In the first presidential debate of this election, held recently in Denver, the court of popular opinion tagged Republican candidate Mitt Romney as the decisive winner.
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Monthly Archives: October 2012
Health care future hinges on presidential vote
The signature achievement of President Barack Obamas term could be out the door if Mitt Romney wins in November, but the debate over the future of health care in America will continue and possibly dominate the next term no matter who gets elected.
The candidates competing visions could scarcely be more dissimilar, even though Obamas Affordable Care Act was closely modeled after the health care plan Romney signed into law while governor of Massachusetts.
If President Barack Obama wins re-election, he can be expected to fully phase in the 2010 law which is designed to extend health coverage to millions of Americans without insurance. And he likely will retain the basic structures of Medicare and Medicaid, the Great Society programs that provide health coverage to the elderly and the poor respectively.
Should Romney win the presidency, count him on him to try to repeal the 2010 law which has earned the nickname Obamacare, while launching a sweeping transformation of Medicare and Medicaid.
The competing roads on dealing with the millions of Americans without health insurance while simultaneously trying to restrain the growth of federal health programs has been a dominant dispute in a testy presidential race that is sure to get testier in the coming weeks.
During the first presidential debate this month in Denver, Obama complained that Romney wants to replace the 2010 health law but he hasnt described what exactly wed replace it with other than saying were going to leave it to the states.
By contrast, Romney argues that the health law has discouraged small companies from hiring people. During the same debate, he assailed Obama for spending his energy and passion during his first two years in office fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people. It has killed jobs.
No matter who wins the election, the grim reality of Americas health care system is not going to vanish. Even under Obamas health law, as many as 20 million Americans will still lack health coverage. If Romney either persuades Congress to repeal the law or allows states to ignore it, some predict that the number of uninsured people could climb to nearly 50 million.
In addition, the crushing costs borne by the federal government to finance Medicare and Medicaid only will grow more burdensome. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that combined federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid will increase from $822 billion this year to more than $1.6 trillion by 2022.
By contrast, the CBO calculates that by 2022, the government will spend just $647 billion on domestic discretionary programs such as housing, education, and transportation. In essence, the government will be devoting more financial resources to the elderly as opposed to the young.
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Live review: David Byrne & St. Vincent spellbinding at Segerstrom Center stunner
David Byrne & St. Vincent plus horns in Costa Mesa. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register. Click for more.
You certainly notice right away the multitude of horns that punch up Love This Giant, the dizzying new result of a slow-soldered mind-meld between legendary innovator David Byrne and experimental upstart Annie Clark, who does business as St. Vincent. The expansive brass band gathered for the duos project announces itself from the get-go with introductory single Who, spitting forth the first of an array of squiggly riffs that 45 minutes later has run the gamut from heady Afropop and feverish JBs funk to mood-yoking motifs la Gil Evans.
Yet regardless of how dominant they may seem on record and even more so when you witness Byrne & Clark & Co. in concert, like their superb performance Friday night at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, which replayed tonight at the Greek Theatre you can just as easily get caught up by how the albums other forces sinuously helix with those horns into one multifaceted strand.
Those forces, to be exact: 1) Byrne, that restless musicologist, never less than intriguing since parting from Talking Heads at the end of the 80s, yet whose imagistic, philosophizing pop has rarely been so sublime and stately as it has been lately. 2) Clark, the curly-haired wisp from Manhattan, who via three remarkable St. Vincent discs (Marry Me, Actor and Strange Mercy) has emerged as one of todays most inventive and important new talents. And 3) drum programmer John Congleton, whose various stuttered patterns prove essential to making this synthesis so smooth.
Byrne (60) and Clark (30) are naturals together, like an eccentric, visionary godfather and his eclectic, virtuoso niece. You can feel their creative camaraderie even in Love This Giants iciest moments, but it was even more palpable in the gracious glances and gestures they gave one another inside the opulent Rene and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, a three-tiered jewel rarely used for amplified performances like this. Their voices are such a perfect blend of chilly and warm, futurism and earthiness, its a wonder they arent biologically related.
But Congletons beats, every bit as textured and syncopated as the adorning horns he helps propel, provides just as much punctuation to these organically developed tales of nature vs. technology, inner peace vs. outer cataclysm. Byrne believes every strain of it intertwines into something distinctly new. I think he might be right.
Whats arguably even more daring an enterprise, however, is what he and Clark achieve with this fusion on stage and with almost entirely different musicians from those who appear on the album.
Though its a minimalist, somewhat black-and-white night filled with stark shadows and martial choreography, people keep coming out of performances with minds blown because they dont often see such invigorating imagination at work, even in these supposedly more sophisticated times of so many other duos (the xx, the Kills, Sleigh Bells, Crystal Castles) concocting engulfing sounds out of sparse situations.
