Stem cells tested to repair damaged hearts

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Dr. Aidan R. Raney performs a checkup on heart attack patient Mark Athens, 52, on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla. Athens received a stem cell treatment to help his heart recover as part of a clinical trial to determine the treatments safety and effectiveness.

A new stem cell treatment may help heart attack patients do something once thought medically impossible regenerate dead heart muscle.

Scripps Health in La Jolla is one of three centers testing the therapy from Capricor, a Los Angeles biotech company. The cardiac stem cells are meant to boost the hearts natural ability to perform minor repairs. If it works, scars should shrink and functional heart muscle should grow.

Capricor gets the cells from donor hearts, grows them into the amount needed for treatment, then sends them to doctors taking part in what is called the Allstar trial. Doctors inject the cells into the coronary artery, where they are expected to migrate to the heart and encourage muscle regrowth.

The trial has successfully completed Phase 1, which mainly evaluates safety. On Dec. 17, Capricor said it had received permission to begin Phase 2, which will examine efficacy in about 300 patients who will get the treatment or a placebo. More information can be found at clinicaltrials.gov under the identifier NCT01458405.

The Allstar trial is funded with a $19.7 million disease team grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, the states stem cell agency.

This is a highly significant announcement for us at CIRM as its the first time weve funded a therapy into a Phase 2 clinical trial, Chairman Jonathan Thomas said in a Dec. 23 statement.

About 600,000 Americans die of heart disease annually, making it the leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Even those surviving may be left permanently impaired, if the heart is severely damaged. These are the patients Capricor seeks to help.

Mark Athens received Capricors treatment on Sept. 25, about a month after having a moderate heart attack. The Encinitas resident was the last treated under Phase 1, said Scripps cardiologist Richard Schatz, who performed the procedure. It will take about six months to know whether the treatment worked, Schatz said.

Unlike many trials, Phase 1 was not placebo-controlled, so Athens knows he got the therapy. He appeared cheerful, smiling and bantering with his examining doctor during a Dec. 17 checkup at Scripps Green Hospital.

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Stem cells tested to repair damaged hearts

Enlightened Spirituality, Welcome to Spiritual Awakening

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Begun in September 2006, this wide-ranging website has over 110 original essays (some short, some book-length, around 2,200 printed pages of total material) and several dozen photos and sacred images for viewing, with no bothersome ads and only one commercial webpage (for our Wake Up Press). To help new and returning visitors search for specific names or topics, we've added a Google search box for this entire website:

Explore one of the Internet's most extensive websites on truly healthy and enlightened Spirituality, awakening to Absolute Awareness, a profoundly nondual theology of God, the lives and teachings of sages and saints, and many articles on our mystical traditions, world religions, powers of Consciousness, emotional healing, styles of meditation, sacred relationships, conscious dying into Eternal life, spiritualized politics, wonders of science, spiritual humor, and more.

Here you can always remember to breathe more fully, love everyone more deeply, and relax more easily into/as the Divine One who is the Light and Truth of WHO WE REALLY ARE.

Is it really possible to live an enlightened life of all-embracing love, compassionate service, and actual freedom from binding ego-tendencies? Can one live spontaneously yet intelligently from the sublime fragrance of real wholesomeness and bountiful generosity? Can one, in short, awaken from the ultimately miserable "me"-dream to the inspired grandeur of Divine Awakening?

The answer to each of these questions is YES.

Behold an assembly of humanity's most eminent spiritual leadersfrom Jesus and the Buddha and many luminaries of ancient and medieval times to our era's Ramana Maharshi, Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramakrishna, Narayana Guru, Meher Baba, Nityananda, Nisargadatta, Dadaji (Amiya Roy Chowdhury), Neeb Karori (Neem Karoli) Baba, Padre Pio, Gemma Galgani, Maria Esperanza, Mother Teresa, Taungpulu Sayadaw, Ajahn Chah, Hsu-yun, Hsuan-hua, Cheng Yen, Kyongho, Hyobong, Songchol, Daehaeng, Kusan, Harada Roshi, the 14th Dalai Lama, Dilgo Khyentse, 16th Karmapa, Sheikh al-Alawi, Hazrat Babajan, Anasuya Devi, Anandamayi Ma along with several thousand other sages, saints, adepts, prophets and incarnations within all our sacred traditions....

