Monthly Archives: May 2010

60,000 Barrels of Oil a Day Into the Atlantic Ocean

Posted on by

PHOTO BY TED JACKSON The M/V Joe Griffin leaves from the Martin Terminal, Port Fouchon loaded with the first of two oil containment cofferdams, headed to sea for a projected 12 hour trip to the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Wednesday, May 5, 2010.

The Worst Environmental Catastrophe in U.S. History

It’s hard to keep up with news on the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but here is some from today.  The oil is now washing up on islands and beaches, and according to news reports tonight, the oil is coating jellyfish and is visible in the water where dolphins were seen swimming.  It only take a tiny amount of oil to kill a bird and other animals in the oceans.  If drilling for oil is threatening life in the oceans, it’s affecting our lives too, so it makes sense to call for a moratorium on all offshore drilling. Just stop it completely.

BP significantly ups oil spill estimate

Steve Gelsi of MarketWatch reports that in a closed-door meeting with Congress, BP officials have significantly raised the estimated leakage from the Oil Spill. Although the earlier number estimated approximately 5,000 barrels of Crude Oil were spewing into the ocean, BP officials now peg the daily output around 60,000 barrels a day. Reports MarketWatch: BP officials said the larger figure represents a worst-case scenario. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the 60,000 barrel…

Reports MarketWatch: “BP officials said the larger figure represents a worst-case scenario. BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the 60,000 barrel figure, which was reported by The New York Times. The official tally remains up to 5,000 barrels a day, he said.

Meanwhile the Obama administration signaled it would support a fresh push in Congress to raise the oil spill liability limit to $10 billion from $75 million, according to reports.

The existing cap on other damages is included in the Oil Pollution Act. BP has already said it is willing and expects to pay more than $74 million.

Amidst recent fears that the oil slick may even reach the coast of Florida, authorities have stepped up efforts to prevent such consequences. . . . “

From Dallas News — The Senate energy committee has summoned executives from BP and Transocean, the company contracted by BP to drill the well, as well as a number of oil industry technical experts, to a hearing next week. The next day, the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing, at which top executives of BP, Transocean and Halliburton have been asked to appear, a committee spokeswoman said.

A separate federal investigation into the explosion [...]

NASA Is Embracing Open Source

Posted on by

Open source is NASA's next frontier, FCW

"The challenges to government's adoption and participation in open-source communities is often thought to be a simpe culture clash, but in reality it goes deeper than that, accordning to NASA's newly-appointed chief technology officer. "The issues that we need to tackle are not only cuture, but beyond culture," said Chris Kemp, formerly chief information officer at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "And I think we need new policy and support from the administration and Congress to help us tackle" them."

NASA Names Chief Technology Officer for IT

"NASA Chief Information Officer Linda Cureton announced Chris C. Kemp as the first NASA Chief Technology Officer, or CTO, for Information Technology, a new position established to lead IT innovation at the space agency."

Benefits and Dangers as Doctors Start to Use Social Media

Posted on by

From Medscape:

"Dr. Choi has more than 3000 Facebook friends, many of whom are patients and colleagues.

But he draws the line at talking about cases with colleagues or sending diagnoses or test results to patients on networking sites. "I can't do any patient care using their messaging or using the site because it's not HIPAA-compliant," Dr. Choi says. "I'll pick up the phone to discuss a case."

Because doctors can be hesitant to share their e-mail addresses -- and regular e-mail is not secure to HIPAA standards -- it's not unheard of for people to find their doctors on Facebook. But the doctors interviewed generally say they avoid making diagnoses or communicating test results over the Internet."

References:

Doctors and Social Media: Benefits and Dangers. Medscape, 2010.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711717

Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook.


Bigelow Steps Up Marketing

Posted on by

Bigelow Marketing Inflatable Space Stations, Aviation Week

"Bigelow envisions governments and corporations making up the bulk of his company's customers. Prices will range from $200 million-$400 million, depending on the number of "seats" that are purchased. He is pitching Bigelow Aerospace's space station as an "affordable alternative" to the International Space Station, which "is controlled by the Russians and the U.S., with another 14 or so countries along for the ride."

Olson and Giffords on Obama’s Plan

Posted on by

US must remain the global leader in exploring space, Rep. Pete Olson, The Hill

"The president does not outline any path for the United States to get out of low earth orbit. A major component, the revised "Orion-lite" proposal, is little more than an opportunity to delay the inevitable layoffs of highly skilled workers across America and does not further our ability as a nation to explore the heavens or get us to the moon, Mars and beyond. It has also been reported as a mechanism to prevent the government from having to pay out costly Constellation cancellation contracts. This is not a strategy for success in human space flight. It turns the capsule designed to be our spacecraft for journeys to the moon into a lifeboat on the International Space Station."

