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Listening To
Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper is one of the best songs of all time. The song needs more cowbell!

Tom's Excellent Adventure

Went with Mrs. Thomas Joseph to Atlanta this weekend to catch her favorite team, the Chicago Bears, take on the Atlanta Falcons. Me, I'm not a fan of either team ... though I had to sort of root for the Bears, otherwise I'd have found myself in the dog house this week.

Anyways, the Superdome is a nice facility, the game food was good, the atmosphere was great, and the game was fun as well. If you're not a fan of either team, a close game is about all you can ask for. If it's a blowout, who cares ... right? This game was close, and then with about 2 minutes to go it got fast and furious. Orton (Bears QB) threw for a touchdown with less than a minute left to put the Bears up by 1 (see picture).Then Lovie Smith had a brain fart. A squib kick got the Falcons within striking distance. Then a pass by Matt Ryan, against a prevent defense, a play later and the Falcons were looking at a 48 yard field goal with Jason Elam about to kick the rock. His long is ~63 yard (IIRC) so this was a chip shot. Of course, as time expires, he knocks it through the uprights. Game Over. Atlanta Wins.Of course, this wasn't the only mistake Lovie Smith (the Bears head coach) made that day. His decision to run J. McKie on a 3rd and 1 at the goal line (instead of running Matt Forte) was dumb, and then foregoing the field goal (when they still needed two scores) to try to punch it in on 4th down is really what cost them the game IMO. Regardless though, it was a fun time ... and dinner at The Varsity afterward capped a great day.

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Who do I thank?

Since this time last year, the cost per share in one of my mutual funds has dropped 45%. w00t!

Fortunately, I have time on my side ... others are less fortunate. What about them?

The Happening

Netflix will be delivering this movie to my door (or my mailbox as the case may be) this afternoon. It has a horrible rating over at Rotten Tomatos, and was pretty much panned before it hit the theaters, which is why the wife and I didn't shell out our hard earned ducats to see it on the big screen. But now it's a cheap rental, so what the heck! Claims of "anti-science" have been thrown about when talking about this movie ... so it'll be interesting to see just how blatant it is.

Rabies - A survivors story

I've blogged once before about rabies, and how it's a severe and often fatal disease. As a matter of fact, it's so severe that only one survivor who did not receive the rabies vaccine after being bitten is known of. Her story is up at the Scientific American website.

How did she manage to become the lone survivor? Not by luck. She had some pretty smart doctors.

Instead of giving her up for dead, the doctors decided to "shut the brain down and wait for the cavalry to come" by inducing a coma to give her own immune system time to build up antibodies against the virus, says Rodney Willoughby, an infectious disease specialist who treated Giese at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Willoughby devised the treatment credited with saving Giese there, which has since become known as the Milwaukee protocol.

Rabies kills by compromising the brain's ability to regulate breathing, salivation and heartbeat; ultimately, victims drown in their own spit or blood, or cannot breathe because of muscle spasms in their diaphragms. One fifth die from fatal heart arrhythmia. Doctors believed that Giese might survive if they suppressed her brain function by sedating her while her immune system attacked the rabies virus.

This was the first time the therapy was attempted, and doctors had no clue if it would work or, if it did, whether it would leave her brain damaged. But Willoughby says it was the only chance doctors had of saving her.

This protocol is being used to treat another girl in Colombia (she's mentioned on the first page), and it appears to be working. If so, this is a great (but rather expensive) break through.

Hail Satan!

Doll delivers Satanic message, as well as a blurb about Islam.

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Listening To

GFP!

Green Fluorescent Protein has won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry!

Ok, maybe the protein didn't actually win, but the people who characterized it did. They're Osamu Shimomura, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Martin Chalfie of Columbia University, New York, and Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego.

I remember when GFP first hit the commercial market, after the publication describing the vector pGFP (GenBank accession number U17997) by Chalfie et al. in Science in 1994 (PDF, 4 pages).

Congratulations to the winners, to GFP, and to all the wonderful uses it has found in science!

Go Fish!

Fish species takes the crown of "Deepest Living Fish Species Evar".

The fish, known as Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis, can be seen darting about in the darkness of the depths, scooping up shrimps.

Sidenote: I like how the BBC video has a volume control that goes to "11".

Have we ceased to evolve?

According to one geneticist, the human rate of evolution is slowing down.

Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could alter genetics, one of the most important mutation triggers is advanced age in men.

This is because cell divisions in males increase with age.

"Every time there is a cell division, there is a chance of a mistake, a mutation, an error," he said. "For a 29-year old father [the mean age of reproduction in the West] there are around 300 divisions between the sperm that made him and the one he passes on — each one with an opportunity to make mistakes.

"For a 50-year-old father, the figure is well over a thousand. A drop in the number of older fathers will thus have a major effect on the rate of mutation."