All these impressive figures have clearly shown us over the millennia what it is to have genuinely "let go, let God" (God = Awareness-Love-Reality-Spirit-Brahman-Atman-Buddhata-Tao-AinSof-Allah). They are enlightenedwithout narrowly identifying with anyone who is "enlightened" or claiming any special, superior state of "enlightenment." They are entirely lightened up, illumined, awake, free, clear, emptied out and filled up with Divine virtue.

In a world with so much craziness, crassness and corruption on display, especially rife within the easily-exploited fields of religion, we can all be thankful that, as Sufi poet-saint Jalaluddin Rumi once remarked, "counterfeiters only exist because there is real gold." Truly enlightened spiritual ones exist (emanated by the Divine as "dream figures" to awaken us) and truly enlightened spirituality is possible for anyone willing to let dysfunctional egocentricity dissolve in the Divine Reality of Absolute, Infinite Awareness.

Countless people today ask what it means to live a deeper spiritual life.... Beyond the old dilemma of whether to renounce the world or immerse oneself in it, the enlightened "Free Beings" (the Avatra-Incarnations and awake adepts) show us how to freely transcend yet pervade the world with Love and Light through the Power of Pure Awareness.

This Divine Reality of Pure Awareness, Open Presence or Spirit, the one Sacred Principle, is both beyond all yet within all. As the theologians say, this Divine Awareness/Reality is both transcendent and immanent. Not any kind of "thing" but the Source, Witness and Reality of all things, this God-Self is other than this world, yet right here animating and embracing this dreamlike world and all her deliciously unique beings.

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The Secret Of Phil Jackson’s Success: He Never Stopped Questioning

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You've seen Peter Richmond around these parts a time or two. He is the author of some of our favorite magazine stories, and for his most recent book he found a subject worthy of his sensitive and searching style: Phil Jackson. The book is called Lord of the Rings, and it's available now. We spoke with him recently about everything from Jackson to Peggy Lee to spirituality to "softcore" journalism.

Alex Belth: This is your sixth book and second biographythe first was on Peggy Lee. What was it like writing another biography?

Peter Richmond: It was terrific because the first one taught me that to be a biographer, you've got to be a very different kind of writer.

AB: Different from being a newspaper or magazine writer?

PR: To write a biography, you have to become something of a different animal. You have to become a PhD in your subject. When Peggy Lee died, and I was asked to write her bio, I said to the editor "Thank you, it's flattering but maybe you should get someone who knows the music of the '30s, '40s, and '50s." But he said, "No, we want you to come in from the outside. We think you're a good enough writer to come in and surround the subject." And that's the only good book I'd ever written. When I was approached to write a Phil Jackson biography, and figured I wasn't going to get him to cooperatehe was writing his own bookit freed me to surround his life objectively.

AB: He's got a library of books he's written himself.

PR: If you go into Barnes and Nobles to the sports section there's seven categoriesbaseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, boxing and Phil Jackson. Maverick and Sacred Hoops are worth reading. Mine might be

AB: What have you learned as a writer since the Peggy Lee book that allowed you to do the Phil Jackson story in a way you might not have previously?

PR: That you should never judge anyone, or their actions, or their legacy, before doing everything you can to try and see the events of their life through their own eyes, from their own perspectivebut then use that perspective as only one of your lenses. Phil had left behind his books, and gave his approval for friends to talk to me. I'd interviewed him several times in the past and we were cool. I had every lens available to see the guy's life objectively and thoroughly.

AB: What was the difference between writing a bio of a dead singer, whose career arc had already ended, and someone who's still got a few chapters left to go in his career?

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China’s moon landing is part of a new space race by emerging nations

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China watched this month as the nation's first lunar rover rolled across the moon's surface.

It was a moment of national pride when images of the six-wheel rover, dubbed Jade Rabbit, were transmitted live back to Earth, showing the red and gold Chinese flag on the moon for the first time.

"Now as Jade Rabbit has made its touchdown on the moon surface," the state-run Xinhua news agency said, "the whole world again marvels at China's remarkable space capabilities."