Crisis of purpose for America's space program, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, The Hill

"As conscientious stewards of the American taxpayers dollars, Congress demanded more. In response, the president took the stage last month at Kennedy Space Center and, showing a clear passion for space and a will to compromise, unveiled a new plan. Unfortunately this new plan creates more questions than answers and seems unworkable within the budget without crippling NASAs other missions. We cannot continue to argue between the president's plan and the status quo. There must be a third way."

Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative rising

Posted on by

This evening I want to write about something amazing I recently was able to participate in. It was the first meeting of the Pharmacogenomics Advisory Group. This group, chaired by Issam Zineh is pretty amazing. Let me tell you why.

1. Members of PAG have been involved in pharmacogenomic studies involving most if not all current markers
2. They include members/contributors of PharmGKB, FDA, AAPS award winners, Howard MacLeod, I could go on and on.....and one lowly blogger and clinical personalized medicine specialist.....
3. The group was willing to engage in active criticism of each other and of ideas. That is the key to a great advisory group.

While we see the dropping costs of genotyping going further and further with some quoting a 10k genome by June's end, it is becoming crystal clear that the test is not the product. The test is a razor handle. Seriously. It will be given away free. But the question is, what will we do with it.

Coriell is aiming to answer some of these questions and is engaging in ethical research. Coriell is the cohort study that we will turn as we turn to Framingham. When the next decade closes we will sit back and laugh at how all of the VCs dumped money into supposed 1000 gene tests that gave nearly useless results or results that couldn't be used for what they needed to be used for by Terms of Service......

At the same time, we will see how a sleepy little institution in Camden NJ, known for holding cells became a powerhouse in the Personalized Medicine Movement by holding patient lives and medical data......with a little help from their friends........

The Sherpa Says: If you haven't joined the CPMC, you should. They are climbing the mountain skillfully

ATK: Don’t Worry – Be Happy!

Posted on by

Alliant Sees NASA Revamp Easing, WS Journal

"Alliant Techsystems Inc., potentially the biggest corporate loser in White House proposals to outsource large chunks of U.S. manned space exploration, Thursday sought to signal Wall Street that most of the programs are likely to survive the revamping. Alliant's share of NASA's Constellation program, which accounts for about $400 million of the company's $4.80 billion in fiscal 2010 revenue, will stay at roughly the same level through next March, company officials said. The forecast is surprising given White House's proposal to ax nearly all the program."

ATK Reports Strong FY10 Year-End and Fourth-Quarter Operating Results

"Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.  Among these factors are: assumptions related to the Ares I and Ares V programs for NASA."

NCBI ROFL: How many f**king cuss words are in these sh**ty video games, anyway? | Discoblog

Posted on by

Good clean fun? A content analysis of profanity in video games and its prevalence across game systems and ratings. "Although violent video game content and its effects have been examined extensively by empirical research, verbal aggression in the form of profanity has received less attention. Building on preliminary findings from previous studies, an extensive content analysis of profanity in video games was conducted using a sample of the 150 top-selling video games across all popular game platforms (including home consoles, portable consoles, and personal computers). The frequency of profanity, both in general and across three profanity categories, was measured and compared to games' ratings, sales, and platforms. Generally, profanity was found in about one in five games and appeared primarily in games rated for teenagers or above. Games containing profanity, however, tended to contain it frequently. Profanity was not found to be related to games' sales or platforms." Photo: flickr/marioanima Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Beware of Wii tennis.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Is Mr Pac Man eating our children? A review of the effect of video games on children.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Sex differences in Nintendo Wii performance as expected from hunter-gatherer selection.


The last flight of Atlantis | Bad Astronomy

Posted on by

sts132-patchThe last scheduled flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-132, is scheduled for May 14 at 14:20 EDT (18:20 UT). It will, as usual, bring supplies and spare parts to the space station, as well as Rassvet, a Russian Mini Research Module and docking component.

You can always get more info on the Shuttles at the NASA Shuttle Mission Pages.

I’ll note in passing that the mission commander for this flight is named Ken Ham. Happily, he’s no relation.


Neandertal genome open thread | Gene Expression

Posted on by

My thoughts on the topic are pretty disjointed, and I can’t come up with a post that adds anything to what others have already said. And there’s still the primary documents to digest in full. So I’m going to open this post up to stray thoughts/comments (though try to keep it at least at the level of a Neandertal cognitively). Question: what other human evolution story is of the same order of magnitude in terms of significance? I think the last one of this magnitude was the Cann, et. al. “mitochondrial Eve” narrative of the mid-80s. Before that Lucy?

What Sen. Feinstein Meant To Say Was …

Posted on by

Keith's note: Several Three Four NASA Watch readers sent this email to me today. Looks like someone in Sen. Feinstein's office needs to learn how to use their word processing software a little better. Click on image to enlarge.

Two Three of the people who sent me this email said that they never contacted Sen. Feinstein - in any way - about NASA - or anything else. Looks like GoBoldly's fake emails are still echoing around. The annoying thing about this is that the director of GoBoldly admitted to me that this happened but the organization has not publicly apologized.

Fake Emails - Not A Good Sign (update), earlier post.