown this.

As Christian kingdoms became stronger, at the urging of the Vatican, they brutally attacked and destroyed Cordoba. This period also produced the numerous, extremely bloody Crusades to the holy lands. The stated purpose of which was to take back the holy lands for Christianity. The reality was a little different. These Crusades also afforded the still barbaric and quite poor Christian kings of European a golden opportunity to loot a much richer civilization than their own. Massive quantities of loot were liberated from Muslim cities all along the way by Christian Crusaders on their way to liberate the holy lands.

Cordoba was a shining example of religious tolerance as the people attempting to build a Muslim center in New York have apparently claimed. Newt claim to the contrary is a politically inspired lie. But when did the truth ever stop one of our scum bag politicians of either political party from attempting to use people's fears to score some political points?

Incidentally, in addition to their participation in the Crusades, the Catholic Church in Spain during this era also launched a little affair called the Spanish Inquisition. This began when two brothers, who were actually the very first Protestants, began teaching in Spanish mountain villages that people did not need to go through the Catholic Church's priests to have a relationship with their God. They could instead have a direct relationship with their God.

These teachings threatened the Pope's wealth and power, so with the help of the Christian Kings of Spain, the Catholics hunted down these two brothers. The Church ordered them killed and further ordered that ever man woman and child in the villages where these men had preached, who had heard about their teaching, also should be exterminated. These innocents were murdered by fellow Christians because the Protestant ideas they had heard threatened the power and wealth of the Catholic Church. As had the tolerance and civility that existed in the Muslim city of Cordoba, which the Church had also ordered destroyed.

This is what the Christians Bishops and Kings of that era were like. They were the thugs, not the Muslims. Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike were brutally murdered and suppressed by the Catholic Kings and Bishops of Spain, on the orders of the Pope of the "one true church." Documents they have released over the last few decades from Vatican archives show this. And the Vatican under Pope John Paul deserves much credit for making these documents public. Airing their own dirty linen to that extent was an act of considerable humanity by John Paul. Unlike the current Pope who it appears was heavily involved in the despicable efforts to cover the evil of child abusing priests by merely transferring them to new churches. Turning them lose to destroy the lives of even more innocent young childred. Today's Pope, like the popes that ordered the Spanish Inquisition and the destruction of Cordoba, appears to be a man to whom maintaining the wealth and power of his Church is more important to him than his sense of good and evil.

Sadly, there are people today in all three of the religions that share a common belief in the God of Abraham, behaving with intolerance for each other. And Newt's lies that seek to stir the pot of hatred and intolerance for political advantage are a despicable act of pure evil.

So please, forward me no more copies of Newt's lies.

9/02/2010 PERMALINK
Functional motor neuron subtypes generated from embryonic stem cells. ITEM: Scientists have devised a method for coaxing mouse embryonic stem cells into forming a highly specific motor neuron subtype. The research, published in the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, provides new insight into motor neuron differentiation and may prove useful for devising and testing future therapies for motor neuron diseases.

9/02/2010 PERMALINK
Study finds that cancer-causing gene crucial in stem cell development. ITEM: A research team at the University of Georgia has shown for the first time that a gene called Myc, which is traditionally thought of as a cancer-causing gene, may be far more important in the development and persistence of stem cells than was known before.

9/02/2010 PERMALINK
UCSF unveils model for implantable artificial kidney to replace dialysis. ITEM: UCSF researchers today unveiled a prototype model of the first implantable artificial kidney, in a development that one day could eliminate the need for dialysis.

9/02/2010 PERMALINK
Reversing your kid's tendency to get low grades might be as simple as a tweak to their dopamine genes. ITEM: The academic performance of adolescents will suffer in at least one of four key subjects -- English, math, science, history -- if their DNA contains one or more of three specific dopamine gene variations, according to a study led by renowned biosocial criminologist Kevin M. Beaver of the Florida State University.

9/02/2010 PERMALINK
Stanford-developed app shows 2-D structure of thousands of RNA molecules. ITEM: For the first time, it's possible to experimentally capture a global snapshot of the conformation of thousands of RNA molecules in a cell. The finding is important because this scrappy little sister of DNA has recently been shown to be much more complex than previously thought.