The lunar triumph offered many Americans their first glimpse at an unfolding new space race involving countries with emerging economies. Space exploration, once the exclusive domain of the world's superpowers, is now being undertaken by dozens of nations aiming to show the world their technological prowess.

Although these countries are still decades behind the United States in space technology, their push into the cosmos comes at a time when NASA has been wrestling with budgetary restraints and struggling to achieve new milestones in space flight.

It prompted Buzz Aldrin, the former astronaut now from Los Angeles and the second man to walk on the moon, to say in an interview that U.S. government officials lack leadership in space exploration.

"They are ignoring the achievements of what we risked our lives for," he said. NASA's funding "is totally inadequate for an endeavor that brings so much inspiration to the American people and educating the next generation."

The U.S. must stay at the forefront of space exploration by helping all countries, including China, advance their programs, he said. An existing law prohibits NASA from working with China, but Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), the fiercest opponent of international cooperation with the country, announced his retirement this month.

"A number of nations have evolved their capabilities to put humans into space and beyond Earth," Aldrin said. "We should help contribute to their exploration."

According to the aerospace consulting firm Futron Corp., China has had 15 launches this year with one more planned. Russia has had 32 launches, and three more are slated before the end of the year. The U.S. will finish with 19.

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China's moon landing is part of a new space race by emerging nations

SDO Shows the Sun’s Rainbow of Wavelengths

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Telescopes help distant objects appear bigger, but this is only one of their advantages. Telescopes can also collect light in ranges that our eyes alone cannot see, providing scientists ways of observing a whole host of material and processes that would otherwise be inaccessible.

A new NASA movie of the sun based on data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, shows the wide range of wavelengths - invisible to the naked eye - that the telescope can view. SDO converts the wavelengths into an image humans can see, and the light is colorized into a rainbow of colors.

As the colors sweep around the sun in the movie, viewers should note how different the same area of the sun appears. This happens because each wavelength of light represents solar material at specific temperatures. Different wavelengths convey information about different components of the sun's surface and atmosphere, so scientists use them to paint a full picture of our constantly changing and varying star.

Yellow light of 5800 Angstroms, for example, generally emanates from material of about 10,000 degrees F (5700 degrees C), which represents the surface of the sun.

Extreme ultraviolet light of 94 Angstroms, which is typically colorized in green in SDO images, comes from atoms that are about 11 million degrees F (6,300,000 degrees C) and is a good wavelength for looking at solar flares, which can reach such high temperatures.

By examining pictures of the sun in a variety of wavelengths - as is done not only by SDO, but also by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and the European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- scientists can track how particles and heat move through the sun's atmosphere.

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SDO Shows the Sun's Rainbow of Wavelengths

Laser Demonstration Reveals Bright Future for Space Communication

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The completion of the 30-day Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration or LLCD mission has revealed that the possibility of expanding broadband capabilities in space using laser communications is as bright as expected.

Hosted aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer known as LADEE, for its ride to lunar orbit, the LLCD was designed to confirm laser communication capabilities from a distance of almost a quarter-of-a-million miles.

In addition to demonstrating record-breaking data download and upload speeds to the moon at 622 megabits per second (Mbps) and 20 Mbps, respectively, LLCD also showed that it could operate as well as any NASA radio system. "Throughout our testing we did not see anything that would prevent the operational use of this technology in the immediate future," said Don Cornwell, LLCD mission manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

For example, LLCD demonstrated error-free communications during broad daylight, including operating when the moon was to within three degrees of the sun as seen from Earth. LLCD also demonstrated error-free communications when the moon was low on the horizon, less than 4 degrees, as seen from the ground station, which also demonstrated that wind and atmospheric turbulence did not significantly impact the system. LLCD was even able to communicate through thin clouds, an unexpected bonus.

Operationally, LLCD demonstrated the ability to download data from the LADEE spacecraft itself. "We were able to download LADEE's entire stored science and spacecraft data [1 gigabyte] in less than five minutes, which was only limited to our 40 Mbps connection to that data within LADEE" said Cornwell.

Using LADEE's onboard radio system would take several days to complete a download of the same stored data. Additionally, LLCD was to prove the integrity of laser technology to send not only error-free data but also uncorrupted commands and telemetry or monitoring messages to and from the spacecraft over the laser link.

