BlackBerry Just Killed the Greatest Thing It Ever Made

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BlackBerry is trying to destroy the best thing it ever made. Not the line of hardware keyboard phones, or the less-relevant-than-ever BBM service. I'm talking about the music video. That mind-blowingly earnest and inexplicable REO Speedwagon cover about BlackBerry 10. It's gone now. What the fuck, BlackBerry?

I discovered this affront when went to go generate a GIF for a post about BlackBerry only to find the tune has been removed. The takedown was relatively recent; I know this because for the past several years, I've been going back to watch it ever couple of months or so. It's that good. Above is a re-up. Watch it. K? Now watch it again.

Any split second of this masterpiece is a treasure trove of wonders. Take this wide shot:

Even through the poor quality of this re-up, you can see keyboardist, former VP Martyn Mallick's goofy goddamn grin blasting through the dark of the inexplicably empty warehouse like another spotlight. Also, black t-shirted guitarist former FP Christopher Smith rocking out like some rip-off Steve Jobs.

Front man, former VP Alec Saunder, steals the show though. His button-down short-sleeve shirt is only narrowly out-nerded by his "awkward noodle arms at my sides" rockstar stance, and when we get to the close-upsand there are so many close-upsI just can't even.

Who ever said transition lenses weren't hip as hell.

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BlackBerry Just Killed the Greatest Thing It Ever Made

Dr. Natasha Arora, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich – Video

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Dr. Natasha Arora, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich
Evolution and the Human Social Sciences: New Perspectives: This series of talks, as the one from 2013, presents introductions to new developments in evolutionary biology and their relevance...

By: Palontologisches Institut und Museum, Universitt Zrich

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Dr. Natasha Arora, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich - Video

East Carolina chancellor says medical school threatened

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GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) The chancellor of East Carolina University says the medical school in Greenville could close in five years unless its financial losses are reduced.

Chancellor Steve Ballard told WNCT-TV (http://bit.ly/1I9ghv9) that the Brody School of Medicine is in serious financial trouble after millions of dollars in losses in recent years.

Ballard says the medical school lost $14 million last year, in large part because of state restrictions on how they can receive federal money and the inability to collect debts.

"We can't stay accredited if we have three more years of $14 million lost. We'll be closed," Ballard said.

To remain accredited, Brody must keep 90 days cash in reserve, which amounts to about $40 million. The school has only about $32 million on hand at the moment.

Ballard says since the Great Recession, East Carolina has lost about $100 million because of state budget cuts. Ballard says the state funded 53 percent of the medical school's operating budget in 1990. Now, it provides only 21 percent of the operating budget.

The dean of the school, Dr. Paul Cunningham, says officials are working to show state lawmakers the school's uniqueness.

One fourth of the doctors in the eastern part of the state are 65 or older. Cunningham says the Brody plays a critically important role in replacing those physicians as they retire.

He also said students at Brody graduate with less debt than doctors at other schools. The average debt in Greenville is just over $100,000, compared with the national average of about $170,000.

___

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East Carolina chancellor says medical school threatened

Researchers Find Salicylates, a Class of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (Nsaids), Stop Growth of Vestibular …

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Mass. Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School Researchers Find Salicylates, a class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), Stop Growth of Vestibular Schwannomas Findings described online in Translational Research

Newswise (BOSTON) Feb. 5, 2015 Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear and the Harvard Medical School/ Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology have demonstrated that salicylates, a class of non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), reduced the proliferation and viability of cultured vestibular schwannoma cells that cause a sometimes lethal intracranial tumor that typically causes hearing loss and tinnitus.

The research is described in "Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Medications are Cytostatic Against Human Vestibular Schwannomas" online in Translational Research. These pre-clinical data based on cultured primary vestibular schwannoma cells, combined with our previously published work on aspirin intake correlating with halted growth of vestibular schwannomas (also known as acoustic neuroma), motivate a future prospective clinical trial, said Konstantina Stankovic, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., principal investigator at the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at Mass. Eye and Ear who led the research. Dr. Stankovic is also an assistant professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. Other authors are her trainees, Drs. Sonam Dilwali, Shyan-Yuan Kao, Takeshi Fujita and Lukas D. Landegger.

Vestibular schwannomas are the most common tumors of the cerebellopontine angle and the fourth most common intracranial tumors. Although vestibular schwannomas are histologically non-malignant, they can lead to substantial morbidity, including sensorineural hearing loss, vestibular dysfunction and facial nerve paralysis. Large vestibular schwannomas can cause additional paralysis of other cranial nerves, brainstem compression and death, the authors write.

Currently, patients with symptomatic or growing vestibular schwannomas can undergo surgical resection or radiotherapy. Both of these procedures can result in serious complications. Effective drug therapies that can limit growth would greatly advance health care for these patients.

Salicylates are attractive therapeutics because they are clinically relevant, well-tolerated and commonly used against pathologies such as pain and arthritis. Furthermore, in some cases, chronic intake of salicylates has led to a significant reduction in the incidence and burden of various tumors, such as colorectal cancer.

