A1A South

Al Fin: In a Low IQ Idiocracy, Violence Is the Cause

2010-04-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Al Fin: In a Low IQ Idiocracy, Violence Is the Cause

I've Mooooved

2008-05-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

I'm over at Wordpress now because I find their format easier to work with. I still come by occasionally to post something, but I really don't have time to work, raise livestock, and keep more than 1 blog no matter how prolifically I may write about nothing.

Address over yonder is A1A South

Click It or Ticket Time Again

2008-05-25T14:52:00.001-07:00

Once more, it is click it or ticket time when our law enforcement professionals write expensive tickets to “encourage” us to use safety belts. I’m sure the extra revenue for the state is just an added benefit.

So why would I get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt while seated inside a truck weighing a ton and some yahoo on a crotch rocket without a helmet OR a seatbelt is ticket free? Where is the sense in THAT? If this is all about public safety, shouldn’t there be mandatory helmets and safety equipment worn by motorcyclists? It almost seems as if this is not about public safety at all.

Since motorcycle riders have the right to be dumbasses and not wear helmets, I believe I should have the same right to refrain from buckling up if I don’t happen to feel like it. I hate the nanny state.

Ethanol Enthusiasm Running on Empty

2008-05-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

I was reading this in the paper, and had to chuckle to myself:

”Consumers are starting to get restless, and Washington is starting to listen,” said Morningstar analyst Ann Gilpin, who follows Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland, the country’s second-largest ethanol producer.

The ethanol market would be severely limited if Congress rolled back the federal mandate that calls for annual increases in the amount of biofuels added to the fuel supply — 9 billion gallons by the end of this year, increasing to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

That would most hurt companies that rely exclusively or primarily on ethanol, which include a mix of small, often locally-owned distillers — already under pressure since ethanol prices fell and corn prices rose sharply — as well as larger publicly traded firms like VeraSun Energy, the country’s top ethanol producer.

”If you sell one product and the only reason there’s a market for it is because the government makes a law requiring consumption — if that law goes away, obviously you’re in trouble,” Gilpin said.

Source:

Yep. If the only reason for consumption is because the government requires it, I would say that there is a problem. A really, really big one.

In its bid to halt climate change, Florida has pumped $50-million into ethanol projects in the past two years.

Is it worth it?

Florida has bet millions on unproven technology. If it works, in a decade Florida will produce enough ethanol to offset less than 2 percent of its thirst for gasoline. The state’s gamble on ethanol continues, even as new research indicates that ethanol could be far worse for the planet than gasoline.

Source:

If turning sugar into alcohol to run a vehicle is that cost effective, seems to me that there should be a still in every back yard. Why enrich some middleman paying for something that you can do yourself?

In the meantime, I’m still pissed off because the government is forcing me to buy a blend of gas and ethanol that will reduce my fuel efficiency and doesn’t save squat at the pumps.

Venezuelans Send $19 Billion out of Country

2008-03-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Capital flight out of Venezuela established a record during 2007, the Central Bank of Venezuela has reported, despite strict currency controls adopted in 2004 by President Hugo Chávez's government to limit the outflow of money.

Much of the money landed in the United States and especially Florida, a former Central Bank official and a Miami academic said.

According to recent Central Bank statistics, nearly $19 billion in private Venezuelan capital was transferred offshore during 2007 -- a record since Chávez was first elected president in 1998.

Financial analysts said the capital flight was primarily stimulated by the issue of Venezuelan dollar bonds -- designed to help countries such as Argentina and Ecuador lessen the burden of their foreign debts -- that created a loophole through which Venezuelans could dodge the currency controls.

Experts said there's also a sum of capital that could have left the country illegally but is impossible to trace.

''This is only the official figure,'' said José Guerra, the Central Bank's former chief economist. ``There is an escape of capital investments that the Central Bank cannot account for.''

Guerra said the capital flight indicates that ''there is a strong mistrust of the national currency'' and ''a great uncertainty'' on the future of Venezuela under the leftist Chávez.

A significant percentage of the money went to the United States, and especially Florida, through various means such as bank accounts, financial investments and asset purchases, said Guerra and Antonio Jorge, an economics professor at Florida International University.

''Miami is a natural destination for the escape of Venezuelan capital,'' said Jorge. He estimated that at least 60 percent of the $19 billion ended up in the United States, given that nearly 70 percent of Venezuela's international commercial exchange is with the United States.

According to the Central Bank statistics, the most active months of offshore transfers in 2007 were April, May, and June, which coincided with five issuances of bonds destined to cover public debts and part of which were offered directly in dollars for international markets.

Another period of intense outflow occurred between July and September, due to the insecurity generated by the radical constitutional reforms proposed by Chávez. They were defeated in a Dec. 2 vote.

Source: Miami Herald

The Venezuelans with money do not seem enamored of the Hugo Chavez economic plans, particularly if they suspect that he will get around to nationalizing all profitable companies in Venezuela in time.

Bird Flu Kills 11-Year-Old Vietnamese Boy

2008-03-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

HANOI, March 17 (Reuters) - Bird flu has killed a 11-year-old boy in northern Vietnam, the fifth casualty from the H5N1 virus this year, a health official said on Monday.

The boy died last Friday at a Hanoi hospital, more than a week after he had fallen sick, and tests confirmed he was infected by the H5N1 virus, said Nguyen Lap Quyet, Health Department Director in Ha Nam province.

"Controlling bird flu has been difficult because poultry raising is not on a large scale but still on a family basis," Quyet said by telephone from Ha Nam, about 60 km (37 miles) south of Hanoi.

He said animal health workers have slaughtered all the poultry in the boy's neighbourhood to prevent the virus from spreading.

"Even after vaccination has been completed locally, farmers buy poultry to add to their stocks and that could help spread the virus if the new birds are not vaccinated," he said.

Chickens raised at the boy's house in Liem Tiet commune in Ha Nam died in late February and he got sick on March 5.

The Animal Health Department said on Monday that Ha Nam was on the government's bird flu watch list of 10 provinces and the capital, Hanoi.

In June 2007 bird flu infected and killed a 28-year-old woman in the same commune of Liem Tiet in Ha Nam province.

Five people have died of bird flu in Vietnam so far this year out of six reported H5N1 infections.

Source: Reuters

Florida Democrats Abandon Plans for Second Primary

2008-03-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

TALLAHASSEE, FL (AP) -- Facing strong opposition, Florida Democrats on Monday abandoned plans to hold a do-over presidential primary with a mail-in vote and threw the delegate dispute into the lap of the national party.

While the decision by Florida Democrats left the state's 210 delegates in limbo, Democrats in Michigan moved closer to holding another contest on June 3. Legislative leaders reviewed a measure Monday that would set up a privately funded, state-administered do-over primary, The Associated Press learned.

Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Karen L. Thurman sent a letter announcing the decision.

"A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the party were to pay for it," Thurman said. "... This doesn't mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April."

Members of Florida's congressional delegation unanimously opposed the plan, and Barack Obama expressed concern about the security of a mail-in vote organized so quickly.

The national party punished Michigan and Florida for moving up their primaries before Feb. 5, stripping them of all their delegates to the party's national convention this summer in Denver. All the Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the two states, and Obama was not even on the Michigan ballot.

Hillary Rodham Clinton won both primaries. As her race with Obama has tightened, she has argued the delegates should be seated or new primaries held.

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who backs Clinton, has suggested one option -- seating all Florida delegates already chosen but only giving them half a vote each. Nelson discussed this idea with Clinton and Obama on the Senate floor last week.

Based on the Jan. 29 results, Clinton would have won 105, Obama 67 and John Edwards 13. Instead they would get half those delegate votes.

Republicans stripped Florida and Michigan of half their delegates as a penalty for early primaries.

The draft Michigan legislation included language that would approve spending privately raised funds for the election, according to a Democratic leader who spoke on condition of anonymity because lawmakers and the campaigns are still considering the proposal.

The campaigns of the Democratic presidential contenders also received copies of the bill Monday.

"A re-vote is the only way Michigan can be assured its delegation will be seated, and vote in Denver at the party's national convention this summer, Clinton campaign aide Harold Ickes said Monday. "If the Obama campaign thwarts a fair election process for the people of Michigan, it will jeopardize the Democratic nominee's ability to carry the state in the general election."

Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "It's pretty apparent that the Clinton campaign's views on voting are dependent on their own political interest. Hillary Clinton herself said in January that the Michigan primary 'didn't count for anything.' Now, she is cynically trying to change the rules at the eleventh hour for her own benefit. We received a very complex proposal for Michigan re-vote legislation today and are reviewing it to make sure that any solution for Michigan is fair and practical. We continue to believe a fair seating of the delegation deserves strong consideration."

The Democrat-led House is scheduled to leave for a two-week vacation Thursday, so any bills to set up the do-over primary need to be brought up quickly. The measure also would have to be approved by the Republican-controlled state Senate. To be given immediate effect, the measure would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.

To go forward, any plan also would require the approval of the two campaigns, the Democratic National Committee, state party leaders and Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is backing Clinton.

The contest must be held by June 10 for the results to count under DNC rules. The draft measure would set up the a fund within the state Treasury to receive up to $12 million in cash and other assets from private donors to cover the cost of the election.

On Monday in Atlanta, federal appeals judges skeptically questioned a lawyer who argued that the national party's decision to strip Florida of its 210 convention delegates was unconstitutional.

Michael Steinberg, a lawyer for Victor DiMaio, a Democratic Party activist from Tampa, said Florida's Democratic voters are being disenfranchised by not being permitted to have their say in the selection of their party's nominee. The action violates DiMaio's constitutional right to equal protection, he argued.

"The citizens of the state of Florida are not being treated equally," Steinberg told the judges.

But Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the Democratic National Committee, said the party has the right to set its own the rules and not seat delegates who refuse to follow them.

"It goes to the heart of the constitutional right of the DNC to determine the best means of selecting delegates to the convention," Sandler said.

Sounding skeptical of Steinberg's equal protection argument, the judges noted in their questions that states select their presidential picks in different ways -- some use caucuses and others primaries -- and on different days. Judge Stanley Marcus suggested at one point that the only way to treat all the states equally, under Steinberg's theory, was for them to all hold their primaries on the same day.

Not so, Steinberg said. He said one solution might be to rotate the states so that each gets a shot at being in the first round.

Source: First Coast News

Exactly right. We already had the primary.

Jacksonville Port Authority Tries to Lock Up Korean Terminal Deal

2008-03-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

JACKSONVILLE -- The Jacksonville Port Authority's No. 2 executive will be in South Korea the week of March 17 working to finish a development and lease contract to build the port's biggest container terminal.

The authority and Hanjin Shipping Company Ltd. have been negotiating since signing a memorandum of understanding Oct. 18, 2007, at Hanjin's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, regarding a proposed 170-acre terminal.

Negotiations have been tough, said Ron Baker, the authority's chief financial officer and deputy executive director, with both sides looking out for their stakeholders' interests. But despite the memorandum of understanding's expiration date looming in mid-April, he's confident his trip will close or nearly close the deal.

The memorandum of understanding calls for the port authority to finance $230 million to develop the terminal and $120 million to pay for equipment and other operational resources. It also calls for Hanjin to pay the principal and interest on such financing.

"We've been crystal clear from the outset that the financial responsibility for the terminal will be theirs," Baker said. "If someone wants to come here, they have to have skin in the game."

The time between the initial announcement and signing a lease contract has been longer than what was seen with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., which will open a $230 million, 158-acre container terminal in January 2009.

Read the rest in Jacksonville Business Journal.

It's for the good of Jacksonville, I suppose, but the expansion of the port meant that a lovely, quiet neighborhood on the river with lots of old oak trees was razed to make way for it. I doubt that the payment that the families received for their block and brick houses could buy them a similar-sized lot on the river anywhere in Jacksonville.

Compound Removes Radioactive Material from Power Plant Waste

2008-03-14T17:26:00.000-07:00

ARGONNE, Ill. (March 13, 2008) — Strontium 90 is a common radioactive by-product of fission in nuclear power plants. When extracted from the reactor along with other isotopes, a mixture is created made up of the radioactive material and inert ions like sodium and calcium.

Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University have developed a compound that captures the radioactive ions so they can be siphoned off and separated from inert material.

"The layered sulfides used work quite well," scientist Mercouri Kanatzidis said. “We even surprised ourselves.”

This mixture is often incredibly acidic or alkaline, making it difficult to find a compound that can survive long enough to extract the strontium and not react with the sodium, which is harmless.

Kanatzidis and colleague Manolis Manos created a synthetic compound made up of sulfides that can survive in the harsh acidic or alkaline climate of the mixture and strip away 99 percent of the strontium 90.

“The material is remarkably simple and can be created in large quantities at a relatively low cost,” Kanatzidis said.

The synthetic compound trades its own potassium ions for strontium and can almost completely replace the radioactive element within a few hours.

The next step is to experiment with the compound's ability to siphon away other common radioactive elements like cesium and uranium.

Funding for the project was through Northwestern University and the National Science Foundation.

The research has been published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Argonne National Laboratory

That should certainly help with reducing the volume of radioactive waste to be sequestered for the next several thousand years, although I remain optimistic that a way will be found to neutralize that, as well.

Democrats Say Mail-In Re-Vote in Florida Unlikely

2008-03-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

TALLAHASSEE - Looking for a do-over vote to resolve Florida's disputed Democratic presidential primary? Don't count on it.

Florida's Democratic leaders Thursday all but pulled the plug on the day-old idea of a mail-in mulligan election to ensure the state gets a say in the historic battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. State party officials said they have just a few days to get fighting factions to embrace a new round of voting that would end on June 3.

"I know that it won't happen," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat and Obama supporter. All nine of Florida's Democrats in the U.S. House reiterated their strong opposition to the re-vote plan on Thursday.

TALLAHASSEE - Looking for a do-over vote to resolve Florida's disputed Democratic presidential primary? Don't count on it.

Florida's Democratic leaders Thursday all but pulled the plug on the day-old idea of a mail-in mulligan election to ensure the state gets a say in the historic battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. State party officials said they have just a few days to get fighting factions to embrace a new round of voting that would end on June 3.

"I know that it won't happen," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat and Obama supporter. All nine of Florida's Democrats in the U.S. House reiterated their strong opposition to the re-vote plan on Thursday.

Read the rest HERE:

The candidates are worried about possibly "disenfranchising" voters who are back up north for the summer; i.e., people that are registered in their home states as well.

A Month After Explosion at Sugar Refinery, 13th Victim Dies

2008-03-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Officials said another burn patient has died of injuries suffered in an explosion and fire at a sugar refinery, bringing the death toll to 13. A little more than a month after the Feb. 7 blast at the Imperial Sugar plant in Port Wentworth, six other patients remained Friday in critical condition at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta.Four are in serious condition.

Source: News4Jax
How heartbreaking for the family members to have their loved ones go through so much fighting to survive and then, after all that they have been through, to die. My deepest sympathies to you all.

How Alligators Rock and Roll

2008-03-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

March 13, 2008 - Without a ripple in the water, alligators dive, surface or roll sideways, even though they lack flippers or fins. University of Utah biologists discovered gators maneuver silently by using their diaphragm, pelvic, abdominal and rib muscles to shift their lungs like internal floatation devices: toward the tail when they dive, toward the head when they surface and sideways when they roll.

"It allows them to navigate a watery environment without creating a lot of disturbance," says doctoral student T.J. Uriona. "This is probably really important while they are trying to sneak up on an animal but don't want to create ripples."

The discovery in American alligators suggests "special muscles that manipulate the position of the lungs - and thus the center of buoyancy - may be an underappreciated but important means for other aquatic animals to maneuver in water without actively swimming," says C.G. Farmer, an assistant professor of biology.

Those animals include crocodiles, African clawed frogs, some salamanders, turtles and manatees, she adds, noting that the use of muscles to move the lungs may be "incredibly important or you would not see it evolve repeatedly.

The study by Uriona and Farmer will be published in the April 2008 issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology, which is set for online publication Friday, March 14.

The researchers found that alligators are somewhat like pilots using controls to adjust an aircraft's pitch and roll, except the reptiles' controls are muscles that help them shift their lungs backward to dive, forward to surface or sideways to roll.

Farmer says the new study asked how gators "manage to maneuver so gracefully without the fins and flippers used by fish, seals and other adept swimmers."

"The secret to their aquatic agility lies in the use of several muscles, such as the diaphragmatic muscle, to shift the position of their lungs. The gases in the lungs buoy up the animal, but if shifted forward and backward cause the animal to pivot in a seesaw motion. When the animals displace gases to the right or left side of the body, they roll."

Uriona says that during the Triassic Period, which began 250 million years ago, the crocodilian ancestors of alligators were cat-sized animals that lived only on land.

"Until now, it was believed the diaphragmatic muscle evolved to help them breathe and run at the same time," he says. "Showing they are actually using it to move around in water gives an alternative explanation for why the muscle evolved."

It also suggests the muscle didn't evolve until after crocodilians took to the water during the Cretaceous Period, which began 145 million years ago. During that time alligators' ancestors also evolved a flattened skull, shorter limbs and a big tail.

Source: University of Utah

Fascinating article. If you are interested in how alligators can shift their lungs to help them swim, click the link and read the rest!

Bird Flu Kills 4 Endangered Vietnamese Civets

2008-03-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

HANOI, March 11 (Reuters) - Bird flu killed four civets in a Vietnamese national park, the second time the rare type of mammal was reported to have died there of the H5N1 virus since 2005, a park official said on Tuesday.

Four endangered Owston's palm civets died early last month at Cuc Phuong park and tests of their samples found they had the H5N1 virus, the official said.

"Visitors are not allowed to come near the civet's area now," the official said by telephone from the park about 90 km (55 miles) south of Hanoi in Ninh Binh province.

In June 2005 three civets, born in captivity and raised in the same cage, died at the park and tests later confirmed they had been infected by bird flu, park officials said. The park has eight of the rare cat-like civets left.

Civets eat pork, worms and fruit, but not poultry.

However, Ninh Binh is one of nine locations where outbreaks have been detected among poultry in the past month, including a farm outside Hanoi, the Animal Health Department said.

It is not the first time that bird flu has killed exotic animals. The H5N1 virus has infected ostriches in South Africa, a clouded leopard and tigers in Thailand.

One of China's top doctors has said that the H5N1 virus has shown signs of mutation and can kill humans more easily if treatment is not given early enough, newspapers reported on Tuesday [ID:nHKG228879].

The H5N1 virus has infected 368 people around the world since 2003, killing 234 of them, including 51 in Vietnam.

Experts fear it could trigger a pandemic killing millions if it ever transmits efficiently among people. (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; editing by Grant McCool and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: Reuters

Cats have also been shown to become infected by H5N1. Perhaps that explains this:

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.

Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.
Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.

Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females - were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children.

China's leaders are convinced that animals pose a serious urban health risk and may have contributed to the outbreak of SARS - a deadly respiratory virus - in 2003

Source: Daily Mail

Meanwhile, rats will be overrunning Chinese cities.

Nuke Plant Price Triples

2008-03-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

Progress Energy tripled its estimate for its new nuclear power plant in Levy County, saying Monday that the new price is $17-billion.

Customers could start paying for it next year, with the average residential customer facing an increase of about $9 a month.