This, though, is an altogether more hypnotic experience, not least because of the mesmerizing eight-piece brass and woodwind ensemble that powers the group with layers of sweetly cacophonous trombone and alto sax, effective interjections of French horn and flugelhorn, all anchored by some of the heartiest Sousaphone blowing outside of New Orleans. Theres no electric bass involved, just those impressive horns, a keyboardist and drummer kept clear to the corners, and whatever guitars are added by Byrne (usually on acoustic) and Clark, whose shards of frantic, distorted leads on her Gibson SG are becoming a signature all their own.
Hello, people of Orange, Byrne deadpanned at the outset of what I believe is his first appearance in O.C. since his 1997 tour behind his fourth post-Heads effort Feelings, which played San Juan Capistranos Coach House.
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Live review: David Byrne & St. Vincent spellbinding at Segerstrom Center stunner
S.F. nudists say it's about the freedom
A recent Tuesday, 2:24 p.m.: The "naked guys" who hang out at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro district have gotten a lot of attention since Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed legislation that would require them to put clothes on or be fined.
Opinions have been voiced. Stories have been written. Now, everybody knows how awful some find it to see naked people in the Castro - but what do the nudists think?
To find out, I decided to conduct a nudist fashion shoot of sorts. A casting call was made on a sunny afternoon in the plaza at the corner of Castro and Market streets. The only requirement was that participants give me an honest response to Wiener's proposed legislation - and, of course, agree to be photographed for all the world to see in the pages of The Chronicle.
Nine people showed without any clothes, four of them women, and only one had second thoughts about being photographed.
Wiener's proposal "is turning us into criminals, and it's criminalizing the human body," said Woody Miller, 54, a waiter working on his master's degree in history at San Francisco State who moved to the city in 1982 from Lancaster, Pa. "I think San Francisco has always been a place that has drawn people who've wanted to reimagine themselves.
"Very rarely do people ask me why I do this," Miller said. "I like the way it feels. I like the feel of the sun and air on my skin. I think it puts me closer in contact with who I am.
"A lot of people say we are too fat, too old, too hairy. But I consider my body to be a record of my lived experiences," Miller said, noting a dramatic scar from a heart operation that plunges down his chest and ends in a dimpled cross just above his abdomen.
Pete Sferra, 57, of San Jose locked arms with his wife, Laura Vaughn, 59. They smiled, wearing only their shoes and wedding bands.
"San Francisco sets the bar for tolerance of alternative lifestyles of all kinds," said Sferra, a technical writer at a large company in Silicon Valley. "The myth is that we're all sex-crazed. I'd like others to know that we're normal people.
"I'm very comfortable being nude," Sferra said. "There is nothing sexual about it. It's not really a statement; it's about comfort. ... It's about freedom, which is what San Francisco is about."
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Frank Denton: Freedom of speech versus fatwa
The irony was blatant and disheartening and sad, but perhaps with a lesson for us.
On a London holiday last weekend, I took advantage of a walk somewhere else to cut between Westminster Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament, just for the experience.
What I actually found was a fiery, though mostly peaceful, demonstration of several hundred Muslims against the dumb, 13-minute anti-Islam Innocence of Muslims video that has provoked riots in Muslim countries around the world, with more than 50 deaths, as well as a fatwa against the filmmaker.
But this was in the very heart of one of the worlds great democracies, literally in the shadow of the House of Commons, where there is the renowned Question Time and the traditional exchange of shouted challenges and insults over public policies.
Yet one of the signs carried by some demonstrators said: Freedom of speech is not freedom to abuse.
Yes it is.
In the United Kingdom, the U.S. and democracies around the world, freedom of speech is the freedom to say almost anything (excepting the fire-in-the-theatre clear and present danger) with the democratic belief that such unfettered debate ultimately will produce the best understanding, ideas, solutions and outcomes.
Those protestors in Parliament Square raging against freedom of speech were enjoying the protection of British democracy. Hopefully, the religious zeal-fueled irony was not lost on the most thoughtful among them.
But the headlines and TV reports, of course, have been mostly about the least thoughtful, the angry, violent and hate-filled minority of Muslims in Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and some other Muslim and Arab countries.
Minority, you ask? These mobs?
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Freedom ties Liberty 1-1 but wins division title
Just moments after his Liberty boys soccer team tied Bethlehem rival Freedom 1-1 on Thursday night at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium, Hurricanes coach Jason Horvath received the score of the Nazareth-Northampton match.
It was not good news for Horvath and Liberty.
Northampton edged Nazareth 2-1 Thursday night, meaning the Konkrete Kids earned the Lehigh Valley Conference's wild-card berth and No. 4 seed for next week's conference tournament.
