The Whole-Cannabis Lozenge May Cure Flu (SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE), 4-27-09) Cannabis Science Inc. Reports on Prospective Life Saving Treatments for H1N1 Swine Flu and H5N1 Bird Flu in View of the Current Global Threat
Cannabis Science Inc. (OTCBB: GFON.OB), an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis company, reported today on the current state of development of its whole-cannabis lozenge in response to Homeland Security Administration Secretary Janet Napolitano's declaration of a public health emergency to deal with the emerging Swine Flu pandemic. The Company's non-toxic lozenge has properties that could alleviate many of the symptoms and harmful effects of the H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 swine flu viruses, and has offered its assistance to HSA today in a letter to Secretary Napolitano. The Company has offered to produce up to 1 million doses of its whole-cannabis lozenge, and provide them to HSA for distribution at cost. . . . Cannabis Science Inc., President & CEO, Steven W. Kubby said, "We have the science and preliminary anecdotal results confirming the anti-inflammatory properties of our new lozenges and indicating they may present an effective and non-toxic treatment for minimizing the symptoms and harm from influenza infections. Our lozenges appear to down-regulate the body's excessive inflammatory response to the influenza virus, which could reduce the deadly consequences of an infection into something that is more like a common cold. Because of my cancer and diminished auto-immune functions, even common influenza is a deadly threat, and I’ve had incredible symptomatic relief with the lozenge." . . . Dr. Robert J. Melamede, Director and Chief Science Officer, stated, "The influenza virus has a unique genetic make up that, in combination with its replicative machinery, has an extraordinary capacity to mutate. As a result, the high lethality of some strains can be attributed to the resulting adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is caused by an excessive immune inflammatory response driven by Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) that leads to the death of respiratory epithelial cells and resulting organ failure. Endocannabinoids are nature's way of controlling TNF activity. Existing peer reviewed publications have shown that phytocannabinoids can prevent this cell death by mimicking the endocannabinoids that nature has selected to prevent excessive inflammatory immune responses." . . . Dr. Melamede furthermore stated, "Based upon recent discoveries regarding the role that endocannabinoid system plays in maintaining human health, we have a unique solution to the looming threat posed by deadly influenza strains that we believe, if implemented, could save millions of lives. We will strive for an emergency review of our cannabis extract-based lozenge because we believe its availability will prevent many of the deaths associated with the hyper-inflammatory response associated with known lethal strains of the influenza virus. Current anti-influenza medications have a demonstrated decreased effectiveness against some of these lethal variants. Mankind cannot wait for the emergency situation to materialize. We must be proactive in gaining the necessary governmental approvals to test, and pending the outcome of our studies, produce our lozenge."
posted by Lorenzo 7:44 PM
'Map Of Science' Shows Scientists' Virtual Trails Through Online Services ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2009) - Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have produced the world's first Map of Science-a high-resolution graphic depiction of the virtual trails scientists leave behind when they retrieve information from online services. . . . The research, led by Johan Bollen, appeared recently in PLoS One. "This research will be a crucial component of future efforts to study and predict scientific innovation, as well novel methods to determine the true impact of articles and journals," Bollen said. . . . Whenever a scientist accesses a paper online from a publisher, aggregator, university, or similar publishing service, the action is recorded by the servers of these Web portals. The resulting usage data contains a detailed record of the sequences of articles that scientists download as they explore their present interests. After counting the number of times that scientists, across hundreds of millions of requests, download one article after another, the research team calculated the probability that an article or journal accessed by a scientist would be followed by a subsequent article or journal as part of the scientists' online behavior. Based on such behavior, the researchers created a map that graphically portrays a network of connected articles and journals.
The link above will take you to the story about the deranged old men in the Vatican who have no right to speak of morality. Below are a few comments readers of the story left and with whom I happen to agree.
I cringe when the Catholic church has an opinion..We the US attacked a country ..unprovoked....killed women, children, innocent men...soldiers. . . . Church said not one word. . . . Some embryos that are and have been for years going into the trash ...church condemns my president. . . . Gee...who shall I side with here?