"You can't avoid the notion that nuclear has an upfront cost for the customer," said Jeff Lyash, president and chief executive of Progress Energy Florida. "It does."

Gov. Charlie Crist said he'll continue to support nuclear power. It will make a critical contribution to the state's fuel diversity and energy independence, he said. It's worth the rising cost.

"I think this is an investment in Florida's future that is important to make," he said Monday. "It will ultimately result in lower costs for customers because of the rising costs of oil and natural gas."

New nuclear will pay off, Lyash argued. Without it, customers would end up paying an additional $1-billion a year for fuels like natural gas. Fossil fuels would end up providing 85 percent of the utility's electricity within a decade. Greenhouse gas emissions would continue to rise.

With nuclear, fuel will be cheaper, reliance on fossil fuel will wane, and greenhouse gases will decline, Lyash said.

The St. Petersburg utility plans to give more details to state regulators today, including how the plant will impact monthly bills. Under Florida law, Progress Energy can start to bill customers for financing and preconstruction costs years before a new plant goes into service.

Lyash estimated that the customers' monthly bills will increase an average 3 percent to 4 percent a year over the next decade but are expected to spike as construction intensifies.

Despite Lyash's assurances, the new price could leave some with sticker shock. The number will reverberate throughout the Southeast, where at least five similar projects have been announced. Utilities have said that surging prices for commodities like steel and concrete have driven up the cost of new nuclear, but Progress Energy is the first to offer a firm estimate.

In recent weeks, the much vaunted "nuclear renaissance" has shown signs of weakening, as the rising price erodes support. South Carolina Electric & Gas, along with two subsidiaries of Southern Co., have already delayed their plans. In January, a utility pulled the plug on a planned nuclear plant in Idaho.

"We're seeing some of the utilities backing off," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Lyash emphasized that Progress Energy has not yet decided to build a new nuclear plant in Florida. The utility decided to go ahead with its application to state regulators today because it still believes that nuclear is the best option in terms of cost and environmental impact, Lyash said.

The utility paid more than $80-million for 5,200 acres in Levy County, about 10 miles north of its Crystal River power plant. It plans to build two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, with a capacity of 1,100 megawatts each.

Smith says that costs could continue to balloon, even as lower cost options like energy efficiency get passed by, and that politicians need to reassess their support before customers start paying for it.

"Until the state of Florida has really squeezed every last drop that it can out of energy efficiency, the state of Florida needs to think about giving utilities access to customers' pocketbooks to pay for these massive construction costs," Smith said.

The nuclear industry disagrees.

"I think no matter what technology you select, there's going to be sticker shock," said Adrian Heymer, senior director of new plant deployment with the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group. "The customer needs to look at the long term: If you don't choose nuclear, what are you going to choose?"

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 813 225-3117.

New nuclear prospects in Florida:

What happened?

Progress Energy asked state regulators for permission to build two new nuclear reactors in Levy County. The utility also announced a new price of $17-billion, tripling the estimate offered a little more than a year ago.

Why did prices go up?

The cost of commodities like steel and cement have increased substantially, pushing up the cost of any power plant. Progress Energy's new estimate also includes a $2-billion to $3-billion transmission project, as well as the cost of land, financing, labor, fees and fuel. Early estimates didn't include those costs, the utility said.

What are the other options?

Worries over greenhouse gases have killed new coal projects in Florida. The backup plan is natural gas, which is very expensive and subject to wide price swings. New greenhouse gas regulations could also add to the cost of burning fossil fuels. Nuclear power emits no greenhouse gases, and the fuel is relatively inexpensive.

What's next?

The Florida Public Service Commission has scheduled three days of hearings starting May 21. Progress Energy will also have to file a site certification application with the Department of Environmental Protection and a license application with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The utility plans to file both of those applications this year. The federal licensing application could take two to three years. Progress Energy wants to have the first reactor on line in 2016, and the second completed the following year.

Source: Progress Energy Florida

Source: St. Petersburg Times

Maybe it's just me, but I can't see charging consumers for construction costs YEARS before a new plant even gets built.

Florida Faces Even Larger Budget Shortfall

2008-03-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's sagging economy has slowed down more dramatically than even the most pessimistic state forecasters had predicted, leaving lawmakers Tuesday with $2.9 billion less than they expected and guaranteeing painful cuts will affect everything from classrooms to hospitals and prisons.

State economists said Tuesday that all state revenues -- from sales taxes to documentary stamp taxes to corporate income taxes -- have fallen sharply behind forecasts. Many warned that the outlook will not likely improve until at least 2009.

''We're in a recession,'' said Don Langston, the House of Representatives' chief economist and a member of the Revenue Estimating Conference, which prepared Tuesday's report. ``Not all economists would agree, but probably a lot of the stuff that's been happening in Florida has not shown up yet nationally.''

Lawmakers, dealing with money woes even before Tuesday's forecast, have begun pushing bills this session to reduce prison populations, including decriminalizing driving with a suspended license and looking at whether to reduce criminal penalties and mandatory-minimum sentences.

SIGNS WERE THERE

Economists said that many of the signs of the ''bleak'' revenue picture -- a slumping housing market, higher gas prices, a decline in tourism, lower consumer spending and a drop in corporate profits -- have been mounting for several months, but none of the forecasters realized it would be this bad.

The news is dour for both the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and the new one that begins July 1. For the current year, lawmakers had already cut $1.1 billion in October from the $70 billion budget they approved in May, and will now have another $1 billion less.

The grim budget news came on the eve of a legislative vote Wednesday on a $512 million budget-cutting package for the current year. House leaders said lawmakers will tap unspent reserve money to cover the rest of the $1 billion shortfall.

For the coming fiscal year, lawmakers already expected to have $2.5 billion less than forecast last year. On Tuesday, they were told that number will be $4.4 billion.

MAKE PRIORITIES

Gov. Charlie Crist remained upbeat, although he quipped that the professional economists' predictions were as reliable as a weather forecast.

''It's going to be hard, there's no question about it,'' he told a gathering of Orlando businessmen and women. ``We'll determine what the most important things are to fund first -- from my perspective, it's education and public safety -- and we're not going to raise taxes.''

The refusal by the governor and Republican legislative leaders to consider any ideas to increase state revenues has many Democrats fuming. Many say they probably won't vote for budget cuts for this year or the next, not only because they can bash the financial stewardship of Republicans in an election year, but because they believe that the failure to avoid cuts in crucial government programs is irresponsible.

House Speaker Marco Rubio, a West Miami Republican, said House economists ''saw this coming'' because Florida was being ''disproportionately'' hit by the economic downturns.

But he said that the dire forecast is not about the state budget or state stewardship.

''We're not in a budget crisis,'' he said. ``These budgetary numbers that you are seeing here are the reflection of an economy that is suffering, not of a government that is suffering.''

Rubio said that it's not the government's job to stimulate the economy, but to create the conditions that stimulate it by encouraging spending and entrepreneurship.

THE CONSEQUENCES

In the meantime, legislators will have to address the effects of the economy -- such as increasing crime rates and prison population. A Senate committee heard Tuesday that Florida needs 11,300 more beds and two new prisons annually for the next five years to keep pace.

The budget cuts are also prompting cries from hospitals, especially the 14 ''safety net'' hospitals that provide the bulk of care to the uninsured and poor. They say their reimbursement rates through Medicaid are already too low, and a plan by legislators to freeze rates by more than $100 million next year will cripple them.

Miami Children's Hospital, for example, would face about $7.3 million in cuts, which is equivalent to 462 average hospital stays for children or 26,000 emergency-room visits.

''We'll still provide the care, but it makes it tougher to fulfill our core mission: to provide care for children who are sick,'' said Nancy Humbert, a hospital vice president.

As for the current year budget, lawmakers are expected to pass it Wednesday, and Crist said he will sign it. He said he was satisfied that lawmakers have ''done a very good job'' and avoided some of the worst cuts.

Source: Miami Herald

With gas prices up this winter, tourism was down a bit; however, I expect the record snowfalls up north probably helped us there. With the dollar being low, we're still well-positioned as a great tourist value for the foreign travelers, although I expect our tourism from within the country will drop precipitiously unless the oil bubble bursts between now and the end of summer.

As for the increasing crime rates....well, until such time as it becomes "cool" for our young to continue their educations instead of dropping out with burglary, armed robbery and dealing drugs becoming their career options, I expect it will continue to increase. Uneducated kids that were good with their hands used to be able to work construction and landscaping; however, they've been replaced on the job by illegal aliens. Whether they've been replaced because the illegal aliens are here to work and actually show up on Monday morning or whether it is because they are cheaper to hire is up to you to decide.

Shoplifting Moms use Kids as Accomplices

2008-03-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Two women face felony theft charges, but police said the woman forced their children -- one as young as 6 -- to do the dirty work.

Police said Jessica Diaz, 30, and Luz Gimenez, 29, and their five children were caught in the act of stealing $1,100 worth of clothing and jewelry from the JC Penney store at Regency Square Mall.

"Absolutely deplorable," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Melissa Bujeda said. "There's no other words that can state why a parent would do this and would put their own children in this type of position."

According to the arrest report, Diaz and Gimenez had each of their children carry empty purses into the department store on Sunday. While the women were shopping, they were handing off jewelry and clothes for their children to take into a dressing room.

Store employees got suspicious when they saw the children go in and out of the dressing room about 10 times, each time bringing items in, but never taking anything out.

"Employees actually heard these women telling the children to conceal the items in the bags and purses," Bujeda said.

The children apparently resisted participating in the scheme. The report said that employees heard Diaz yelling and cursing at the children, demanding that they conceal the items.

"They were definitely facilitating this crime," Bujeda said. "It's sad. These parents are supposed to be raising them as good kids."