Liberty and Northampton both finished 8-4-2 in LVC action, but Northampton claimed the playoff spot over Liberty thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. The K-Kids defeated the Hurricanes 2-0 on Oct. 1.
"We wanted to control our own destiny, of course," Horvath said. "And we could've done that by winning. But we're not in the conference playoffs and now we need to focus on the District 11 tournament."
On Freedom's side, the double-overtime tie was terrific news. Rookie coach Michael O'Connell's Patriots completed an extremely successful turnaround (regular) season. Freedom is now 11-5-2 overall and 10-3-1 in the LVC, one year after finishing with a 4-13-1 record.
Freedom clinched the East Division title with Thursday's tie.
"This was a playoff-type environment and that's how I wanted our kids to treat it," said O'Connell, a longtime assistant coach at Lehigh University. "I thought we started slow but I'm proud of the way our kids responded down 1-0."
North Division champion Parkland will be the top seed and play Northampton on Tuesday at Whitehall High School in the LVC semifinals. Second-seeded Emmaus, the West Division champion, meets Freedom at J. Birney Crum Stadium in the other conference semifinal set for Tuesday. Both matches start at 5:30 p.m.
Liberty scored the first goal of the match on Senior Night with 14:13 remaining in the first half. Tresor Butoyi drilled a shot into the back of the net off a pass from Colin Muller.
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In defense of academic freedom
In August 2009, an Israeli academic and political activist by the name of Neve Gordon published an Op-Ed article in the Los Angeles Times in which he reluctantly called for a gradual international boycott against his own nation. Gordon felt that such dramatic action was required to overcome the deep structural inequities between Jews and Arabs in Israeli society and the occupied territories, and to force the government back toward the goal of a two-state solution.
Three years later, Gordon's academic home, the Department of Politics and Government of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is on the verge of being closed down by the Israeli Council for Higher Education, a highly unusual act in Israel. It is hard not to draw a direct line between Gordon's call for a boycott and the council's impending decision on Oct. 23.
A committee appointed by the council in 2010 to review all political science departments in Israeli universities arrived at a rather discordant set of conclusions regarding the department at BGU. On one hand, it made suggestions that one often finds in external reviews of university departments, proposing curricular changes, a more coherent undergraduate program and three to four additional faculty hires.
But the committee also trained its attention on the "community activism" of the department's members, many of whom, like Gordon, are highly critical of Israeli government policy. Following that, it made a vaguely articulated call for "a balance of views in the curriculum and the classroom." If changes were not made, the committee opined, "Ben-Gurion University should consider closing the Department of Politics and Government."
In fact, changes were made, to the satisfaction of the committee chair. But the Council for Higher Education appointed another committee that persists in recommending that the department be essentially closed down.
Why should this matter to us? First, academic freedom by which I mean not an approved set of pro/con views but rather tolerance in and outside the classroom for diverse perspectives argued logically and respectfully is an important foundation of democracy in the United States, in Israel and around the world.
Second, we in California are familiar with attempts to set limits on academic freedom. Over the last decade, self-anointed guardians of academic freedom have attempted to upend it by insisting on balance in university courses or on limitations on the right of free speech by faculty members and students. The most recent attempt is House Resolution 35, which was passed in the Assembly in August. This "nonbinding" resolution urged California's state universities to combat anti-Semitism on campus. That sounds good, but as framed, it could have the effect of censoring views critical of Israeli policy.
Efforts to infringe on academic freedom have deep roots in the state. At the dawn of the McCarthy era, California mandated that public employees, including UC professors, sign a loyalty oath requiring them to forswear any allegiance to the Communist Party. Famously, in 1949 the German-born medieval historian Ernst Kantorowicz refused to sign such an oath, though he was hardly a communist. Kantorowicz's grounding as a medievalist and his experience as a person of Jewish origin in Nazi Germany led him to conclude that "history shows that it never pays to yield to the impact of momentary hysteria, or to jeopardize, for the sake of temporary or temporal advantages, the permanent or eternal values."
The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the importance of academic freedom in its 1967 Keyishian vs. Board of Regents decision, which overturned a New York law that required teachers to sign a loyalty oath: "Our nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom."
It is this very principle that is under siege in Israel. The country's universities, including Ben-Gurion, are internationally renowned for their research prowess and scholarly excellence. They aspire to be cutting-edge centers of research and teaching; to succeed in this task requires openness to a wide and diverse range of opinions, hypotheses and methods. But with the threat to close down the BGU department, that ideal is under assault by the very body entrusted with upholding it.
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Freedom blows out 3rd straight opponent as Burgess surpasses 3,000 yards
Credit: James Lynch Jr. | The News Herald
Freedom defensive lineman Javairius Bennett (85) chases the East Rutherford quarterback out of the pocket and forces an interception in Friday's 42-14 win.