AMAZING.... You can hear them loud and clear on this... But, CHILD MOLESTATION ... ALL is QUIET. Hypocrites ...... Child Predators...
I can't believe that we (as the United States of America) have sat back and let these huge Male-Dominated Religions, set the rules (and laws) for so long and: Attempt to dominate our Lives, and dominate our Bodies and our Bedrooms. . . . It's obvious they have no feelings whatsoever for a gravely ill person with a disease that could possibly be cured by stem-cell, a child with a paralizing injury or a woman living in squallor with 12 children, all of them starving, and the woman trying to prevent having any MORE children she can't take care of and can't feed. . . . Their "Thinking" has never gone beyond about the 16th Century and they actually "Expect" us to go along with their insanity! Not only "Expect" but actually try to demand that the rest of the Country set our Laws to reflect the views of THEIR Religion.
They don't care that the embryos are thrown out in the trash - but when they are used to try to save lives - then they throw a fit!
Just 13 years ago, in 1996, the Vatican finally realized that Galileo Galilei was right and the Earth was both round and revolved around the Sun. . . . Flat-earthers have no crediblity when it comes to deciding anything relating to science.
Excuse me if I don't give a fig what the Vatican has to say on anything.
Maybe they should stick to excommunicating the mother, doctors and others who assisted that 9 year old rape victim who was pregnant by her stepfather. Or better yet, stick with ignoring priests who sexually assault little boys and girls.
And the comments go on for many pages ... didn't notice a single one supporting the sick old men in Rome.
posted by Lorenzo 7:49 PM
Harvard Med Students Expose Big Pharma's Influence on Campus (DUFF WILSON, New York Times, March 2, 2009) In a first-year pharmacology class at Harvard Medical School, Matt Zerden grew wary as the professor promoted the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects. . . . Mr. Zerden later discovered something by searching online that he began sharing with his classmates. The professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments. . . . "I felt really violated," Mr. Zerden, now a fourth-year student, recently recalled. "Here we have 160 open minds trying to learn the basics in a protected space, and the information he was giving wasn't as pure as I think it should be." . . . Mr. Zerden's minor stir four years ago has lately grown into a full-blown movement by more than 200 Harvard Medical School students and sympathetic faculty, intent on exposing and curtailing the industry influence in their classrooms and laboratories, as well as in Harvard’s 17 affiliated teaching hospitals and institutes.
Discussing the Global Brain and the Future of the Web (Video)
At the DemoFall08 conference, back in September 9th there was a discussion titled "Where the Web is Going." After introductions and an overview of the participants, the panel discussion starts at 5:40 with the following people:
* Howard Bloom, author of The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century * Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google * Prabhakar Raghavan, Yahoo * Jon Udell, Microsoft
posted by Lorenzo 5:29 PM
Why Neanderthal man may not have been as stupid as he looks (Steve Connor, The Independent, 26 August 2008) Neanderthals were not as stupid as they have been portrayed, according to a study showing their stone tools were just as good as those made by the early ancestors of modern humans, Homo sapiens. . . . Scientists who spent years learning how to make replicas of the stone instruments used by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have found the Neanderthal tools were just as efficient as anything made by Stone Age man. . . . And researchers believe that the demise of the Neanderthals – which has often been explained by the supposed inferiority of their technology – could not have come about solely as a result of their stone tools being worse than those of their rivals. . . . "Our research disputes a major pillar holding up the long-held assumption that Homo sapiens were more advanced than Neanderthals. It is time for archaeologists to start searching for other reasons why Neanderthals became extinct," . . . Neanderthal man lived in Europe for about 300,000 years, surviving a number of ice ages before disappearing completely about 25,000 years ago, about 10,000 years after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. . . . Why the Neanderthals disappeared has been an enduring mystery but studies on DNA extracted from ancient bones suggest they died out without interbreeding with the new arrivals to Europe. It is likely that the two species of humans competed against each other for limited resources in the same habitat, with Homo sapiens being the victor. . . . However, the study on the stone tools used by both species suggests that the competition was not as one-sided as some anthropologists had believed. The Neanderthal flint tools were broader and thicker than the somewhat smaller and finer-bladed tools of Homo sapiens but they have turned out to be no less efficient, Mr Eren said. . . . One problem still remains – why did Homo sapiens switch from the type of tool technology used by the Neanderthals to something that was different but no more efficient? . . . Mr Eren said that the switch to a more streamlined technology during the time that Homo sapiens began colonising Europe may have played a role of social cohesion by giving the tool makers a shared identity. . . . "Colonising a continent isn't easy. Colonising a continent during the Ice Age is even harder. So, for early Homo sapiens colonising Ice Age Europe, a new shared and flashy-looking technology might serve as one form of social glue by which larger social networks were bonded," Mr Eren explained. . . . "Thus, during hard times these larger social networks might act like a type of life insurance, ensuring exchange and trade among members of the same team," he said.