The two women were arrested and charged with grand theft and contributing to the delinquency of a child. They were released on bond.

Police said the Department of Children and Families was notified of the incident and the children were released to other family members.

Source: News4Jax, FirstCoastNews.

Like they're actually going to show up for trial.

Sugar Refinery Victims Face Long Recovery

2008-03-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- Three weeks after the explosion, Paul Seckinger opened his eyes for the first time in his hospital bed, looked up and smiled weakly at his mother.

Two days later, his mother says, doctors had to halt surgery as they worked to repair the second- and third-degree burns over 80 percent of Seckinger's body because his lungs had filled with fluid and his blood pressure plummeted. When his mother got back in to see him, she saw terror in the eyes that held so much hope the days before.

"His eyes were open real big and he was just looking at me like, `Mom, help me.' It was very scary," says Karen Seckinger, still shaken by her son's sudden turn.

Nearly a month after a blast that killed 12 workers from the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga., 11 others remain hospitalized at the nation's largest burn center - eight of them in critical condition. They face a long, painful roller-coaster ride to recovery, with peaks of progress followed by terrifying drops.

As of earlier this week, the refinery workers at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta occupied nearly half of the intensive care unit's 25 rooms, each with large windows that let nurses keep an eye on every patient at all times.

In general, the prognosis for victims of severe burns is poor. And most of the Imperial Sugar workers are in grave condition.

Family members must scrub their hands and put on gowns and masks before entering the hospital rooms; with much of their skin burned away, the victims run a high risk of infection.

They have tubes in their throats to help them breathe. Feeding tubes constantly pump nutrients into them, even during surgery, as their bodies ravenously consume energy to heal. As many as 13 bags of intravenous fluids at a time drip vitamins, electrolytes, painkillers and anti-anxiety medicines into each patient's veins. Dialysis machines filter wastes from their blood to keep their kidneys from overworking. The pain would be excruciating if they weren't heavily medicated.

"It's going to be a day-by-day thing to see if they make it through it," says Dr. Jeff Mullins, the burn center's medical director.

Changing a single patient's bandages, something done at least once a day, can take two hours. Each one's vital signs must be checked hourly, so the burn center assigns one nurse per patient, day and night. The 11 will probably be at the burn center for several more months.

Eight of the dead were found in the wreckage of the plant, which was flattened by an explosion that investigators blamed on combustible sugar dust igniting. Four more victims died at the burn center in the weeks that followed; the most recent death was Feb. 26.

According to the American Burn Association, the U.S. mortality rate is 57 percent or higher among patients who suffered severe burns over 70 percent of the body or more.

Still, the deaths of the refinery workers at the Augusta burn center have hit its nursing staff hard. Clinical nurse manager Lynn Dowling sheds tears when asked about them.

"That's when we realize it's out of our control," Dowling says. "You're caring for a patient day after day and you're pouring your whole heart into everything you do to save a life, because you know he's the father of a small child or a newlywed."

The refinery victims have entered a critical stage of their recovery. This week, doctors began covering their burns with permanent skin grafts from a Boston laboratory that uses small skin samples from patients to grow new skin in test tubes. The procedure, developed in the 1970s, is used mostly for burn victims who do not have enough healthy skin left on their bodies to use for grafts.

Because the laboratory skin is grown from patients' own cells, it is not rejected by their immune systems like the skin from cadavers and pigs that is used to cover their burns temporarily.

On Tuesday, Mullins used a staple gun to attach 56 pieces of the lab-grown skin - each the size of a playing card - to the left leg of 19-year-old refinery worker Lawrence Manker Jr., who had raw burns from his ankle to his hip. Manker will need two or three more operations for his other leg and arms.

The new skin restores a protective barrier against infection and helps restore the body's ability to regulate its temperature, the reason Mullins' operating room is kept at a toasty 85 degrees. Still, it will take a year for the skin grafts to thicken and become more durable.

"It's very, very fragile," Mullins says. "It's only four to six cell layers thick, so it's thinner than onion paper. A good breeze could blow it off until it becomes attached."

Seckinger's lungs were seared in the accident. But his face wasn't disfigured; the 33-year-old machine maintenance worker and single father of an 8-year-old girl apparently shielded himself with his hands and arms, which were badly burned.

In the waiting rooms, the wives, parents, brothers and sisters of the refinery victims spend their days swapping stories and updates on their loved ones in the long stretches between visiting hours - or visiting half-hours, mostly. Most of the visitors are 140 miles from home.

Every morning, noon and afternoon, they gather outside the ICU for 30-minute visits. They get one full hour every evening. They stand at the patient's bedside offering words of encouragement and prayers and looking for any sign of response.

Jenny Purnell got more than she expected from her husband, 23-year-old Justin Purnell, when he looked up at her and moved his mouth this week. With a breathing tube in his throat, he couldn't speak, but she managed to read his lips.

"He opened his eyes and said, `Good morning,' and then he said, `I love you,'" Jenny says. "Just the littlest things through all this make you feel so much better."

She last heard her husband's voice the night of Feb. 7, when he called her on his cell phone from inside the refinery. Something had blown up, he told her, and she needed to call 911. He phoned back a few minutes later to tell her he had made it outside OK before the phone went dead.

The families have received an outpouring of donations. They are getting ready to move from hotels into apartments - another reminder of the long recovery ahead - paid for by Imperial Sugar. Church groups deliver hot meals such as fried chicken and lasagna twice a day. The burn center's foundation gives them $50 gas cards for trips home.

Hattie Frazier's son, refinery floor manager Malcolm Frazier, worked in the packing department that took the brunt of the Feb. 7 explosion. A co-worker, his mother says, found him on the floor of the burning building and dragged him to safety. He suffered second- and third-degree burns on 85 percent of his body.

Malcolm had planned to take a week off this month to take a trip with his parents to celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary March 14. Now they will be spending it at the burn center, where visiting four times a day is too much for Malcolm's mother.

"I go in once a day and pray for him, but it's real hard," she says. "To see him open his eyes, but he can't say anything, it's too much to go through. But I let him know I'll be here as long as he's here.

Source: FirstCoastNews

My prayers and best wishes go out to the burn victims and their families in this tense time of waiting while the patients remain in grave danger and great pain.

GT: Low-cost Reusable Material Could Facilitate Carbon Dioxide Capture

2008-03-08T06:15:00.000-08:00

Atlanta (March 6, 2008) —Researchers have developed a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and other generators of the greenhouse gas. Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the new material has a high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – and can be reused many times.

Combined with improved heat management techniques, the new material could provide a cost-effective way to capture large quantities of carbon dioxide from coal-burning facilities. Existing CO2 capture techniques involve the use of solid materials that lack sufficient stability for repeated use – or liquid adsorbents that are expensive and require significant amounts of energy.

“This is something that you could imagine scaling up for commercial use,” said Christopher Jones, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Our material has the combination of high capacity, easy synthesis, low cost and a robust ability to be recycled – all the key criteria for an adsorbent that would be used on an industrial scale.”

Details of the new material, known as hyperbranched aluminosilica (HAS), are scheduled to appear in the March 19th issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Growing concern over increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide has prompted new interest in techniques for removing the gas from the smokestacks of such large-scale sources as coal-fired electric power plants. But to minimize the economic impact, the cost of adding such controls must be minimized so it doesn’t raise the price of electricity significantly.

Once removed from the stack gases, the CO2 might be sequestered in the deep ocean, in mined-out coal seams or in depleted petroleum reservoirs. If the CO2 capture and sequestration process can be made practical, America’s large resources of coal could be used with less impact on global climate change.

Working with Department of Energy scientists Daniel Fauth and McMahan Gray, Jones and graduate students Jason Hicks and Jeffrey Drese developed a way to add CO2-adsorbing amine polymer groups to a solid silica substrate using covalent bonding. The strong chemical bonds make the material robust enough to be reused many times.

“Given the volumes involved, you must be able to recycle the adsorbent material for the process to be cost-effective,” said Jones. “Otherwise, you would be creating large and expensive waste streams of adsorbent.”

Production of the HAS material is relatively simple, and requires only the mixing of the silica substrate with a precursor of the amine polymer in solution. The amine polymer is initiated on the silica surface, producing a solid material that can be filtered out and dried.

To test the effectiveness of their new material, the Georgia Tech researchers passed simulated flue gases through tubes containing a mixture of sand and HAS. The CO2 was adsorbed at temperatures ranging from 50 to 75 degrees Celsius. Then the HAS was heated to between 100 and 120 degrees Celsius to drive off the gas so the adsorbent could be used again.

The researchers tested the material across 12 cycles of adsorption and desorption, and did not measure a significant loss of capacity. The HAS material can adsorb up to 5 times as much carbon dioxide as some of the best existing reusable materials.

The HAS material works in the presence of moisture, an unavoidable by-product of the combustion process.

Adsorption of the CO2 generates considerable amounts of heat, which must be managed and thermally recycled. Removal of the carbon dioxide requires heating the adsorbent.

“How to manage this heat is one of the most critical issues controlling the economics of a potential large scale process,” Jones added. “You must control the production of heat by the adsorption step, and you don’t want to put any more energy into the desorption process than necessary.”

Because of their chemical structure, the amine groups provide three different classes of binding sites for carbon dioxide, each with a different binding energy. Optimizing the production of binding sites is a goal for future research, Jones said.

Beyond the material, other components of the separation and sequestration process must also be improved and optimized before it can become a practical technique for removing CO2 from flue gases. The best way to expose the flue gases to the adsorbent material is also key issue.

“There are many pieces that must fit together to make the overall economics of carbon dioxide capture and sequestration work,” Jones added. “The biggest challenge for this whole field of research right now is to do this as inexpensively as possible. We think that our class of materials – a hyperbranched amine polymer bound to a solid support – is potentially ideal because it is simple to make, reusable and has a high capacity.”