Freedoms gameplan was to control the clock while churning the ball via the rush. The Patriots accomplished that, galloping for 351 yards rushing en route to a 42-14 South Mountain 2A/3A Conference home triumph against East Rutherford on Friday.
We knew that they were a really good team only losing to Burns by five points, said Freedom coach Mike Helms. I thought this was one of the top three teams we have played up to this point. That is a credit to us. We played really well.
Freedom (7-2, 3-1) utilized the ground attack 52 times (80 percent) compared to 13 plays through the air. Running back David Burgess rushed 25 times for 206 yards and a touchdown, the sixth time this season hes gone for more than 200 all-purpose yards.
The senior standout also eclipsed the 3,000-yard barrier on the ground and now has 3,179 yards rushing in his three-year varsity career. This fall alone, hes at 195 carries for 1,736 yards (8.9 yards per carry)and 20 TDs.
Senior quarterback Shawn Fairchild completed 10 of 13 passes for 84 yards while also rushing 13 times for 46 yards and two touchdowns.
We were looking to come out and set the tone. I think we had a good gameplan coming in. The offensive line did a very good job, said Fairchild. We worked well around (East Rutherfords) blitzing. Coach Helms did a very good job of changing around the play calls. We had a lot of success with the read in the second half, which allowed us to run the ball well.
Freedom junior speedster Khris Gardin returned the opening kickoff 83 yards for a score. The wideout also caught eight passes for 76 yards. ERs first possession was stopped when Patriot linebacker Cameron Storie picked off an Austin Hollifield pass at the Cavs 42. Freedom then put together a seven-play, 42-yard drive capped by Fairchilds 1-yard TD run.
ER (4-5, 2-2) produced a touchdown on a 39-yard pass from Hollifield to Lovell Robinson to make it 14-7, then moved near midfield on the potential tying drive in the second period before Freedoms James Caldwell returned an interception 30 yards inside the red zone. Chris Bridges pounded home a 9-yard run to put the Pats back on top by two scores.
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Freedom blows out 3rd straight opponent as Burgess surpasses 3,000 yards
Bud Wright: Hang in there — it will all be over soon
As I was growing to maturity (OK, that ones debatable) the most subversive influence on Americas youth was MAD magazine. If you are a card-carrying Baby Boomer (and these days its an AARP card) then you harbor fond memories of Alfred E. Neuman (what ... me worry?), cartoonist Don Martins grotesquely comical creations and Spy vs. Spy.
This little slice of cultural chaos was a little pricey (50 cents ... cheap) so for me it was an occasional indulgence. But whenever I could scrounge up the four bits it made for a blissful afternoons lampooning of societal norms when that was far from common.
What made MAD special was the way it took ordinary facets of American life and turned them inside out. Generally speaking, it was stuff that otherwise went unexamined.
I still remember one parody from the early 60s wherein a reporter interviewed a pot-bellied cop who was a proud member of the John Birch Society. It was howlingly funny and enlightening. There were equally lacerating spoofs of the counterculture. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter once observed that MAD was ready to pounce on the illogical, hypocritical, self-serious and ludicrous.
Where is MAD when we need it? Oh, its still around but it no longer enjoys the cultural cachet it once did.
All of the following tidbits were found circulating about the inter-web. None were prominently reported in the mainstream media. They were not reported at all in the right-wing media. Thats because the media doesnt care, our politicians prevaricate and we-the-people disregard anything that gets in the way of our preconceived, predigested perceptions.
This week, Mitt Romney (who is vowing to repeal Obamacare which is the mirror-image of the health care bill Mitt himself pushed for and signed into law as governor of Massachusetts) stated that; We dont have people who die in their apartment because they dont have insurance.
Estimates vary, but even the most conservative guesstimate is that between 30 and 50 thousand people die each year in this country as a direct result of being uninsured. The most despicable aspect of Mitts remark is that he knows this. We often yearn for a cure for death by cancer. We could cure death by apathy with the stroke of a pen.
Republican Wisconsin state Rep. Roger Rivard made the observation, this week, that; Some girls rape easy. He was affectionately quoting his father. The point he was attempting to make is that rape is very often a simple case of buyers remorse. Did you ever wonder how ignorance and bigotry propagate so easily? Children are empty vessels and it is parents who fill them.
Former Republican Arkansas state Rep. Charlie Fuqua (who is running again) has called for the forced sterilization of negligent parents. Actually, we did have a brush with eugenics back in the early decades of the 20th century. Its one of the uglier chapters in our history.
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Poor investment climate hurting Bengal, says Ronen Sen
Kolkata, Oct 13:
Former Indian Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, said on Saturday that the lack of an eco-system is hindering West Bengals prospects in attracting investment. He was also critical of the Mamata Banerjee-led State Governments opposition to the Teesta water treaty.