posted by Lorenzo 9:22 PM
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine. . . . Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy. . . . Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon." . . . "This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
posted by Lorenzo 6:43 PM
When you consider the fact that everything that is happening on the Web at this very moment was completely unpredicted just a decade ago, and the fact that today the Web is still less than 5,000 days old, it certainly gives one a reason to wonder what must be yet coming at us. At the 2007 TED Conference, Kevin Kelly makes a few predictions.
Click the link above to see the full video of this talk.
Very highly recommended! -- Lorenzo
posted by Lorenzo 2:23 PM
Sleeping soundly 'boosts memory' (BBC News, 14 July 2008) Researchers found sleep appears to have a dramatic impact on the way the brain functions the next day. . . . It appears to strengthen connections between nerve cells in the brain - a process key to both learning and memory. . . . The researchers studied a group of 32 volunteers who were taught a new skill or shown images they would later have to remember. . . . One group of participants was then allowed to sleep normally for eight hours, while others were deprived of sleep or only permitted a nap. . . . The next day they were asked to repeat the tasks or recall the images while their brains were scanned using a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). . . . Those who had slept properly performed better, and this was reflected in their brain activity. . . . Lead researcher Dr Sophie Schwartz said: "Our results revealed that a period of sleep following a new experience can consolidate and improve subsequent effects of learning from the experience. . . . "This improvement comes from changes in brain activity in specific regions that code for relevant features of the learned material." . . . Dr Schwartz said sleep helped the brain consolidate learned experiences and harden up weak memories which otherwise might fade in time.
posted by Lorenzo 3:23 PM
Study: 'Magic mushrooms' have long benefit (MSNBC, July 1, 2008) In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project. . . . She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open. . . . But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day. . . . "I feel more centered in who I am and what I'm doing," said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected." . . . Scientists reported Tuesday that when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience. . . . Two-thirds of them also said the drug had produced one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they'd ever had. . . . The drug, psilocybin, is found in so-called "magic mushrooms." It's illegal, but it has been used in religious ceremonies for centuries. . . . The project made headlines in 2006 when researchers published their report on how the volunteers felt just two months after taking the drug. The new study followed them up a year after that. . . . With further research, psilocybin (pronounced SILL-oh-SY-bin) may prove useful in helping to treat alcoholism and drug dependence, and in aiding seriously ill patients as they deal with psychological distress, said study lead author Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins. . . . The experiment was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The results were published online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology. . . . Fourteen months after taking the drug, 64 percent of the volunteers said they still felt at least a moderate increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic. And 61 percent reported at least a moderate behavior change in what they considered positive ways. . . . That second question didn't ask for details, but elsewhere the questionnaire answers indicated lasting gains in traits like being more sensitive, tolerant, loving and compassionate. . . . Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, called the new work an important follow-up to the first study. . . . He said it is helping to reopen formal study of psychedelic drugs. Grob is on the board of the Heffter Research Institute, which promotes studies of psychedelic substances and helped pay for the new work.