LLCD also demonstrated the ability to "hand-off" the laser connection from one ground station to another, just as a cellphone does a hand-off from one cell tower to another. An additional achievement was the ability to operate LLCD without using LADEE's radio at all.

"We were able to program LADEE to awaken the LLCD space terminal and have it automatically point and communicate to the ground station at a specific time without radio commands. This demonstrates that this technology could serve as the primary communications system for future NASA missions," said Cornwell.

The ability of LLCD to send and receive high definition video was proven with a message from NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, completing the trip to the moon and back with only a few seconds of delay.

"Administrator Bolden's message demonstrates NASA's support for advancing this technology for both space and Earth applications," said Cornwell. "It also allowed the LLCD team to showcase the quality and fidelity of our HD video transmissions over our laser communication link to and from the moon."

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Spacewalkers told to bring cameras back inside after problems arise

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In a view through a porthole, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy can be seen working to mount a high-resolution camera to a mounting platform on the International Space Station's Zvezda command module. NASA TV

Last Updated Dec 27, 2013 5:42 PM EST

After running into problems hooking up two commercial Earth-viewing cameras, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy reluctantly brought the high-tech cameras back into the Pirs airlock moduleFriday, closed the hatch and ended a marathon spacewalk, setting a new Russian record in an otherwise disappointing excursion.

The UrtheCast camera is designed to be mounted on the outside of the International Space Station.

UrtheCast

"We're back home," one of the cosmonauts radioed.

"Thank you for all your hard work, and we're so sorry that it turned out this way," a flight controller radioed in translated remarks.

The spacewalk began at8 a.m.and ended at4:07 p.m. EST(GMT-5). The eight-hour seven-minute outing set a new Russian endurance record and beat the previous mark of seven-hours and 29 minutes set in August by cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin. The U.S. spacewalk record stands at eight hours and 56 minutes.

The primary objective of Friday's outing was to install two cameras for Vancouver-based UrtheCast, a high-resolution telescope mounted on an aiming platform and a fixed medium-resolution camera. Both are required for a long-awaited commercial project to beam down near realtime high-definition Earth views, including a free internet stream as well as focused observations for paying customers.

Kotov and Ryazanskiy successfully installed the cameras and plugged them into the station's power and data circuits. But Russian flight controllers did not receive telemetry, prompting the cosmonauts to retrace their steps and inspect each electrical connector.

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Vision/Strategy | The Seasteading Institute

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At The Seasteading Institute, we work to enable seasteading communities floating cities which will allow thenext generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas for government. The most successful can then inspire change in governments around the world.

This is an audacious vision that will take decades to fully realize. We strongly believe in incrementalism breaking this huge vision down into manageable, practical steps. Our current strategy centers around the Floating City Project, through which we are crafting practical plans for the worlds first seastead, designed around the needs of actual potential residents, and located within a host nations protected, territorial waters.

We believe the first key step is for seasteading to become not just possible, but sustainable technologically,legally, and financially.

In other words, the cost of living on the ocean must be low enough, and the business opportunities promising enough, such that there is an economic incentive for people to live on seasteads. Currently, the high cost of open ocean engineering serves as a large barrier to entry, and hinders entrepreneurship in international waters. This has led us to look for cost-reducing solutions within the territorial waters of a host nation, while still remaining dedicated to the goal of obtaining political autonomy for governmental experiments. Therefore, our plan entails negotiating with a host nation for maximum autonomy for a seastead in exchange for the economic and social benefits it could provide. This will allow for a proof-of-concept, and will hopefully spawn many more experiments with floating cities around the world, including those further offshore, and under different legal arrangements.

The Seasteading Institute has built a program which supports the strategic objective of sustainable seasteading (as defined above), primarily focusing on planning and facilitating the first floating city.

As a non-profit organization, our role is not to build seasteads ourselves, but to set the stage in order to empower others to do so. Our Floating City Project is the latest form of business development it explores a model wherein a single company comprising several stakeholders will oversee construction and management of a highly autonomous floating city, leaving residents and entrepreneurs free to operate their own lives and businesses. The project builds on years of engineering and legal research, political and related maritime industry diplomacy, and the building of a community of aspiring seasteaders.