Source: Georgia Tech

Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

Media Relations Contacts: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (jtoon@gatech.edu) or Abby Vogel (404-385-3364); E-mail: (avogel@gatech.edu).

Technical Contact: Christopher Jones (404-385-1683); E-mail: (christopher.jones@chbe.gatech.edu).

Well, this may allay the fears of those that think carbon dioxide is a killer pollutant.

"But I Don't WANT to Get Married"

2008-03-08T05:13:00.000-08:00

Jacob told his mommy he wanted to talk to MeeMaw. “MeeMaw’s not home”, she told him. He wanted to know where his MeeMaw was. (MeeMaws are not supposed to leave the house to do mundane things like go to work with the only exception being when they are on the way to pick up grandchildren or buy presents. Everybody knows that.)

“MeeMaw is out buying a present!” mommy told him.

“A present? Why MeeMaw buying a present?” asked Jake. The only possible answer would be that MeeMaw is out buying a present for him.

“Because we’re going to a party tomorrow, and we have to bring presents!” answered mommy.

Jacob was still puzzled. “MeeMaw going to party too? She bring presents for me?”

Mommy explained that we were going to bring presents for the people that were getting married tomorrow, at which point Jacob started crying inconsolably.

“Jacob, what is wrong with you?”

“But I don’t WANT to get married!” wailed Jacob.

Jacob called later and told me that he wanted new shoes with lights that flash.

“So you want me to get you flashing shoes, is that right?”

“Yes! And MeeMaw, I going to stay with Poppa, and we eat ice cream and cookies, okay? We not go to party, okay?”

Three years old, and ready to be a committed bachelor just like his Poppa.

Remodeled Grocery Store Blues

2008-03-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

After squishing through the mud and standing water to feed the livestock, it was finally time to feed me and the SwampMan and way, way past time to go to the grocery store. I was soaking wet with hay stuck all over my jacket, hair dripping under the feed store cap, and boots with that eau de barnyard aroma. What the heck, it’s Friday night and everybody I know should be eating out anyway.

The store is a mess. They’re gutting the place for remodeling but remaining open during the process. I thought that they were maybe getting a few new fixtures, perhaps replacing the floor tiles for something that matched, but….walking through the produce section heralds the changes to come. Everything is “organic”. And expensive. There were baby organically grown squash for $6.00 a pound in tasteful fixtures under dramatic lighting, apparently so that I wouldn’t stop to think “why the hell would I be paying $6.00 a pound for damn squash?” There were lots of Asian veggies and noodles and tofu by the pound. I furtively glanced around at my fellow shoppers to see if any o’ them were rushing in to pick up the tofu or the meatless soy “hamburger”. They were gazing at the new produce displays like they would look at fragile objects with a “you break, you buy” sign next to them; i.e., from a safe distance. I didn’t see any $6.00 a lb. baby squash being taken home to dinner.

Apparently slicing watermelon in half or ordinary slices is not good enough; the watermelon were cut into isosceles trapezoids and displayed. Now I’m going to feel all inadequate if I just hack the melon in two with a cleaver.

I decided to pass on the $4.00 per pound green beans as well. Wait until I tell mom that the green beans that she gives away to the neighbors are far superior to the supermarket’s $4.00 a pound varieties. She might go ahead and put in a couple acres worth and sell hers for $3 a pound to supplement her retirement check.

I ended up with a loaf of fresh-baked Italian bread, cheese, various varieties of genoa salami and pepperoni from the deli, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, and Greek salad peppers to make open-faced sandwiches under the broiler so the cheese would be all nice and melty, and then layer the marinated artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, and Greek salad peppers to taste. It wasn’t trendy, organic, nor low fat, but it was quick and tasty comfort food on a rainy evening.

Increasing Food Quality Risks are Affecting Global Food Supply Chain

2008-03-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

Clemson, N.C. – March 6, 2008 – A new study from the Journal of Supply Chain Management illustrates the real potential for contamination of globally sourced foods and proposes a conceptual framework of supply chain quality management.

Led by Aleda V. Roth of Clemson University with co-authors Andy Tsay of Santa Clara University, Madeleine Pullman of Portland State University, and John Gray of Ohio State University, the study utilized information from trends of U.S. food imports from China, subsequent recall events, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data to highlight the inherent difficulties and risks posed by global food supply chains.

Various quality problems have been associated with foods and ingredients imported from China. There exists limited capacity of current regulatory bodies to police product flows, including lack of enforcement by the FDA. Problems often arise when pursuit of profit is not held in check by regulatory forces, resulting in noncompliance with laws and standards, and even corruption. These problems have led to a contamination of Chinese-made products.

How should these challenges be handled? Roth says that “adding on inspections and stricter regulations alone may be neither sustainable nor effective in the long run.” US regulations requiring tracing of ingredients one step forward and one step backward in the supply chain is inadequate in 12,000 mile, complex supply chains. In China, for example, inputs to food ingredients are combined from millions of small farms. And there are often many intermediaries involved in the various stages of getting food from the farm to table. Moreover, longer distances affect food freshness and quality and often necessitate the addition chemical preservatives and dyes.

The authors have posed a different path—one that offers a deeper understanding of the root causes and robust solutions. Their path follows from a conceptual framework called the “6Ts” of supply chain quality management. Each of the “6Ts”--traceability, transparency, testability, time, trust, and training--are critical to the preservation of the public welfare through a safe food supply. The “6Ts” represent the key necessary inputs and outputs to ensure that high-quality food is delivered to consumers.

“A major contribution of this paper is to bring to the forefront the critical challenges posed by the global sourcing of food and to provide an agenda for further discussion and research regarding global food supply chains,” the authors conclude.

_________________________________________________________________

This study is published in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of Supply Chain Management. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact journalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.

Source: Blackwell Publishing

Outsourcing food supplies to a country not known to be overly concerned about environmental controls and quality standards strikes me at best as bordering on criminally negligent.

WHO says Egypt Reports 46th Case of Bird Flu

2008-03-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

Egypt has reported its 46th case of bird flu in a human being after an 11-year-old boy tested positive for the H5N1 strain, the UN health agency said Wednesday.

The boy from Menofia governorate was hospitalized with symptoms on February 26, the World Health Organization said on its Web site.

Egypt is one of the countries most affected by the H5N1 strain outside Asia, where the outbreak began in 2003. The country lies on a main route for migratory birds, which are believed to have brought the disease. Experts also link outbreaks in countries such as Egypt to a lack of financial resources and public awareness about the disease.

Source: Jerusalem Post

WHO: No Sign of Deadly Mutation in Indonesian Bird Flu Samples

2008-03-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

JAKARTA (AFP) — Bird flu samples sent by the Indonesian government to the World Health Organisation show no sign the virus has mutated into a deadly form transmissible between humans, a WHO official said Thursday.

Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, sent 15 virus samples from two people who died of bird flu to WHO last month, the first such transfer since August 2007.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl confirmed in an email to AFP from the body's Geneva headquarters that the samples had not shown any signs of mutation.

Scientists fear a human-to-human mutation of the virus would kick off a worldwide pandemic that could kill millions.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said the samples had been sent out of "goodwill."

WHO had warned last year that Indonesia's reluctance to share flu samples put its own population at risk because any vaccines developed would not be designed to combat Indonesian strains of the H5N1 virus.

Indonesia had halted sharing samples in December 2006, saying it feared multinational drug companies could use them to develop vaccines that were not affordable for poor countries.

In August last year, a sample of the bird flu virus that killed a woman on Bali was sent to a World Health Organisation laboratory to allay fears that there had been a human-to-human transfer.

H5N1 is endemic across nearly all of Indonesia, where humans and poultry live in close contact. Of the 105 overall deaths reported since the disease emerged here, 11 have occurred this year.

Source: AFP

Well, I believe that even we nonmedical people are able to figure that out for ourselves due to the lack of people suddenly dying with flu symptoms worldwide. I do not believe that we will know about it before it has been unwittingly spread around the world courtesy of airline travel.

BIO5 Researcher Identifies Cities at Risk for Bioterrorism

2008-03-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

A University of Arizona researcher has created a new system to dramatically show American cities their relative level of vulnerability to bioterrorism.

Walter W. Piegorsch, an expert on environmental risk, has placed 132 major cities – from Albany, N.Y., to Youngstown, Ohio – on a color-coded map that identifies their level of risk based on factors including critical industries, ports, railroads, population, natural environment and other factors.

Piegorsch is the director of a new UA graduate program in interdisciplinary statistics and a professor of mathematics in the College of Science, as well as a member of the UA’s BIO5 Institute.

The map marks high-risk areas as red (for example, Houston and, surprisingly, Boise, ID), midrange risk as yellow (San Francisco) and lower risk as green (Tucson). The map shows a wide swath of highest-risk urban areas running from New York down through the Southeast and into Texas. Boise is the only high-risk urban area that lies outside the swath.

The model employs what risk experts call a benchmark vulnerability metric, which shows risk managers each city’s level of risk for urban terrorism.

Piegorsch says terrorism vulnerability involves three dimensions of risk – social aspects, natural hazards and construction of the city and its infrastructure.

He concludes that the allocation of funds for preparedness and response to terrorism should take into account these factors of vulnerability.

“Our capacity to adequately prepare for and respond to these vulnerabilities varies widely across the country, especially in urban areas,” he wrote in an article about the research. Piegorsch argues that “any one-size-fits-all strategy” of resource allocation and training ignores the reality of the geographic differences identified in his study. Such failures, he says, would “limit urban areas’ abilities to prepare for and respond to terrorist events.”

The research, funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was published in a recent issue of Risk Analysis, a journal published by the Society for Risk Analysis.