In our study, we focused on salicylates because a mechanism of their action is inhibition of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2), and a previous study reported that immunohistochemical expression of COX-2 correlated with vestibular schwannoma growth rate. We assessed the efficacy of three different salicylates against vestibular schwannoma: aspirin, sodium salicylate (NaSal) and 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA), Dr. Stankovic said.

The team found COX-2 to be aberrantly expressed in human vestibular schwannomas and primary human vestibular schwannoma cells in comparison to control human nerve specimens and primary Schwann cells (SCs), respectively. Further, levels of prostaglandin E2, the downstream enzymatic product of COX-2, correlated with primary VS culture proliferation rate. Changes in proliferation, cell death and cell viability were analyzed in primary vestibular schwannoma cultures treated with aspirin, NaSal or 5-ASA. These drugs decreased proliferation and viability of vestibular schwannoma cells without increasing cell death or affecting healthy SCs. The cytostatic effect of aspirin in vitro was in concurrence with Dr. Stankovics previous clinical finding that vestibular schwannoma patients taking aspirin demonstrate reduced tumor growth.

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Researchers Find Salicylates, a Class of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (Nsaids), Stop Growth of Vestibular ...

Assassin’s Creed Unity – Server Bridge 01: Fin de Siecle – Paris 1898 – Metro Network, Lady Liberty – Video

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Assassin #39;s Creed Unity - Server Bridge 01: Fin de Siecle - Paris 1898 - Metro Network, Lady Liberty
AC: Unity - Fin de Siecle - Server Bridge This the first Server Bridge time anomaly in Assassin #39;s Creed Unity: Fin de Siecle. Server Bridge 01: Fin de Siecle Assassin #39;s Creed Unity - Server...

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Assassin's Creed Unity - Server Bridge 01: Fin de Siecle - Paris 1898 - Metro Network, Lady Liberty - Video

Dan Walters Daily: Vaccine requirements challenge personal liberty – Video

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Dan Walters Daily: Vaccine requirements challenge personal liberty
Should California require parents to vaccinate their children? The debate gets at a fundamental tension between personal liberty and collective welfare, Dan says. (February 5, 2015)

By: The Sacramento Bee

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Dan Walters Daily: Vaccine requirements challenge personal liberty - Video

N.J. lawmakers to revise law affecting Liberty State Park

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TRENTON - A bill that opponents feared would open the door to the privatization and commercialization of Liberty State Park was signed into law by Gov. Christie on Thursday, but it is expected to be revised soon by new legislation to protect the site.

The measure's sponsors, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and State Sen. Paul Sarlo, said in a statement that they would write legislation to address concerns about development of the site, a popular gateway to the Statue of Liberty.

Christie says the law will help make government smaller and more affordable by merging two agencies - the Meadowlands Commission and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority - into the new Meadowlands Regional Commission.

That commission, according to the law, "shall evaluate, approve, and implement any plans for Liberty State Park."

Prieto (D., Bergen) and Sarlo (D., Bergen) on Thursday tried to allay those fears by offering to tweak the law.

"Liberty State Park and what it means to our heritage holds a special place, and, as has always been the case, we will stand ready to protect the park," Prieto and Sarlo said in a statement.

"To that end, we will be introducing legislation to clarify that the Meadowlands Regional Commission may only review plans for Liberty State Park at the request of the Department of Environmental Protection, and that nothing in state law shall be construed to transfer ownership of any Liberty State Park property to the commission or anyone else," they said.

Though having unspecified issues with the bill, Christie signed it based on bipartisan negotiations and agreement with Prieto and Sarlo, according to a statement from his office.

"Though this legislation is imperfect in its current form, I believe it is important that we act to move forward with this commonsense consolidation of government to deliver savings to New Jersey taxpayers while we move forward with bipartisan agreement to address concerns with the current bill," Christie said.

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N.J. lawmakers to revise law affecting Liberty State Park

Christie signs Liberty State Park bill into law; many object

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law that opponents say could lead to development at Liberty State Park. But the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers are already planning new legislation aimed at addressing those concerns. Here's a look at what happened Thursday and where things stand with Liberty State Park.

___

WHAT DID CHRISTIE DO?

Christie signed legislation that consolidates the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and the Meadowlands Commission into a new board called the Meadowlands Regional Commission. The commission will have the power to approve and implement development at Liberty State Park, which is now under the state Department of Environmental Protection's authority. The legislation also changes a 40-year-old, tax-sharing structure in which some Meadowlands towns contribute to other towns and instead imposes a 3 percent usage tax on hotels in 14 northern New Jersey communities.

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WHY ARE OPPONENTS ANGRY?

Opponents include the New Jersey Sierra Club, the Friends of Liberty State Park and other advocates for the park. They say the commission's mandate allows development while the Department of Environmental Protection focused on preservation. Taken to the extreme, they say, an amusement park or a commercial building could be built on the property. They say the legislation amounts to privatization of the park.

___

WHAT'S NEXT?