Medical plants 'face extinction' (BBC News, January 19, 2008) Hundreds of medicinal plants are at risk of extinction, threatening the discovery of future cures for disease, according to experts. . . . Over 50% of prescription drugs are derived from chemicals first identified in plants. . . . But the Botanic Gardens Conservation International said many were at risk from over-collection and deforestation. . . . Researchers warned the cures for things such as cancer and HIV may become "extinct before they are ever found". . . . They identified 400 plants that were at risk of extinction. . . . These included yew trees, the bark of which forms the basis for one of the world's most widely used cancer drugs, paclitaxel. . . . Hoodia, which originally comes from Namibia and is attracting interest from drug firms looking into developing weight loss drugs, is on the verge of extinction, the report said. . . . And half of the world's species of magnolias are also under threat. . . . The plant contains the chemical honokiol, which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cancers and slow down the onset of heart disease. . . . The report also said autumn crocus, which is a natural treatment for gout and has been linked to helping fight leukaemia, is at risk of over-harvest as it is popular with the horticultural trade because of its stunning petals. . . . But the report said as well as future breakthroughs being put at risk, the situation was likely to have a consequence in the developing world. . . . It said five billion people still rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of health care. . . . Report author Belinda Hawkins said: "The loss of the world's medicinal plants may not always be at the forefront of the public consciousness. . . . "However, it is not an overstatement to say that if the precipitous decline of these species is not halted, it could destabilise the future of global healthcare."
posted by Lorenzo 11:01 AM
Human evolution is 'speeding up' (Anna-Marie Lever, BBC News, 11 December 2007) Humans have moved into the evolutionary fast lane and are becoming increasing different, a genetic study suggests. . . . In the past 5,000 years, genetic change has occurred at a rate roughly 100 times higher than any other period, say scientists in the US. . . . This is in contrast with the widely-held belief that recent human evolution has halted. . . . "The dogma has been these [differences] are cultural fluctuations, but almost any temperament trait you look at is under strong genetic influences. . . . "Genes are evolving fast in Europe, Asia and Africa, but almost all of these are unique to their continent of origin," he added. "We are getting less alike, not merging into a single, mixed humanity." . . . This is happening, he said, because "there has not been much flow" between different regions since modern humans left Africa to colonise the rest of the world. And there is no evidence that it is slowing down, he added. . . . "The technology can't detect anything beyond about 2,000 years ago, but we see no sign of [human evolution] slowing down. So I would suspect it is continuing," he told BBC News. . . . "Five thousand years is such a small sliver of time," said co-author Professor John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "It's 100 or 200 generations ago. That's how long since some of these genes originated, and today they are [in] 30% or 40% of people because they've had such an advantage." . . . The researchers propose that there are two factors causing human evolution to speed up. . . . "One of them is there are a lot more people - the more people you have the more opportunities there are for an advantageous mutation to show up," said Professor Harpending. . . . A large population has more genetic variation and allows for more positive selection than a small one. . . . "The second is environmental change - our diets have changed, we are in radically new environments," he added. "With a large population size comes lots of new diseases." . . . At the moment we are in an evolutionary interval. We are in between two storms. One storm has more or less blown itself out, the storm of farming. . . . "The question is whether we are going to stay in the calms or whether another great storm will start. And if there is one, I would say it is most certainly to do with epidemic disease."
posted by Lorenzo 9:07 AM
True Food Now! has an interesting list of many common foods that you see on the store shelves every day that have been genetically modified. [Click link above for complete listing] For example, under the chocolate category:
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS [IN]
Cadbury (Cadbury/Hershey's) Mounds Almond Joy York Peppermint Patty Dairy Milk Roast Almond Fruit & Nut
Hershey's Kit-Kat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Mr. Goodbar Special Dark Milk Chocolate Kisses Symphony
Mars M&M (all varieties) Snickers Three Musketeers Milky Way Twix
Nestle Crunch Milk Chocolate Chunky Butterfinger 100 Grand
Drink Mixes and Dessert Toppings
Carnation (Nestle) Hot Cocoa Mixes: Rich Chocolate Double Chocolate Milk Chocolate Marshmallow Madness Mini Marshmallow No Sugar
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup Special Dark Chocolate Syrup Strawberry Syrup
Nestle Nesquik Strawberry Nesquik
Swiss Miss (ConAgra) Hot Cocoa Mixes: Chocolate Sensation Milk Chocolate Marshmallow Lovers Marshmallow Lovers Fat Free No Sugar Added
posted by Lorenzo 2:51 PM
Michael Moore Busts Wolf Blitzer In case YouTube drops the video I've linked to below, I'm following it with a transcript from this interesting exchange between Moore and Blitzer.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE ABOVE INTERVIEW:
BLITZER: Michael Moore is joining us now live from Detroit. Michael, thanks very much for coming in. You want to respond to anything ...