Piegorsch was the lead author, in collaboration with Susan L. Cutter, director of the Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute and Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina; and Frank Hardisty, research faculty at the GeoVISTA Center at Pennsylvania State University

Source: University of Arizona News

Looks like I'm in a mid-range area for terror activity.

Egyptian Woman Dies from Bird Flu

2008-03-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

CAIRO, March 4 (Reuters) - An Egyptian woman aged 25 has died of bird flu, the 20th death in Egypt from the disease since the deadly virus arrived in the country in early 2006, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

The woman, Suzanne Ali Salah Zaki, was from Fayoum province southwest of Cairo, and entered hospital on Feb. 27, it said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the ministry said an 11-year-old boy from the Nile Delta province of Menoufia had tested positive for the virus after entering a local hospital on Feb. 26.

Including the two latest cases, 46 Egyptians have tested positive for bird flu over the past two years. More than half of them recovered.

The woman and the boy, named as Mohamed Rabie Mohamed Abdel Halim, are thought to have come into contact with sick birds, the ministry added.

Four Egyptian women died from bird flu in December. Their deaths ended a 5-month pause in human cases in Egypt and brought to 19 the number of Egyptians who have died of the H5N1 virus.

It is the third winter the virus has struck after lying low during Egypt's hot summers.

Around 5 million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated despite a large-scale poultry vaccination programme.

Source: Reuters

Additional Reporting: AFP, VoA.

I wonder if the new flu guidelines recommending flu shots for children and young adults may be a way to prepare us as much as possible just in case a pandemic ever does develop.

Ortega Whines About FARC Commander Killing

2008-03-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

MANAGUA, March 2 (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega condemned Colombia's killing of a top rebel commander and said it could hurt the chances of a peace accord.

Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary and U.S. Cold War foe who was voted back to power in late 2006, called on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to seek a peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Colombia's military said on Saturday its troops had killed Raul Reyes, one of seven members of the FARC secretariat, in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

"They are killing the possibility of a peace process in an act of total provocation, because the doors opened a few days ago," Ortega said in a speech late Saturday, referring to the FARC's liberation of four hostages earlier this week.

Reyes, considered by analysts to be the No. 2 FARC commander, was killed in Ecuador in an operation that included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the border, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. In total, 17 rebels were killed.

Reyes is the most senior member of the FARC to be killed in Uribe's U.S.-backed campaign against the guerrillas fighting a more than four-decade-old conflict.

Violence from Colombia's conflict has ebbed under Uribe, who has sent troops to drive back the rebels. But the FARC is still potent in remote areas, where it holds scores of hostages, including three Americans and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

Ortega is a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose role in negotiating the release of FARC hostages has fueled tensions with Colombia. Chavez on Saturday accused Uribe of violating Ecuadorean territory with the attack and warned a similar operation in Venezuela would be a declaration of war.

In December, Colombia complained to Nicaragua after Ortega referred to FARC chief Manuel Marulanda as a "dear brother".

Nicaragua and Colombia are also at odds over sovereignty of small islands in the Caribbean. (Reporting by Ivan Castro, editing by Jackie Frank)

Source:

Well, if the FARC chief was a "dear brother" of Ortega's, guess the dead guy was at least a cousin. I'd say ol' Ortega needs a few more family funerals.

Feds Cite Miami Link to FARC

2008-03-02T01:36:00.000-08:00

BY GERARDO REYES
El Nuevo Herald

Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group purchased satellite phones and other communications equipment at shops in Miami and later used it to coordinate kidnappings, cocaine and armed deals, according to charges revealed last week in Washington.

Calls made with the equipment -- used by the rebels over a five-year period -- were intercepted by U.S. and Colombian law enforcement authorities, according to the indictment. The surveillance allowed authorities to strike the hardest blow so far against the rebels' logistical network: 39 arrested last week in Colombia, nine of them requested in extradition to the U.S.

The Federal indictment charges 11 commanders and collaborators of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, with supporting a terrorist group. It does not identify the contact that cooperated from Miami with the purchase of satellite phones and SIM cards.

The businesses that sold these items have not been named in the injunction.

There was enough trust between the FARC and their Miami contact that some of the orders were placed directly by the logistics coordinator for the Frente Uno division of the FARC, Nancy Conde Rubio. Conde, who was arrested on Feb. 2 in Colombia, even made calls to the Miami contact requesting technical support for some of the equipment.

The FARC's Frente Uno is in charge of a group of high-profile hostages, among them the three American contractors that were kidnapped in February 2003, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves.

Satellite phones seem to be the Achilles heel of the FARC. In 2001, a DEA informant managed to sell four such devices to members of the FARC. The devices were previously rigged by the DEA, before being delivered in Panama, allowing federal agents to listen in on conversations and compile evidence to back up charges of drug trafficking brought against seven high-ranking FARC officials and 43 FARC commanders.

The first transaction between the FARC and Miami, according to the indictment, took place in March of 2005, when Conde Rubio bought two broadband radios.

A month later, Conde Rubio purchased a satellite phone and several SIM cards (a device used to store information in cellphones). In May the FARC received another satellite phone purchased in Miami. The FARC also bought GPS locators, compasses, transmitters and antennas.

Almost all the deals were made through a clandestine telephone hub in Colombia that was run by two women identified as Ana Isabel Peña Arévalo and Luz Mery Gutiérrez. Both have been charged in the indictment.

The busy clandestine communications hub was located in Villavicencio, Colombia's gateway to the eastern Amazon jungles and the capital of the province of Meta, which borders Venezuela.

The indictment cites conversations obtained through wiretappings of satellite phones, leading to the assumption that the devices may have been manipulated by law enforcement authorities before being sold to the FARC.

Source:

There's always a Miami link to anything that happens in Latin America.

Utah Home Search Planned in Ricin Case

2008-03-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

LAS VEGAS -- A motel patron hospitalized after the potent poison ricin was mysteriously found in his room "barely got by in life," according to a woman who knew him when he lived at a Utah home that agents hoped to search Saturday.

A down-on-his-luck Roger Von Bergendorff lived at his cousin's home for more than a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago, said Tammy Ewell, who lives across the street from Thomas Tholen in Riverton, Utah, and described him and his wife, Ellen, as close friends.

"He was very much a loner. I would say more or less socially regressive. He just barely got by in life. He'd just barely make it," Ewell said. "Tom was the last resort."

In a brief phone interview earlier Saturday, Thomas Tholen told The Associated Press that Von Bergerdorff was "holding his own" in the hospital.

Tholen, 53, wouldn't say much more about Von Bergendorff or the discovery Thursday of several vials of ricin - which is deadly in minuscule amounts - at the man's extended-stay motel room on the Las Vegas Strip.

Officials have secured Tholen's home, where Von Bergendorff reportedly stayed, but they have not searched it because they are awaiting court approval for a warrant, FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said later Saturday.

Authorities have not said how much ricin was involved but expressed confidence they have it all.

Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District in Las Vegas, said health officials are still trying to confirm whether Von Bergendorff's respiratory ailment stemmed from ricin exposure.

Police and health officials have tried to assure Las Vegas residents there is no public health threat. There was no apparent link to terrorist activity and no indication of any spread of the deadly substance, they said.

In Salt Lake City, which is about 20 miles from Riverton, FBI agent Timothy J. Fuhrman said: "At this time, there is no indication of any threat to the public or individuals residing in the area."

Adding to the mystery, police said late Friday that firearms, an "anarchist-type textbook" and castor beans, from which ricin is made, were found in the room where the poison was discovered.

The firearms and the book, which was tabbed at a spot containing information about ricin, were seized Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel found the weapons and called police, police Capt. Joseph Lombardo said. He did not elaborate.

Ewell, Von Bergendorff's former neighbor, said she often saw him walking his German shepherd on the street. It wasn't clear what he did for a living or how he spent his time.

Toward the end of his stay, he started attending the local Mormon church and briefly moved out of the Tholen home into a neighbor's camper, she said.

Tholen is a former high school art teacher who now sells insurance with his wife, she said.

"The Tholens were the last ones we'd expect anything to happen to," Ewell said.

Tholen went to Von Bergendorff's Las Vegas motel room and took the vials to the motel office in a plastic bag while retrieving his cousin's belongings, authorities said.

Police previously said tests did not detect the material in the motel office, the room where Von Bergendorff, 57, stayed, or a room at the Excalibur hotel-casino where Tholen stayed Wednesday night.

As little as 500 micrograms of ricin, about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The only legal use for ricin is cancer research.

Las Vegas police, who have refused to identify Von Bergendorff or Tholen by name, said Friday that the hospitalized man was unconscious and that investigators had been unable to speak with him.

They have said Tholen arrived in Las Vegas after Von Bergendorff summoned an ambulance and was hospitalized Feb. 14 in critical condition.

Tholen contacted motel management Feb. 22 to inform them about pets in the room, and Las Vegas Humane Society officials took custody of a dog and two cats. The dog, which officials said was mortally ill after going at least a week without food or water, was euthanized.

After the vials were taken to the motel office, Tholen and six other people, including the motel manager, two motel employees and three police officers, were decontaminated at the scene and taken to hospitals for examination. None have shown any signs of being affected by ricin, officials said.

Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas, Martin Griffith in Reno and Paul Foy in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

Source:

This gets stranger by the minute. People like that are giving people that are ~~loners~~ self-contained a bad name. Home-grown terrorism gone wrong? A man that decides to commit suicide and then decides against it? If he dies, we may never know.

GSK Bird Flu Vaccine Shows Broad Cross Protection

2008-03-02T01:05:00.000-08:00

HONG KONG, March 2 (Reuters) - A vaccine designed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to protect people against the H5N1 bird flu may be effective in warding off a few different sub-types of the virus, the company said on Sunday.