Over the last one decade, I failed to find people who are interested to focus in Bengal. I honestly believe there is a very good potential in terms of skills in the State. But, everywhere there is a lack of eco-system, Sen said.
He was speaking at a panel discussion on the public private partnership model organised by the Kolkata Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce.
According to Sen, absence of domestic investments in the State will make it an uphill task to attract foreign investors. The prolonged lack of investment is likely to lead to a situation where the States demographic dividend will turn out to be a demographic disaster.
If domestic investors are not coming to West Bengal, no foreign investors will be interested, he said.
Criticising the State Governments opposition to the signing of the Teesta Water Treaty with Bangladesh, the former diplomat said, the treaty could have improved the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and India.
A transit-connectivity between the two countries is held up because of the Teesta Water Treaty, Sen added.
On the recent measures to attract FDI in multi-brand retail, aviation and insurance, Sen said, It is positive if you have some consensus. Unless we get our economy moving, our security is going to be affected. We should make decisions.
Responding to popular concerns he said, When foreign companies come to India through the foreign direct investment route, they are not going to replicate their business models in India.
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Clock ticking on federal funding for beach renourishment
By Sheila Mullane Estrada, Times Correspondent Sheila Mullane EstradaTampa Bay Times In Print: Sunday, October 14, 2012
TREASURE ISLAND
Residents here and in other beach towns have gotten used to the idea that every few years, federal taxpayers will cough up the money to renourish the beaches. It's an understanding between the federal and local governments that may not go on for much longer.
In seven years, Treasure Island's eroding beaches won't get any new sand unless Congress reauthorizes the city's 50-year-old beach renourishment program, set to expire in 2019.
City and county officials are working to make sure that does not happen.
Treasure Island is the second city in the country to be affected by the sunsetting of the federal beach renourishment program that began in the 1960s.
The first beach project, in Carolina Beach, N.C., will run out in 2015 and is expected to be a test case for what could happen in Florida.
Other Pinellas County beaches have more time before their beach renourishment could end.
Funding authorization for renourishment for St. Pete Beach will run out in 2030. Sand Key, encompassing beach cities from Madeira Beach north to Clearwater, will continue to be eligible through 2043.
Treasure Island received its first beach nourishment in 1969 and since then has been renourished 14 times, according to county records.
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Captains corner: Shallow grass flats, beaches are active areas
By Rob Gorta, Times Correspondent Rob GortaTampa Bay Times In Print: Sunday, October 14, 2012
What's hot: The beaches are covered with baitfish such as threadfin herring and scaled sardines. Spanish mackerel, kingfish, cobia, bonito, sharks and jack crevalles are the prominent species on the prowl. Large redfish schools continue to invade shallow-water flats in search of crustaceans. Pinellas Point has several schools in the area. Seatrout, one of the easiest species to catch, are starting to show up everywhere on the grass flats with the cooler water.
Tactics: Slow-trolling threadfin herring off the beaches will entice all of the pelagic species. I start by locating schools of baitfish less than a mile from the beach and deploy baits on a light drag setting using light wire to prevent cutoffs from toothy fish. Stone crab season is also here, so keep an eye out for tripletail hanging out right next to the crab pots.
Tips: Redfish have been tailing on the low tides. I use a small piece of cut bait when targeting tailing reds; it lands softly and is one of the best presentations in shallow water. The east winds have made ideal conditions for drifting the flats for trout. A popping cork with a scaled sardine is one of my favorite presentations. This combination is deadly for trout and will produce lots of fish when drifting over grass flats.
Rob Gorta charters out of St. Petersburg. Call him at (727) 647-7606 or visit captainrobgorta.com.
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Captains corner: Shallow grass flats, beaches are active areas
Iran mass producing over 35 nano-tech laboratory equipments
Source: ISNA, Tehran
According to The Secretary of Iran's Nanotechnology Initiative Council, Saeed Sarkar, Iran has been mass producing more than 35 types of nanotechnology laboratory equipments designed and made by Iranian researchers.
Iran's Nanotechnology Initiative Council Iran Nano 2012 was held October 4-8 in in Tehran
In an interview with ISNA, Sarkar, stressing on lack of laboratory equipments as one of the barriers of technology development, stated, Western countries had presumed that by imposing sanctions against Iran they are able to prevent it from developing the new technology, but the Nanotechnology Initiative Council identified the necessary advanced equipments and planed for their production in order to overcome the obstacles.
Iran currently stands at the 9th place in international ranking of nanoscience and technology production, the Secretary of Iran's Nanotechnology Initiative Council said and added, the country has succeeded in design and mass production of more than 35 kinds of advanced nanotechnology devices.