9/02/2010 PERMALINK
Scientists examine new ways to manipulate the microorganisms inside you. ITEM: Earlier this summer, scientists reported the success of an unusual medical transplant; a woman with a life-threatening Clostridium difficile infection was treated, and apparently cured, with an injection of some of her healthy husband's gut bacteria. Researchers are now exploring the effects of this type of transplant in greater detail. They hope to eventually treat a wide range of ailments--from bowel diseases to obesity, diabetes to depression--by manipulating the bacteria that live in the human gut.

9/01/2010 PERMALINK
Massive fraud in our banking system aided and abetted by government. Global Economic Trend Analysis: FDIC Quarterly Banking Report: If I recall correctly, this is the third straight quarter that bankers have fraudulently used big reductions in loan loss reserves to inflated reported profits. This although nearly every bank's loan loss reserves stand at record lows against reported non-preforming loans and nearly all banks are keeping many loans that should be on their non-performing list, off it. They are using loan work outs, new extensions of credit, allowing checking overdrafts to make payments and various other fraudulent techniques to do this. When the fraud necessary to sustain a failing system reaches these levels, aided and abetted by government regulators, it is hard to see how such a corrupt system can endure much longer. Be prepared for the worst.

8/31/2010 PERMALINK
Early puberty of girls living in unstable environments is caused by survival of the fittest. ITEM: Girls who physically mature earlier tend to start dating, have sexual intercourse at a younger age, and have more sexual partners than girls who develop later. That puts them at risk of sexually transmitted diseases and makes them more likely to have a child while they're still teenagers. These are generally seen as bad things, says Jay Belsky, of Birkbeck University in London, given that many psychologists and doctors think there are right and wrong ways to develop. But he says it makes more sense to look at development the way nature does, from an evolutionary perspective. This leads to the expectation that growing up in a risky, unstable environment, the kind that fosters an insecure rather than secure attachment of infant to mother, should accelerate pubertal maturation thus increasing the chances that one could reproduce before they die.

8/31/2010 PERMALINK
An experience like none that you've ever had before. The Wilderness Downtown : I just experienced something pretty amazing. It will move you. It is an interactive song that asks you for the address where you grew up, or any address that is meaningful to you. Then, it uses Google to find aerial and ground pictures of that place. And as the song plays, a kid runs down your childhood street in a hooded jacket, so girl or boy, you are suddenly that kid again. Running past your childhood home, you look up and see the birds above. And in a kid's daydreaming come true, you are flying over your house with that flock of birds. Other childhood daydreams play out as the music continues. It uses HTML5, so it will only work on Chrome or Firefox browsers, but if you don't have one of those, get one or borrow a computer. Because it is an amazingly moving experience. I've never experienced anything that took me back to another time and place in my life as powerfully as this art managed to do. In more rural areas, Google's images aren't as good, so it may not be as powerful. But if you grew up in a city or suburb, as I did, you are in for a cool experience, powerful, personalized interactive art. Never had an experience quite like it before.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
U of Alberta researchers discover important mechanism for fighting infection. ITEM: Richard Lamb and his post doctoral fellow Virginie Mieulet, in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, may be able to explain why proper nutrition is so vital in fighting infection. They have discovered an amino acid, called arginine, is required to let the body know that it's being attacked by an infection.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
For the first time, researchers identify and isolate adult mammary stem cells in mice. ITEM: For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have identified and isolated adult mammary stem cells in mice. Long-term implications of this research may include the use of such cells to regenerate breast tissue, provide a better understanding of the role of adult stem cells in breast cancer development, and develop potential new targets for anti-cancer drugs.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
Did China and the US just pull off the slickest web disinformation campaign of all time? When America's financial troubles began, Chinese officials soon began to squawk loudly about the safety of their multi-trillion dollar exposure. When the constant squawking suddenly stopped, some assumed that a secret deal had been reached between the US and Chinese governments to lesson China's dollar/debt exposure.

Soon thereafter the US Government formal acceptance responsibility for the massive debt load of Fannie and Freddie, a large chunk of which was held by China.