In an Asian clinical trial involving 1,206 adults in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, the vaccine produced antibodies that not only neutralised the H5N1 virus found in Vietnam, but also the variant now dogging Indonesia.

"The vaccine was made using the Vietnam strain. In principle, there is a very broad antibody reactivity that's being induced. These are neutralising antibodies and they do correlate with protection," Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Reuters when asked for comments about the study.

Osterhaus was not involved in the study, but is familiar with the results and methodology.

An earlier GSK study in Europe showed the vaccine to be effective in protecting against two other H5N1 subtypes, in China's central eastern province of Anhui and Turkey.

For years now, experts have warned a flu pandemic was long overdue and many have held up the H5N1 virus as a prime candidate because people have no immunity against this bird virus, and because of the high mortality rate associated with it so far.

The virus has infected 368 people in 14 countries since 2003 and killed 234 of them, or 64 percent.

An eventual vaccine to protect people against a flu pandemic can only be made 4-6 months after the start of such a disaster, when the culprit virus strain has been identified.

But human populations still need some form of protection in those initial months of a pandemic and drug companies are in a race to design what are known as "prepandemic" vaccines.

GSK's prepandemic vaccine uses a very low dose, 3.8 micrograms, of antigen. Antigens are substances like toxins, viruses and bacteria that stimulate the production of antibodies when introduced into the body.

But they can be difficult to culture and scientists have been trying to fix that by using boosters, or adjuvants.

Volunteers in the GSK trial received two shots of the adjuvanted vaccine 21 days apart, and blood tests done three weeks after the second shot showed the presence of antibodies which neutralised the Vietnam and Indonesian H5N1 strains.

Osterhaus, however, voiced a note of caution -- that the pandemic may be triggered by a completely different virus.

"We are all scared of H5, but we should realise that other (viruses) are also a threat and the thing with flu is we have to expect the unexpected," he said.

"Separate stockpiling of antigen and adjuvant, that is quite an interesting option," he added.

With such a plan, adjuvants will then be mixed with the antigen of whatever virus emerges as the pandemic strain.

Source:

This is very good news about both a possible vaccine for bird flu and a new process that may make vaccine development a bit quicker because millions could die in the 4 to 6 months it takes to develop the proper strain of vaccine.

Indonesian Father and Son with Suspected Bird Flu Infection

2008-03-02T00:59:00.001-08:00

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A nine-year-old boy and his father have been admitted to a hospital in Indonesia, suspected of having bird flu, a medic said Sunday.

Both were admitted to the Dr. Muwardi general hospital in the Central Java city of Solo on Saturday showing all the symptoms of infection, Reviono, who heads the hospital's bird flu unit, told AFP.

He said the pair had buried chickens that had died after being infected with H5N1, while several chickens in their neighbourhood had also tested positive for the disease.

Both have been put in the hospital's isolation ward and blood and tissue samples will be sent to the health ministry laboratory in Jakarta on Monday, he added.

Two positive results are needed before Indonesian authorities confirm a human bird flu infection.

Indonesia has the highest number of human bird flu casualties in the world, with 105 killed by the disease.

The father and son were referred from a hospital in nearby Klaten district where they live, Reviono said.

Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.

Eleven people have died of bird flu in Indonesia this year, 10 of them from Jakarta and its surrounding areas. (*)

Source: Antara

New Bird Flu Case in Egypt

2008-03-02T00:54:00.000-08:00

CAIRO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Saturday confirmed that a 25-year-old woman was infected with bird flu virus, which was the 45th human infection case in the populous Arab country, the official MENA news agency reported.

The woman had been transferred from a local hospital in Fayyum,85 km south to Cairo, to a hospital in the capital after having developed the symptom of high fever and been treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted as saying.

This is the second human bird flu case detected in a week in Egypt after a four-year-old girl on Monday was confirmed being infected with bird flu virus in El Minya governorate, Upper Egypt, some 220 km south of Cairo.

The girl is now still under treatment at Manshiat al-Bakri hospital in Cairo with her condition in stable, according to MENA.

The Egyptian government has exerted more efforts to prevent further spread of bird flu since the fatal virus caused four human deaths in less than a week in late December, 2007.

Among a total of 45 human cases in Egypt, 19 deaths have been reported since the country detected the first H5N1 virus in dead poultry in February 2006 and the first human case in March of the same year.

Source:

Ricin Found in Las Vegas Motel Room; Man in Hospital

2008-02-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Las Vegas police found vials of the deadly toxin ricin and its key ingredient yesterday in a local hotel room, two weeks after its occupant was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

``We don't know if the guy was manufacturing the ricin or not, and that's our concern,'' Captain Joseph Lombardo said in a televised press conference today. ``He's not a suspect at this point.''

Authorities declined to identify the patient, other than to say he was middle-aged.

Police and the FBI, which is aiding the inquiry, said they don't suspect terrorism. Ricin is also used in experimental cancer treatments. Castor beans, the key ingredient of the toxin, were found in the Extended StayAmerica hotel room, police said.

Federal officials have warned police departments since the Sept. 11 attacks to look out for ricin, which could be deadly in the hands of terrorists. It may be used to contaminate air- conditioning systems, drinking water or lakes, the FBI has said.

Las Vegas Deputy Police Chief Kathy Suey told the press conference that ricin was found in the hotel room after a friend or relative of the man came to clean it. It had been vacant since he called an ambulance Feb. 14, complaining of breathing trouble, and was hospitalized, she said.

Several Vials

Police took custody of several vials containing the poison, which is thousands of times more lethal than cyanide. Six people were taken to a hospital as a precaution, but none fell ill, Suey said.

``This is the just the beginning of what is obviously going to be a complex investigation,'' Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Detective Bill Cassell said in a telephone interview today.

In 2004, ricin was found in a U.S. Senate mailroom, shortly after letters were sent to the White House and a South Carolina post office threatening to spread the poison. No one was injured.

Traces of ricin were also found five years ago in a London apartment during a British-based counterterrorism raid.

Ricin is part of the waste ``mash'' left after processing castor beans, the source of castor oil. The toxin often takes the form of a powder, and can be inhaled or mixed with water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lethal Dose

Once in the body, ricin halts the production of vital proteins in the cells, which eventually die. Used in cancer patients, the poison has shown promise in reducing tumors.

A lethal dose for an adult would be about twice the size of a pinhead. Symptoms could include breathing difficulty, vomiting and liver and kidney failure within a few days. There is no antidote.

Some reports suggest ricin was used in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, according to the CDC.

In 1978, Bulgarian defector and journalist Georgi Markov died in London after a man attacked him with an umbrella tip that injected a poisonous dart into his skin, the CDC said.

While the castor bean is rarely grown as a U.S. crop, about 1 million tons are produced yearly worldwide, mostly by India and South America.

``Given the beans' abundance, it wouldn't be that difficult to obtain relatively pure ricin, and it wouldn't take a lot of sophisticated biochemical equipment,'' said Robert Brey, chief scientific officer at DOR Biopharma Inc.

The Ewing, New Jersey-based company is working to develop a vaccine for ricin exposure that could be stockpiled by the U.S. government.

Source: Bloomberg.com

CDC: Facts about Ricin.

How interesting that it isn't terrorism. Obviously somebody wants us to think that this unfortunate gentleman was merely making homemade cancer treatments that went terribly wrong. Yeah, that's it. Or maybe he had a really bad rodent infestation.

Something tells me that if I were found to have vials of ricin in my possession, I would have already had my rights read in the hospital.

Murder Suspect Tries to Flee Jacksonville on Cruise Ship

2008-02-29T17:10:00.000-08:00

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Investigators say a murder suspect wanted in Atlanta tried to escape the U.S. on a cruise ship out of Jacksonville.

Derron Williams, 29, is accused of murder.

Police say he deliberately ran over a person during an argument at a party earlier this month in Atlanta.

U.S. Marshals say Williams tried to flee the U.S. on board the Carnival Cruise Ship Celebration bound for the Bahamas.

It pulled out of port Thursday night.

The cruise ship made it five miles out to sea before getting stopped by the Coast Guard and U.S. Marshals.

Williams is being held at the Duval County Jail pending extradition to Georgia.

Source:

So if you need to get outta Dodge in a hurry, the cruise ship route is probably not your best choice.

Florida Blackout Blamed on Human Error

2008-02-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

MIAMI (AP) -- Florida Power & Light says a power outage that affected more than half a million customers earlier this week was the result of human error.

The electric company released a 2-page preliminary report on the incident on Friday. It says that a field engineer investigating a switch that malfunctioned at one of the power company's substations in west Miami was to blame.

The company says ultimately two nuclear generation units and a natural gas unit at the Turkey Point facility south of Miami shut down. Two other FPL plants were also affected.

Source:

Ooops?

Man Found Living Under House

2008-02-25T19:09:00.001-08:00

PALATKA,FL — Palatka Police say they busted a crack house Monday morning, and what they found at the house surprised them.

Officers went to 1107 South 10th Street to serve an arrest warrant and arrested six people in the house.

Officers also found someone living underneath the front porch.

In a space that was only four-and-a-half feet tall, there was a television, bed, chair, micro-wave… even a toaster.

Assistant Chief James Griffith with the Palatka Police said, he’s never come across something like that before.

“As far as setting up a residence with electricity running off of extension cords underneath a house, no — I can’t recall any like that,” Griffith said.

Police say 23-year-old Thomas Tyrone Williams was living under the house. He was arrested for drug possession.

While investigators said they found one of the worst crack houses they’ve ever seen and an unusual dwelling underneath it, they also discovered seven children in the house.

All of the children are younger than six years old.

“Most disturbing was some of the crack cocaine was found in one of the backpacks that belonged to one of the children,” Griffith said.