Congratulations ...

... to the latest Nobel Prize Winners.

Medicine
Francoise Barre-Sinoussi & Luc Montagnier (France) - Discovering HIV.
Harald zur Hausen (Germany) - Discovering cancer-causing HPV.

Yay!

My Roth IRA has lost about 25% of its value in the last couple of months, and it's set to lose a bit more in the upcoming week. And who do I think should share a large measure of responsibility in this fiasco? Barney Frank, who it seems had a little* incentive to deregulate Fannie Mae.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

*Maybe sarcasm isn't warranted here. Barney Frank had a huge incentive to fight for Fannie Mae to be deregulated. It's criminal, really.

Not a good day to be a mammal ...

... 1 in 4 mammalian species in danger of becoming extinct.

The new report updates the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, which overall includes 44,838 species, of which 16,928 are threatened with extinction. Of these, 3,246 are in the highest category of threat, critically endangered, 4,770 are endangered and 8,912 are vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN estimated that 76 mammal species have gone extinct since 1500.

That's a staggering number, and it's due primarily to man's own actions.

"Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," added Julia Marton-Lefevre, IUCN director general. "We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."

The word for today is: Conservation.

This little twirp ...

... needs a serious ass whooping for this stupidity. And his parents need to be levied a severely hefty fine, one they won't soon forget. Damn deadbeat parents.

Snowflake Sleeper Cells

Joe Biden claims:

At a Sept. 9, fundraiser, Biden addressed his national security credentials by talking about "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down. John McCain wants to know where bin Laden and the gates of Hell are? I can tell him where. That's where Al Qaida is. That's where bin Laden is."

So, his helicopter was "forced down".

John Kerry explains:

"It went pretty blind, pretty fast and we were around some pretty dangerous ridges," Kerry told The Associated Press afterward. "So the pilot exercised his judgment that we were better off putting down there, and we all agreed."

"It" being a snowstorm.

[sarcasm]Well, at least we know that Biden, as Vice-President will be able to save us from inclement weather released upon us by the terrorists.[/sarcasm]

We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to do it.

Well, at least we know it's an option.

Heaven help us ... this election is a total lost cause.

Shameless plug ...

... if something scientific in this blog tickled your fancy, nominate it at Open Laboratory 2008. Please?

If I want a camera ...

... I'll use a camera. If I want a phone, I'll use a phone. I won't use my camera to make a call. I won't use my phone to take a picture. Capeesh?

Nothing is simple anymore, is it? Besides, these extra "upgrades" to devices drain their batteries that much quicker.

While cell phone talk times generally range from 3 to 7 hours, once you add in extra duties, such as Internet use and video, all bets are off when it comes to figuring out battery life.

China: Use at your own risk ...

Sooner or later we're going to realize that China just has no control of just about anything that comes out of it. That is, until people get sick and die. Most often innocent children.

And you know what, with their aggressive population control measures, I honestly don't think the government cares if a few hundred children die. The only reason they then hunt down and kill those responsible is to put on a good face for the world in a "Hey, we don't tolerate this sort of stuff, see?" sort of way.

The reason why things are so cheap in China? They cut corners. They've got to make a profit too, right? So what makes any of us think that they're not cutting corners? It's a don't ask, don't even think about it sort of environment businesses that deal with China work in. Disgusting.

I'm honestly starting to look at where everything I buy is made. I'm not always going to find items not made in China ... heck, I doubt I'll always find items made in America (they do still make things in America, right?) ... but I'm definitely going to try. Even if it costs me a bit more in time and money. I think my health is worth it.

Death of a Postal Worker

The Post Office may not be long for this life.

The Postal Service lost $1.1 billion in its latest quarter. That number would be even larger if it weren't for direct mailings, which now constitute 52 percent of mail volume, up from 38 percent in 1990. Revenue from direct mail "is the financial underpinning of the Postal Service—it could not survive without it," says Michael Coughlin, former deputy postmaster.

But 89 percent of consumers say in polls that they'd prefer not to receive direct-marketing mail; 44 percent of it is never opened.

That's definitely not a good sign for the Postal Service. Worse yet, there is a company which, for a minimal fee, will contact businesses and tell them you want to opt out of direct-marketing mail. They're called GreenDimes. According to their website:

With GreenDimes, you can stop up to 90% of your junk mail - guaranteed. We work with you and the largest group of marketers and catalogs — over 4,500 and growing — to make sure you get only the mail you want.

Not bad, definitely a start. Plus ...

With GreenDimes, you'll make the world a better place by saving paper. We help you go farther: new Premium members, we'll plant 5 trees on your behalf. It's like growing your own tiny forest, in exchange for all your junk mail.

Woo hoo! They're green to boot. Their Premium service? $20.