MOORE: First of all, Wolf, yeah, well -- yeah, I'd like about 10 minutes to respond to what was said.
BLITZER: Give us a couple of headlines, what you'd like to say.
MOORE: I don't talk in sound bites. So -- that report was so biased. I can't imagine what pharmaceutical company ad's coming up right after our break here.
But why don't you tell the truth to the American people? I mean, I wish that CNN and the other mainstream media would just for once tell the truth about what's going on in this country, whether it's with healthcare -- I don't care what it is. I mean, you guys have such a poor track record.
And for me to come on here and have to listen to that kind of crap. I mean, seriously, I haven't been on your show now for three years. The last time I was on, you ran a similar piece about "Fahrenheit 9/11" saying this can't be true what he's saying about the war, how it's going to be a quagmire, the weapons of mass destruction.
You know, and -- why don't you start off actually with my first appearance back here on your show in three years and maybe apologize to me for saying that three years ago, because it turned out everything I said in "Fahrenheit" was true. Everything has come to happen.
Everything I said. I mean, I was -- I took you in that film to Walter Reed Hospital and it took three years before you or any of the rest of the mainstream media would go to Walter Reed Hospital and see what was happening to our troops. So for me to have to sit here and listen again to more crap about socialized medicine or how the Canadians have it worse than us and all this, all the statistics show that we have far worse healthcare than these other industrialized countries.
We're the only ones that don't have it free and universal. And, you know, there's a -- there's a -- you said that Germany was the only one that was better than us in terms of wait times. The Commonwealth Fund last year showed of the top six countries, we were second to last, next to Canada. It showed that Britain, for instance, 71 percent of the British public, when they call to see a doctor, get to see the doctor that day or the next day. It's 69 percent in Germany. It's 66% in Australia. And you're the ones who are fudging the facts. You fudged the facts to the American people now for I don't know how long about this issue, about the war.
And I'm just curious when are you going to just stand there and apologize to the American people for not bringing the truth to them that isn't sponsored by some major corporation? I mean, I'll sit here for as long as it takes, if you can do that for me.
BLITZER: Just in fairness, we had a lot of commercials for "Sicko" that we've been running on CNN as well. So we have commercials. This is a business, obviously. But let's talk a little bit about ...
MOORE: You have a nightly medical report. You have something called "The Daily Dose." I watch CNN. You have it every day. "The Daily Dose" sponsored by -- fill in the blank. And you are funded by these people day in and day out. Don't even compare that to my movie being out for a couple of weeks and a couple of rinky-dink ads for 15 seconds. Come on. Come on, Wolf!
BLITZER: No, no -- I don't know if you're familiar with Dr. Sanjay Gupta's record, but I would stack up his record on medical issues with virtually anyone in the business.
MOORE: All right. So when I -- when I now put on my Web site, as I will do tonight, how his facts were wrong about the $7,000 that we spend, it's actually -- I've read one report now, it's even more than $7,000 that we spend per person each year in this country. I'm going to put the real facts up there on my Web site so people can see what he said was wrong.
BLITZER: Well, if we get that confirmed, obviously, we'll correct the record. Sanjay - but I'm just saying ... MOORE: Oh, you will? You'll be getting it.
BLITZER: Sanjay Gupta is not only a doctor and neurosurgeon, but he's also an excellent, excellent journalist. Look, I saw the film, and it's a powerful, powerful ...
MOORE: I saw Dr. Sanjay Gupta over there embedded with the troops at the beginning of the war. He and the others of you in the mainstream media refused to ask our leaders the hard questions and demand the honest answers. And that's why we're in this war -- we're in the fifth year of this war because you and CNN, Dr. Gupta, you didn't do your jobs back then and now here we are in this mess.