Various Iranian industries including laboratory equipments, antibacterial strings, power station filters and construction industries have employed domestic nanotechnology productions.
... Payvand News - 10/13/12 ... --
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Iran mass producing over 35 nano-tech laboratory equipments
Why stem-cell science thrives in Japan
Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012
It's easy to take for granted the epic scale of what some scientists are attempting these days. When the news broke a couple of weeks ago that Japanese scientists had turned normal cells from a mouse into eggs, and then fertilized them and seen them develop into baby mice, I thought it was pretty cool.
But I wasn't that surprised.
I knew that Katsuhiko Hayashi one of the scientists involved was doing fascinating research on stem cells at Kyoto University, and so this seemed a natural progression for his work to take.
Then I spoke to him and his boss. What they said reminded me that they are attempting to do something that, until recently, would have blown the mind of almost any scientist, philosopher or other kind of intellectual there's ever been throughout the whole of human history.
Mitinori Saitou, who is head of Hayashi's lab at the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in the Graduate School of Medicine, was highly ambitious from an early age, and became particularly focused when he was doing his PhD as a young man.
"I got interested in germ-cell biology and the regulation of the cell fates," he told me, "hoping that one day it may be possible to develop a methodology to control cellular fate at will."
To control fate: It's like something out of a Greek myth.
Hayashi too has long been interested in pushing the boundaries of human reproduction. "When I was child, there was news about animal cloning," he told me. "That was one reason why I got interested in this field."
The atmosphere for research in Japan allows ambitions such as these to flourish.
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Why stem-cell science thrives in Japan
Chemistry Nobel Prize Could Lead to Drugs with Fewer Side Effects
Two US researchers have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering and mapping a key mechanism used by cells to detect and respond to the presence of hormones and other chemicals they encounter, a mechanism seen as vital to the pharmaceutical industry's development of new drugs.
The prize, which carries an 8 million krona ($1.2 million US) purse, was given to Robert Lefkowitz of Duke University in Durham, N.C., and the Maryland-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and to Brian Kobilka of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
The two were awarded for work on a family of proteins embedded in cell walls that detect the presence of a hormone such as adrenaline outside a cell, then conduct that information through the cell wall to a protein switch inside that touches off a cell's response.
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The cellular sensors, dubbed G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), help coordinate "an orchestrated response from billions of individual cells that make up our bodies" as the cells respond to an outside stimulus, said Sven Lindin, chairman of the committee awarding the chemistry prize. One such stimulus: the startling, raucous appearance of a ghoul at a Halloween haunted house.
The receptors have become prime targets for new drugs to treat a range of diseases, he added at a press conference on Wednesday announcing the award. By some estimates, roughly half of all the drugs used today rely on GCPRs as pathways for affecting the cells of interest. Armed with a knowledge of the receptor molecule's unique pattern of folds when it's triggered, he adds, pharmaceutical companies are working to develop new drugs that have fewer side effects.
The notion that cells must have some mechanism for sensing their environment emerged toward the end of the 1800s, researchers say, but no one succeeded in identifying the sensors cells use.
Indeed, "when I started doing my work 40 years ago, there was still huge skepticism as to whether things like receptors really existed even from some people who were central in pharmacology," said Dr. Lefkowitz in an interview for Nobel.org.
He found receptors by adding tiny quantities of radioactive iodine to a hormone. Once the hormone bound itself to receptors, Lefkowitz and his team could pinpoint them.
In the meantime, other researchers were trying to identify the molecular switch that triggers a cell's response once it sensed a change in the environment outside the cell. Indeed, two other American biochemists shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1994 for uncovering that internal switch, known as a G protein.
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Chemistry Nobel Prize Could Lead to Drugs with Fewer Side Effects
For lab chemist Annie Dookhan, an unlikely road to scandal
BOSTON As a girl and young woman, Annie Dookhan was quiet, unassuming, not one to wear makeup. She was charming but stood out more for her dedication to her studies, and by all accounts appeared headed for success.
The only child of hard-working immigrant parents, she enjoyed their pride as she glided through a prestigious Boston prep school, graduated from college with a degree in biochemistry and appeared headed for medical school.
Now, as she takes center stage in a shocking scandal that has sent the Massachusetts legal system into a tailspin, those familiar with her from school and work are struggling to reconcile the Annie Dookhan they knew with the chemist accused of falsifying criminal drug tests.
"I find it hard to believe that she was an individual who decided to falsify lab results ... that she would turn into someone who did something like that. ... That isnt the person I remember," said John Warner, an instructor who gave her As and A-minuses in 2000 when she took his biochemistry class as a senior at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
"Obviously, things can happen to people," he said. "Either something happened in her life that changed the person that she is, or this is a deeper story."