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Christie signs Liberty State Park bill into law; many object

New Mexico honors Liberty Lover, Proceed

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New Mexico honors Liberty Lover, Proceed

Rand Pauls gaffes offer a glimpse of his worldview

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It has become the Rand Paul pattern: A few weeks paddling vigorously in the mainstream, followed by a lapse into authenticity, followed by transparent damage control, followed by churlishness toward anyone in the media who notices. All the signs of a man trying to get comfortable in someone elses skin.

The latest example is vaccination. I have heard of many tragic cases, said Dr. Paul, of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. Following the ensuing firestorm, the Republican senator from Kentucky insisted, I did not say vaccines caused disorders, just that they were temporally related.

In effect: I did not sleep with that causation.

Paul blamed his troubles on the liberal media which, after a little digging, reported that, in 2009, he had called mandatory vaccinations a step toward martial law.

When Chris Christie commits a gaffe on vaccination and reverses himself, it indicates a man out of his depth. With Paul, it reveals the unexplored depths of a highly ideological and conspiratorial worldview.

The same dynamic was at work when Paul accused public health authorities of dishonesty about the true nature of the Ebola threat; or when he raised the prospect of Americans typing an e-mail in a cafe being summarily executed by a Hellfire missile; or when he accused Dick Cheney of supporting the Iraq war to benefit Halliburton; or when he accused the United States of provoking Japan into World War II; or when he criticized the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to private enterprise. Wherever you scratch the paint, there is some underlying, consistent philosophy at work.

This, of course, is true of any thoughtful politician (which Paul certainly is). But while many prospective presidential candidates seek catchier ways to express their political philosophy, Paul must take pains to conceal the ambition of his ideals.

His domestic libertarianism provides no philosophical foundation for most of the federal government. As a practical matter, he can call for the end of Obamacare but not for the abolition of Medicare or Medicaid or the National Institutes of Health. Yet these concessions to reality are fundamentally arbitrary. The only principle guiding Pauls selectivity is the avoidance of gaffes. Of which he is not always the best judge.

The same is true of Pauls constitutional foreign policy, which he now calls (as evidence of his evolution) conservative realism. There is no previously existing form of realism that urges a dramatically weakened executive in the conduct of foreign and defense policy which is Pauls strong preference. He denies the legal basis for the war on terrorism, warns against an oppressive national security state and proposes to scale back American commitments in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Paul is properly described as a libertarian noninterventionist.

His father, Ron Paul, is gleefully specific in his charge that American aggression creates the blowback of terrorism. The son qualifies the argument without repudiating it. Some anger is blowback, he now says. In 2009, he called his fathers theory a message that can be presented and be something that Republicans can agree to. A recommended reading list posted (briefly) last year on Pauls Senate Web site included Chalmers Johnsons Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire and Ron Pauls A Foreign Policy of Freedom.

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Rand Pauls gaffes offer a glimpse of his worldview

Michael Gerson: Unmasking Rand Paul

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By The Washington Post5 p.m.Feb. 5, 2015

It has become the Rand Paul pattern: A few weeks paddling vigorously in the mainstream, followed by a lapse into authenticity, followed by transparent damage control, followed by churlishness toward anyone in the media who notices. All the signs of a man trying to get comfortable in someone elses skin.

The latest example is vaccination. I have heard of many tragic cases, said Dr. Paul, of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. Following the ensuing firestorm, Paul insisted, I did not say vaccines caused disorders, just that they were temporally related.

In effect: I did not sleep with that causation.

Paul blamed his troubles on the liberal media which, after a little digging, reported that Paul, in 2009, had called mandatory vaccinations a step toward martial law.

When Chris Christie commits a gaffe on vaccination and reverses himself, it indicates a man out of his depth. With Paul, it reveals the unexplored depths of a highly ideological and conspiratorial worldview.

The same dynamic was at work when Paul accused public health authorities of dishonesty about the true nature of the Ebola threat; or when he raised the prospect of Americans typing emails in a cafe being summarily executed by a Hellfire missile; or when he accused Dick Cheney of supporting the Iraq War to benefit Halliburton; or when he accused the United States of provoking Japan into World War II; or when he criticized the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to private enterprise. Wherever you scratch the paint, there is some underlying, consistent philosophy at work.

This, of course, is true of any thoughtful politician (which Paul certainly is). But while many prospective presidential candidates seek catchier ways to express their political philosophy, Paul must take pains to conceal the ambition of his ideals.

Pauls domestic libertarianism provides no philosophic foundation for most of the federal government. As a practical matter, he can call for the end of Obamacare but not for the abolition of Medicare, or Medicaid, or the National Institutes of Health. Yet these concessions to reality are fundamentally arbitrary. The only principle guiding Pauls selectivity is the avoidance of gaffes. Of which he is not always the best judge.

The same is true of Pauls constitutional foreign policy, which he now calls (as evidence of his evolution) conservative realism. There is no previously existing form of realism that urges a dramatically weakened executive in the conduct of foreign and defense policy which is Pauls strong preference. He denies the legal basis for the war on terrorism, warns against an oppressive national security state and proposes to scale back American commitments in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Paul is properly described as a libertarian noninterventionist.

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Michael Gerson: Unmasking Rand Paul