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Vision/Strategy | The Seasteading Institute

DETROIT RED WINGS: Jakub Kindl heads to the bench

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By Chuck Pleiness Digital First Media

DETROIT Jakub Kindl again found a way to work his way out of the Wings starting lineup.

We just want him to compete hard defensively, be good defensively and not let people behind him, Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

Kindls benching lasted all of two games because of a long-term injury Jonathan Ericsson suffered and hell be back along the blue line Saturday when Detroit plays at Florida.

Ive just got to work harder, compete more, Kindl said.

Instead of calling up a defenseman from Grand Rapids, the Wings will go with the six healthy ones they have.

Ericsson is expected to be out three to five weeks with two fractured ribs he suffered in Mondays 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders.

And just like last season, Kindl has found himself behind Brian Lashoff on the Wings blue line depth chart.

After missing the first three games last season with an injured groin, he was a healthy scratch in four of the next 14, sitting behind Lashoff.

Well hes just a simple player, Babcock said of Lashoff. Hes got to be real good in his own zone. He cant be in the chances against highlights, just cant be in them, and if hes not in them then were happy because hes not going to do much for you offensively.

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DETROIT RED WINGS: Jakub Kindl heads to the bench

Hartnett: Red-Hot Talbot To Make Third Straight Start For Rangers

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A.V. Continues To Ride Talbot, But This Isn't A Goalie Controversy December 27, 2013 1:25 PM

Cam Talbot (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Rangers Inside And Out By Sean HartnettMore Columns

Following the Rangers morning skate in Washington, head coach Alain Vigneault confirmed that red-hot goaltender Cam Talbot will start for a third straight game on Friday night.

This means that highly-paid netminder Henrik Lundqvist will continue to wait his turn. Lundqvist hasnt played since December 20, when he gave up four goals to the Islanders on 19 shots.

Talbot will be looking to earn a third consecutive win when the Blueshirts battle the Washington Capitals tonight at the Verizon Center.

The 26-year-old rookie has posted sterling statistics through his first 10 NHL starts and 12 games played. Talbot has been a very difficult goalie to crack since his October 20 recall from Hartford of the AHL. His superb play has earned him the nickname Goalbuster.

Talbot heads into Fridays meeting with the Caps carrying an 8-2-0 record with a microscopic 1.60 goals-against average. His GAA ranks only second to Josh Harding of the Minnesota Wild. Talbots save percentage of .938 is only bettered by Los Angeles Kingsnetminder Ben Scrivens and Harding.

Some writers and debate panelists have already described the situation as a goalie controversy. Lets make it clear though theres no such thing as a goalie controversy when Lundqvist recently received a seven-year, $59.5 million extension. The weight of this franchise will continue to be placed on the shoulders of Lundqvist.

KING HENRIK HASNT BEEN UNCROWNED BY ROOKIE TALBOT

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Hartnett: Red-Hot Talbot To Make Third Straight Start For Rangers

Burlington resident providing medical relief to post-typhoon Philippines

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Burlington Post

In the typhoon-stricken Philippines, a Burlington woman is helping to provide medical care and ensure newborns arrive safely.

Family physician Lynda Redwood-Campbell is leading a Red Cross team in the coastal city of Ormoc.

There are a lot of women delivering babies. Its extremely busy and 90-95 per cent of the people do not have a roof over their heads, she said. For most of them, its a very tough time at Christmas time.

Redwood-Campbell is a team leader with an Emergency Response Unit that includes Canadian, Norwegian and Hong Kong Red Cross groups.

My role is to ensure the team is doing the work that needs to be done, she said during a recent telephone interview from the Philippines.

The Burlington resident said the team has aided many women in delivering their babies and has helped a lot of children.

There was the seven-year-old who contracted potentially-fatal tetanus after stepping on a piece of metal.

Every day, he got a bit better. We gave him medication, said Redwood-Campbell. The good news is that just a few days ago, he walked home.

The team has been helping at a 100-bed hospital reduced to 20 per cent capacity by Typhoon Haiyan.

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Burlington resident providing medical relief to post-typhoon Philippines