Then a funny thing began to happen. China went on a wild, worldwide buying spree. Snapping up mines and farms and funding the development of new mines and farms all over the planet with tens of billions of dollars. Not just buying commodities producers, but also buying and upgrading railroads and ports to ship the commodities back home. Often these would be handled through offshore corporations in places like the Cayman Islands, so that the China-connection remained unknown.

The world's financial press has recently begun to catch on to this, but no one has yet connected all of the dots to determine the full magnitude of their recent investments of surplus dollars into commodities investments.

Certainly the magnitude of dollars spent on these investments far exceeds the number of Treasury Bond the Chinese claim to have redeemed lately. Could a US/China deal exist under which the Fed might have secretly redeeming a much larger amount of Treasury bonds?

If so, at some point, a cover story would be needed to explain the discrepancy in China's bond holdings.

Now rumors are circulating that China has lost $430 billion of its Treasury bond holding in some sort of hedge that went wrong. The man the rumors blame is People’s Bank of China (PBC) Gov. Zhou Xiaochua. Has poor old Zhou been selected to take a bullet to cover up the secret dollar redemption necessary to pay for China's massive commodities spending binge?

He sure seems like the perfect fall guy, since rumors have circulated several times before about his being involved in previous Chinese financial scandals.

With the world's politicos all in full national security mode for the duration of the world's financial crisis. All important decision about economic policy are being made within the realm of National Security Councils, where covert ops are the preferred modus operandi.

As long as that continues to be the case, there is just no telling what sort of covert operations could be underway to prop up America's dollar, debt and markets.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers find a way to stop colon cancer by activating an anti-cancer gene. ITEM: Researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health Sciences have succeeded in decoding the genetic key that gives particular intestinal cells their identity. With this knowledge of the complex network of genes the researchers now hope to stop colon cancer by activating special anti-cancer genes.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
MIT researchers develop a better way to grow stem cells. ITEM: MIT chemical engineers, materials scientists and biologists have devised a synthetic surface that includes no foreign animal material and allows stem cells to stay alive and continue reproducing themselves for at least three months. It's also the first synthetic material that allows single cells to form colonies of identical cells, which is necessary to identify cells with desired traits and has been difficult to achieve with existing materials.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
Researchers advance understanding of enzyme that regulates DNA. Item: Thanks to a single-molecule imaging technique developed by a University of Illinois professor, researchers have revealed the mechanisms of PcrA helicase, an important DNA-regulating enzyme. To prevent unwanted recombination of a damaged or degraded section of DNA, the enzyme binds at the point of the break, where the double- and single-stranded regions meet. Then, it uses its motor function to 'reel in' the tail, like a fisherman pulling in a rope, knocking off recombination proteins along the way.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
Building a cloud computing platform out of Smart Phones. Item: Turning an entire paradigm on its head, an international group of researchers has figured out how to implement cloud computing's most widely-used algorithm, one that's usually deployed in giant, hugely-powerful server farms, on a couple of dozen cell phones.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
Breakthrough gene therapy prevents retinal degeneration Item: A study from researchers at Tufts University demonstrates that nonviral gene therapy can delay the onset of some forms of eye disease and preserve vision. The team developed nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic genes to the retina and found that treated mice temporarily retained more eyesight than controls. The study brings researchers closer to a nonviral gene therapy treatment for degenerative eye disorders.

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
Using bone marrow stem cells to treat critically ill patients on verge of respiratory failure. Item: Researchers are reporting new evidence of the therapeutic potential of stem cells derived from bone marrow for patients suffering from acute lung injury, one of the most common causes of respiratory failure in intensive care units. "We found that these stem cells secreted a significant quantity of a protein that restored the barrier that keeps fluid and other elements out of the lungs," said Jae W. Lee at the Cardiovascular Research Institute of the University of California, San Francisco. "We're optimistic about the promise that future clinical trials may hold."

8/30/2010 PERMALINK
UCLA scientists map all mammalian gene interactions. Item: In one of the first efforts of its kind, UCLA researchers have taken mammalian genome maps, including human maps, one step further by showing not just the order in which genes fall in the genome but which genes actually interact. The findings will help researchers better understand which genes work together and shed light on how they collaborate to help cells thrive or die.