What if you'd actually done the job on that? That's why anybody who hears anything he anything of what you say now about universal healthcare should question what you're saying, what you're putting out there. You didn't do the job for us with the war. You're not doing it with this issue. And I just -- I just wonder when the American people are going to turn off their TV sets and quit listening to this stuff.
BLITZER: Sanjay Gupta did an excellent job covering that war. He was with the Navy's medical doctors and he went in and risked his life and actually performed neurosurgery on the scene.
MOORE: You have the questions. Why are we here? That's the question. Why are we here in this war? Where's the weapons of mass destruction? Why didn't you -- why did it take you so long, Wolf, to finally take on Vice President Cheney? It took you to 2007 before you made the man mad at you.
BLITZER: Those are fair questions.
MOORE: Four years!
BLITZER: Let's talk a little ...
MOORE: Where were you?
BLITZER: Let's talk about "Sicko." That's the film that you're here to talk about.
MOORE: Yeah, let's forget that. Yeah, OK.
BLITZER: There's plenty to talk about the war. There's plenty to talk about with "Sicko."
MOORE: I just haven't seen you in three years, so I was wondering how you felt for three years of not seeing me after you trashed "Fahrenheit" and said that I was wrong about, oh, yeah, this war was -- come on, I'm just waiting for an apology.
BLITZER: Michael, we've invited you on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, you've declined our invitations the past three years but there are plenty of times we asked you to come on the show and plenty of times you've declined.
MOORE: Really? And you wanted to apologize? Why did you want to talk to me?
BLITZER: No, we wanted to interview you. That's what we do on television. Let's ...
MOORE: You don't have to apologize to me. Maybe just apologize to the American people and the families of the troops for not doing your job four years ago. We wouldn't be in this war. If you had done your job. Come on. Just admit it. Just apologize to the American people.
BLITZER: Which of the presidential candidates who are out there right now do you think would do the best job fixing the nation's healthcare system?
MOORE: Well, the Democrats have to be asked some very specific questions. Too many of them are saying, well, they're for health care for all people. Very few of them are being as specific as Mr. Kucinich is in saying, well, I support the Conyers bill in Congress HR-676. That's what we need to hear.
And I would like to hear what these other Democratic candidates are going to say and do in specifics in removing the private insurance companies from the equation. We shouldn't have profit involved when we talk about taking care of people's health.
BLITZER: Is there a candidate, though, you think -- is Dennis Kucinich your candidate? Who do you think -- I know in the film you go after Hillary Clinton. And you're very, very bipartisan in your criticism in the film, Democrats and Republicans.
MOORE: Yeah. When you say I go after, let's be clear. I actually think she did a very brave thing to try and address this issue 14 years ago. And they stopped her cold. They went after her with the same kind of, you know, trash pieces I just had to watch. And so that stopped her. And now we've had to suffer through 14 more years of having no universal healthcare in this country. Our own government admits that because the 47 million who aren't insured, we now have about 18,000 people a year that die in this country simply because they don't have health insurance. That's six 9/11's every single year.
If you times that by 14 since Mrs. Clinton was unceremoniously removed from the agenda here, she hasn't been able to talk about this. She hasn't really put forth her specific plan. I'm hoping that the people have gone to my movie, the people that are concerned about this issue, will write to Mrs. Clinton and say, please, universal healthcare that's free for everyone who lives in this country. It will cost us less than what we're spending now ling the pockets of these private health insurance companies, of these pharmaceutical companies. So there's still some chance to have an effect on people like her.
And of course, there's one candidate who isn't even in the race yet. I don't know if he will be. But he was right about the war before it began, unlike CNN -- did I mention that?
BLITZER: You did.
MOORE: And -- and he's right about global warming and he's right on this issue, too.
BLITZER: Al Gore. The Democrats, by and large, most of them support some major health reform, including universal healthcare, which is what you support. I want you to listen to what Rudy Giuliani, the Republican front-runner said at the Republican debate that I hosted up in Manchester, New Hampshire. Listen to this.
MOORE: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Free market principles are the only things that reduce cost and improve quality. Socialized medicine will ruin medicine in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. What do you say to Mayor Giuliani?