Dookhans struggle with both personal and professional problems in 2009 including a miscarriage and a legal ruling that put new pressures on chemists at the lab may help offer an explanation, one former co-worker said.
"Perhaps she was trying to be important by being the go-to person," Elizabeth OBrien told state police, who shut down the lab in August after discovering the extent of Dookhans alleged mishandling of drug samples sent to the lab by local police departments.
In her own interview with police, Dookhan said she had not tested all the drugs she claimed she did, forged initials of her co-workers, and sometimes mixed drug samples to cover her tracks.
"I messed up bad; its my fault. I dont want the lab to get in trouble," she said, according to a state police report.
She faces as many as 20 years in prison on obstruction of justice charges. More than two dozen drug defendants are already back on the streets as authorities scramble to figure out how to handle the cases of more than 1,100 inmates whose cases Dookhan handled.
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For lab chemist Annie Dookhan, an unlikely road to scandal
Those Who Knew Dookhan ‘Shocked’ By State Drug Lab Scandal
BOSTON (AP) As a girl and young woman, Annie Dookhan was quiet, unassuming, not one to wear makeup. She was charming but stood out more for her dedication to her studies, and by all accounts appeared headed for success.
The only child of hard-working immigrant parents, she enjoyed their pride as she glided through a prestigious Boston prep school, graduated from college with a degree in biochemistry and appeared headed for medical school.
Now, as she takes center stage in a shocking scandal that has sent the Massachusetts legal system into a tailspin, those familiar with her from school and work are struggling to reconcile the Annie Dookhan they knew with the chemist accused of falsifying criminal drug tests.
I find it hard to believe that she was an individual who decided to falsify lab results that she would turn into someone who did something like that. That isnt the person I remember, said John Warner, an instructor who gave her As and A-minuses in 2000 when she took his biochemistry class as a senior at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Obviously, things can happen to people, he said. Either something happened in her life that changed the person that she is, or this is a deeper story.
Dookhans struggle with both personal and professional problems in 2009 including a miscarriage and a legal ruling that put new pressures on chemists at the lab may help offer an explanation, one former co-worker said.
Perhaps she was trying to be important by being the go-to person, Elizabeth OBrien told state police, who shut down the lab in August after discovering the extent of Dookhans alleged mishandling of drug samples sent to the lab by local police departments.
In her own interview with police, Dookhan said she had not tested all the drugs she claimed she did, forged initials of her co-workers, and sometimes mixed drug samples to cover her tracks.
I messed up bad; its my fault. I dont want the lab to get in trouble, she said, according to a state police report.
She faces as many as 20 years in prison on obstruction of justice charges. More than two dozen drug defendants are already back on the streets as authorities scramble to figure out how to handle the cases of more than 1,100 inmates whose cases Dookhan handled.
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Those Who Knew Dookhan ‘Shocked’ By State Drug Lab Scandal
Santa Muerte, San la Muerte and The Fascinating History of Death Personified in Latin America
I took the photos you see above over a series of trips to Los Angeles to document the fascinating phenomonon of Santa Muerte, a sacred figure worshipped as part of the larger pantheon of Catholic saints in Mexico and now also, with the wave of Mexican migrants, in the United States as well. Thought to have its roots in a syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics, the name literally means "Holy Death" or "Saint Death," and she--also fondly referred to as "The Skinny Lady--tends to be worshipped by disenfranchised members of society such as criminals, prostitutes, transvestites, the very poor, and other people for whom conventional Catholicism has not provided a better or safer life.
Doing some research into the matter, I recently stumbled upon Frank Graziano's Cultures of Devotion: Folk Saints of Spanish America, which offers fascinating insight into the genesis of both Santa Muerte and the very similar San La Muerte tradition, which developed independently from a similar native/Catholic syncretism in other areas of Latin America; I also would give anything to see one of the bizarre theatrical productions described below:
In the Jesuit missions, the publication of many books included, in 1705, a translation of Juan Eusebio Nieremberg's De la Diferencia Entre lo Temporal y Eterno. Among the engravings in the book was one of a triumphant personified death, holding a sickle (a variation on the scythe) in one and and an hourglass in the other. Death as a skeleton also appears in another image, which was likewise copied from a European original.
These engravings document the presence of the Grim Reaper in the missions, but more important in folk culture were theatrical productions staged by the Jesuits for the Guaranís' religious instruction. The performances often included Christ's resurrection, with props of skulls and bones and with the Grim Reaper in the supporting cast for dramatization of Christ's triumph over death. Such performances contributed to fixing the personified image of death within a religious context.