MOORE: So he's saying that he hates Medicare?
BLITZER: He's saying socialized medicine will ruin medicine in the United States.
MOORE: That's what we have. Ask a doctor if they'd rather have a Medicare patient or somebody who has got a lousy HMO, because they know at least Medicare -- the government will pay them, send them a check and not have to fight an hour on the phone just to get a $15 office visit paid for.
I mean, seriously, we have one of the largest socialized medicine systems in this country. It's called Medicare and Medicaid. And while it's underfunded and too much of the control of it has been handed over to private companies, we've already proven we can do things like that, and Social Security and other things very well. So I hope that he wasn't attacking help for senior citizens, because that's what it sounded like to me.
BLITZER: I've got a whole bunch of questions. Unfortunately, we're out of time. But if you stick around ...
MOORE: We're out of time! I'll see you in three years.
BLITZER: No, no, stick around. We'll tape some more. We'll run it tomorrow. We want to make sure you get your chance to ...
MOORE: Oh, no, see, that's the deal, Wolf. There's no taping with me. As you know, it's rare that they put me on live. And to your credit, thank you for doing that. You can see why. They generally don't like to have me on live because, you know, a lot of that would have been cut out.
BLITZER: Well, no ...
MOORE: Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.
BLITZER: We're not going to cut a second of it out if you want to tape something.
MOORE: Run it unedited?
BLITZER: Run it unedited.
MOORE: And people can ...
BLITZER: And people going to your Web site, it's a free country, they can find out the truth, about what it is.
MOORE: The facts about Sanjay Gupta, they can find out about his facts, right? We can find that out, right? BLITZER: Absolutely. Michael Moore.
Expedite the Move Towards a Solar-Electric Economy via Tesla Motors
Elon Musk is an Internet / rocket-launch / electric-car / solar-power entrepreneur. Musk has a grand plan. It all starts with a sports car.
Musk was born and grew up in South Africa. In 1995, Musk went onto a graduate program in energy physics at Stanford. He dropped out to start Zip2, which was acquired by AltaVista for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options. In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and email payments company. In 2001, X.com changed its legal name to PayPal. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock. Before its sale, Musk, the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares. In June 2002, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles, with an emphasis on low cost and high reliability. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.
In addition to his business activities in entrepreneurial space, Musk is the principal owner and Chairman of the Board of Tesla Motors, a high performance electric-car company that aspires to build cost effective vehicles for the mass market. He is also the primary investor and Chairman of the Board of SolarCity, a photovoltaics products and services startup company. The underlying motivation for funding both companies is to help combat global warming.
Musk's fortune is estimated at US$328 million. Musk is Chairman of the Musk Foundation, which focuses its philanthropic efforts on science education, pediatric health, and clean energy. According to an interview on the PBS television pilot for Wired Science (aired January 3, 2007), Musk's electric car project, named the Tesla after the Serb-American inventor of alternating current, will make its commercial debut sometime in 2007. Musk claims that a more suitable entry point for a new technology such as electric vehicles is in the "high performance, low volume" market sector. To that end, he claims the Tesla both boasts faster acceleration than almost any new Porsche or Ferrari on the market (the exception being the Ferrari Enzo), while operating at twice the efficiency of the Toyota Prius. While the first two-door roadster model is expected to retail for $89,000 US, Musk claims the second model will be a sedan, priced under $60,000, followed by a third design priced around $30,000.
In 2001, Musk had plans for a "Mars Oasis" project, which would land a miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing food crops growing on Martian regolith. He put this project on hold when he discovered that launch costs would dwarf the mission development and construction costs for the project, and decided to work on lowering launch costs by founding SpaceX. His long term goal is that SpaceX helps humanity become a true spacefaring civilization. Musk is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, a Director of the Planetary Society and a Trustee of The X-Prize Foundation.
The Secret Tesla Motors Master Planby Elon Musk The initial product of Tesla Motors is a high-performance electric sports car called the Tesla Roadster. However, some readers may not be aware of the fact that our long term plan is to build a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars. This is because the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution.
Critical to making that happen is an electric car without compromises, which is why the Tesla Roadster is designed to beat a gasoline sports car like a Porsche or Ferrari in a head to head showdown. Then, over and above that fact, it has twice the energy efficiency of a Prius. Even so, some may question whether this actually does any good for the world. Are we really in need of another high performance sports car? Will it actually make a difference to global carbon emissions?
Well, the answers are no and not much. However, that misses the point, unless you understand the secret master plan alluded to above. Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized and this is no less true for electric cars. The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.
Without giving away too much, I can say that the second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.
Be sure to read the rest of this Tesla Motors post here to learn how Elon Musk addresses the two important arguments against electric vehicles — battery disposal and power plant emissions.
Species under threat: Honey, who shrunk the bee population? (01 March 2007, The Independent) Across America, millions of honey bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die, leaving beekeepers facing ruin and US agriculture under threat. And to date, no one knows why. It has echoes of a murder mystery in polite society. There could hardly be a more sedate and unruffled world than beekeeping, but the beekeepers of the United States have suddenly encountered affliction, calamity and death on a massive scale. And they have not got a clue why it is happening. Across the country, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, honey bee colonies have started to die off, abruptly and decisively. Millions of bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die (they cannot survive as a colony without the queen, who is always left behind). Some beekeepers, especially those with big portable apiaries, or bee farms, which are used for large-scale pollination of fruit and vegetable crops, are facing commercial ruin - and there is a growing threat that America's agriculture may be struck a mortal blow by the loss of the pollinators. Yet scientists investigating the problem have no idea what is causing it.
posted by An Old Curmudgeon 9:58 AM
Neanderthals' may have survived longer than previously thought (BBC NEWS, 13 September 2006) A study in Nature magazine suggests the species may have lived in Gorham's Cave on Gibraltar up to 24,000 years ago. . . . The Neanderthal people were believed to have died out about 35,000 years ago, at a time when modern humans were advancing across the continent. . . . The new evidence suggests they held on in Europe's deep south long after the arrival of Homo sapiens. . . . The research team believes the Gibraltar Neanderthals may even have been the very last of their kind. . . . Though once thought to have been our ancestors, the Neanderthals are now considered an evolutionary dead end. . . . They appear in the fossil record around 230,000 years ago and, at their peak, these squat, physically powerful hunters dominated a wide range, spanning Britain and Iberia in the west to Israel in the south and Uzbekistan in the east. . . . Our own species, Homo sapiens, evolved in Africa, and displaced the Neanderthals after entering Europe about 40,000 years ago. . . . But evidence for a presence 24,000 years ago is limited, so the researchers can only say with confidence that Neanderthals were in the cave until 28,000 years ago. . . . Even so, this date makes the cave the youngest Neanderthal occupation site known anywhere. . . . Scientists believe it was a favoured spot where hunting groups sought refuge from cold weather during the last Ice Age. . . . Professor Stringer thinks the site provides an important insight into the reasons for Neanderthal extinction. . . . "For years, many of us have tended to look for one single reason why Neanderthals died out - that we interbred with them, or out-competed them, or killed them off. The Gibraltar evidence fits into a picture that has been emerging in recent years of quite a complex event," he explained. . . . "The idea of modern humans coming in and Neanderthals dying out simply didn't happen." . . . The Neanderthals survived in local pockets during previous Ice Ages, bouncing back when conditions improved. But the last one appears to have been characterised by several rapid and severe changes in climate which hit a peak 30,000 years ago. . . . These were probably more dramatic in more northerly parts of Europe, where they may have upset the balance between Neanderthals and modern humans, allowing moderns to gain the upper hand. . . . Gibraltar's climate was sheltered from many of these changes, but it did eventually deteriorate. Recent deep-sea core data show that temperatures dropped sharply around 24,000 years ago. This could have created drought-like conditions in the area which may also have reduced the number of prey the Neanderthals could catch. . . . "If you've got a shrinking Neanderthal population on the edge, it might just be enough to tip them over the edge," Professor Finlayson told BBC News. . . . Details of the work will be presented here at the Calpe conference, which runs from 14-17 September in Gibraltar.
posted by Lorenzo 2:29 PM
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