Almost all the artists in Jesuit missions were Guaranís who were trained by Europeans. These indigenous carvers of saints thought of their work more religiously than artistically: "Image-makers quite literally believed that they were making saints and gods." This observation is particularly suggestive in the context of San La Muerte, whose traditionalal carvers were likewise creating, not representing, a supernatural power. For the Guaraní mission artists, "The reality of things was not expressed by imitating their visual appearance, as in European art, but by capturing their essence." The imagery, including the image of death personified, was adopted from European traditions and then invested with this "essence." The carvings transcend mere representation and become empowered in themselves like amulets.
All of this also brings to mind the wonderful 18th century book La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte (The Astounding Life of Death); more on that here.
All photos you see above are from my trips to Los Angeles to document the Santa Muerta phenomenon; for more, click here to see my complete Flickr set.
Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/santa-muerte-and-history-of-death.html
Holiday Mate Welcomes Turkey World Travel Awards News
The No.1 Turkey Holiday specialist team has welcomed the recent news that The Turkish Ministry of Culture & Tourism has been named Europes Leading Tourist Board at the World Travel Awards 2012.
(PRWEB) October 13, 2012
The hot off the press new is great news for the online Turkey holiday specialist who has been offering fantastic and affordable holidays to Turkey for over 12 years.
A Holiday Mate spokesperson said: Our team were thrilled to hear the news that Turkey has won this prestigious travel award during a year which has seen a number of awards for Turkey and masses of press coverage.
The recent spate of success that Turkey has commanded was also marked this year when Istanbul was cited as the European Capital of Sport and when the city became one of three short-listed cities for the 2020 Olympics.
Online bookings for 2013 holidays to Turkey will no doubt soar in the wake of all of this recent positive press coverage of Turkey. Customers can shop online and book family holidays to Turkey in a matter minutes on the Holiday Mate website at http://www.holidaymate.com
The website is very easy to use and shoppers can even set their preferred budget. The online specialist also offers great advice on resorts and detailed descriptions of hotels set in stunning sun drenched locations both online and through its professional team of holiday specialists.
2012 saw thousands of holidaymakers flocking to stay in affordable hotels in Marmaris. Holiday Mate is no one trick pony either; they offer their customers a chance to book all their holiday requirements in one place. Flights, transfers and even weddings can all be arranged from the comfort of an armchair or with a few taps on a smartphone!
Turkey is one the fastest developing tourist destinations in the world, now ranking sixth in terms of number of foreign arrivals, with a total of 31.4 million foreign visitors in 2011.
As a holiday destination with universal appeal, Turkey combines fascinating culture and culinary delights with great weather, stunning scenery and warm hospitality.
Excerpt from:
Stem-cell transplant claims debunked
Hisashi Moriguchi presented his work at the New York Stem Cell Foundation meeting this week.
AP/Press Association
From the beginning, it seemed too good to be true. Days after Kyoto University biologist Shinya Yamanaka won a Nobel prize for his 2006 discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (see 'Cell rewind wins medicine Nobel'), Hisashi Moriguchi a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo claimed to have modified that technology to treat a person with terminal heart failure. Eight months after surgical treatment in February, said a front-page splash in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun yesterday, the patient was healthy.
But after being alerted to the story by Nature, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where Moriguchi claimed to have done the work, denied that the procedure had taken place. No clinical trials related to Dr Moriguchi's work have been approved by institutional review boards at either Harvard University or MGH, wrote David Cameron, a spokesman for Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. The work he is reporting was not done at MGH, says Ryan Donovan, a public-affairs official at MGH, also in Boston.
A video clip posted online by the Nippon News Network and subsequently removed showed Moriguchi presenting his research at the New York Stem Cell Foundation meeting this week.
If true, Moriguchis feat would have catapulted iPS cells into use in a wide range of clinical situations, years ahead of most specialists' predictions. I hope this therapy is realized in Japan as soon as possible, the head of a Tokyo-based organization devoted to helping children with heart problems told Yomiuri Shimbun.
But there were reasons to be suspicious. Moriguchi said he had invented a method to reprogram cells using just two chemicals: microRNA-145 inhibitor and TGF- ligand1. But Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a stem-cell researcher at the University of Tokyo, says that he has never heard of success with that method. He adds that he had also never heard of Moriguchi before this week.
Moriguchi also said that the cells could be differentiated into cardiac cells using a 'supercooling' method that he had invented. Thats another weird thing, says Nakauchi.
The article in which Moriguchi presented his two-chemical method, published in a book1 describing advances in stem-cell research, includes paragraphs copied almost verbatim from other papers. The section headed 2.3 Western blotting, for example, is identical to a passage from a 2007 paper by Yamanaka2. Section 2.1.1, in which Moriguchi describes human liver biopsies, matches the number of patients and timing of specimen extractions described in an earlier article3, although the name of the institution has been changed.
When contacted by Nature, Moriguchi stood by his publication. We are all doing similar things so it makes sense that wed use similar words, he says. He did admit to using other papers as reference.
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