30-year-old Christopher Crowley and 28-year-old Taronda Mack were arrested on drug charges and child abuse.

Griffith said the children are now with relatives and the Department of Children and Families has been notified about the case.

Source: First Coast News

Georgia Iron Worker Claims $275 Million Jackpot

2008-02-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

ATLANTA (AP) -- An iron worker and his wife said their days of living paycheck-to-paycheck were behind them after presenting the winning ticket Monday for a $275 million Mega Millions jackpot.

Robert and Tonya Harris said they also plan to replace their trailer home with a new house, and buy a new four-wheel-drive truck first thing Tuesday morning.

"I was having to work overtime to make ends meet," said Robert Harris, who quit his job as soon as he found out his lottery ticket was a winner. "Now we don't have to do that."

The jackpot is the largest won by a single player in the history of the 15-year-old Georgia Lottery and the third largest in Mega Millions history, lottery officials said.

"It's awesome," Robert Harris, 47, told a room full of reporters after receiving the ceremonial big check from lottery officials. "We have been very blessed."

He said he picked the winning numbers from Friday's multistate drawing -- 7, 12, 13, 19 and 22, plus the Mega Ball number 10 -- by using his grandchildren's birthdays.

Now they plan to use the windfall to send their grandchildren to college, Tonya Harris said. They also want to share some money with other relatives, she said.

"We're not gonna change," she said, wearing warmup pants and flip-flops. "I'm too country."

The couple spent Sunday night at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta before arriving at the lottery headquarters to claim their prize.

Lottery officials say the couple decided to take the lump sum: $167 million before taxes. They could have chosen an annuity of $10.5 million a year for 26 years.

They bought the winning ticket at Clyde's Market in Portal, a town of about 600 about 70 miles northwest of Savannah. Robert Harris said they play the lottery "very seldom, but something just entered my mind" to play.

He had his wife buy two $1 tickets while she was grocery shopping.

Billy Hodges, general manager of Clyde's Market, said the news of the jackpot on Saturday morning set the town abuzz.

"It happened to a nice lady; I think this lady really deserves it," Hodges said.

A year ago, Ed Nabors from Rocky Face, Ga., won half of a $390 million Mega Millions jackpot -- the richest lottery prize in U.S. history. The other half was claimed by Elaine and Harold Messner, a couple from Cape May County in New Jersey.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington state. The twice-weekly drawing is done in Atlanta.

Source: First Coast News

I'm glad it went to somebody that knows what it is like to stretch a paycheck until it snaps.

Man Bitten by Shark While on Dive Near Bahamas Dies

2008-02-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - An Austrian tourist died Monday after being bitten by a shark while diving near the Bahamas in waters that had been baited with bloody fish parts to attract the predators.

Markus Groh, 49, a Vienna lawyer and diving enthusiast, was on a commercial dive trip Sunday when he was bitten about 50 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, said Karlick Arthur, Austrian counsel general in Miami. Groh was in the open water without a cage or similar protection.

The crew aboard the Shear Water, of Riviera Beach-based Scuba Adventures, immediately called the U.S. Coast Guard, which received a mayday from the vessel at about 10 a.m., said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Ameen.

The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to the scene, which hoisted Groh from the boat and flew him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where authorities said he died Monday.
Ameen said the man was bitten on the leg, but he could not be more specific about the extent of his injuries.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department. A telephone message left for police was not immediately returned.

It was unclear what type of shark was involved in the attack.

A woman who answered the telephone at Scuba Adventures on Monday said the company had no comment.

The company's Web site says it offers the opportunity to get "face to face" with sharks. The site explains that its hammerhead and tiger shark expeditions in the Bahamas are "unique shark trips ... run exclusively for shark enthusiasts and photographers."

To ensure "the best results we will be 'chumming' the water with fish and fish parts," the Web site explains. "Consequently, there will be food in the water at the same time as the divers. Please be aware that these are not 'cage' dives, they are open water experiences."

Bahamas Diving Association president Neal Watson said Shear Water is known to work with species of sharks considered dangerous: lemon sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks, hammerheads.

His organization, which has done hundreds of thousands of dives, opposes interactive dives with these species without the protection of cages and says Groh's death was preventable.

"I think that they just continue to push the envelope and trying to make it more and more and more exciting," Watson said of Shear Water. "It reached the point where it wasn't a matter of if but when an incident was going to occur."

Source:

What. The. Hell. Was. Wrong. With. Those. People? Sharks are not cuddly, gentle creatures. Sharks are swimming eating machines.

Reading this story makes me hopeful that there may be additional nature safari markets as yet untapped, perhaps in Europe, in which tourists clamor to pay for an expedition where the guide throws bloody food to crocodiles while ensconced safely on a large boat, who will then allow/encourage tourists to pay an extra fee to swim among the crocs and observe/record for posterity their natural feeding behavior. This would be most attractive to those people that are bored with being alive, or perhaps just those people who have always wanted to experience a traumatic limb amputation.

For those who are worried about polar bears starving, perhaps there could be polar bear feeding expeditions in which people pay a polar bear guide to drop chopped-up seal pieces to hungry-looking polar bears from the safety of a bear-proof vehicle, and the ecotourist-cum-polar bear saviors get to stay with the chopped-up seals to observe authentic polar bear feeding behavior. Even better, find a sow with cubs. She would appreciate the food ever so much more. The cubs like to be cuddled while momma bear eats.

Apparently the attorney didn’t know that feeding frenzies are something that he really should not be involved in. Mother nature is an unforgiving bitch and doing stupid things sometimes carries a death penalty.

44-Year-Old Woman is China's Third Bird Flu Fatality in 2008

2008-02-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AFP) — A 44-year-old woman in southern China who tested positive for bird flu died on Monday, health officials said, in what is likely the country’s third reported death from the virus this year.

The migrant worker, surnamed Zhang, died after developing a fever and a cough following contact with dead poultry in Guangdong, the province’s health department said, although authorities in Beijing did not immediately comment.

In the financial hub of Hong Kong, which borders Guangdong, officials reacted by increasing tests of poultry coming over the border, although there was no ban on imports as occurred in similar cases previously.

The Guangdong health department said Zhang died in hospital after developing a fever, cough and inflammation of the lungs on February 16.

“We undertook tests on the patient and found that … a test for the bird flu virus (H5N1) was positive,” the department said in a statement.

“It was determined that before her illness she had had contact with dead poultry,” the statement added, without saying specifically that the suspect fowl had H5N1.

The department said that no-one else who had come into close contact with the victim had shown any symptoms of the virus.

The central health ministry did not confirm the case. “We have no information,” an official at the ministry’s media office in Beijing said when contacted by AFP. In China, the central government authorities carry out their own tests for bird flu cases.

The World Health Organisation’s China representative, Hans Troedsson, said the Chinese health ministry had informed his office of the potential bird flu case on Sunday.

If confirmed as a bird flu-related death, it would be the third in China since the start of 2008.

A 41-year-old man died of the virus in the southern Guangxi autonomous region on February 20, while a 22-year-old man in central Hunan province died on January 24.

Not including the death of Zhang in Guangdong, 19 people have been confirmed to have died of bird flu in China since 2003, while 10 others have recovered after catching the virus.

The latest deaths come despite China conducting a huge campaign last year to contain the disease, during which it attempted to vaccinate its entire tens of millions of poultry and stepping up public education efforts.

Hong Kong authorities appeared to be monitoring the Guangdong case very closely and gave more details than Chinese officials.

Zhang farmed poultry at her home and ate chicken after it had fallen ill and died, Thomas Tsang, the controller of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health in Hong Kong, said.

The Hong Kong government has strengthened its border control, will continue to do temperature checks on those entering the territory and step-up inspections of imported poultry, Tsang told reporters.

Anyone who entered the city from the Guangdong province in the past six months and catches pneumonia must be tested for bird flu, he added, but there were as yet no plans to ban poultry imports from the province.

Bird flu has killed more than 200 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.

Scientists fear the virus could eventually mutate into a form that is much more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.

Source: AFP

More from the International Herald Tribune.

Giant Fossil Frog From Hell Discovered

2008-02-24T11:18:00.000-08:00

A team of researchers, led by Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause, has discovered the remains in Madagascar of what may be the largest frog ever to exist.

The 16-inch, 10-pound ancient frog, scientifically named Beelzebufo, or devil frog, links a group of frogs that lived 65 to 70 million years ago with frogs living today in South America.

Discovery of the voracious predatory fossil frog -- reported on-line this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) -- is significant in that it may provide direct evidence of a one-time land connection between Madagascar, the largest island off Africa's southeast coast, and South America.

To identify Beelzebufo and determine its relationship to other frogs, Krause collaborated with fossil frog experts Susan Evans, lead author of the PNAS article, and Marc Jones of the University College London. The authors concluded that the new frog represents the first known occurrence of a fossil group in Madagascar with living representatives in South America.

"Beelzebufo appears to be a very close relative of a group of South American frogs known as 'ceratophyrines,' or 'pac-man' frogs, because of their immense mouths," said Krause, whose research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The ceratophryines are known to camouflage themselves in their surroundings, then ambush predators.

"The finding presents a real puzzle biogeographically, particularly because of the poor fossil record of frogs on southern continents," said Krause. "We're asking ourselves, 'What's a 'South American' frog doing half-way around the world, in Madagascar?'"

He said that because frogs "are not adept at dispersal across marine barriers, and since the few fossil frogs that are known from the Late Cretaceous in Africa are unrelated to Beelzebufo, one possibility is that there was a land connection between South America and Madagascar during that period."

Some geoscientists have suggested a lingering physical link between South America and Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous Period -- a link involving Antarctica. Antarctica in the Late Cretaceous was much warmer than it is today.

"The occurrence of this frog in Madagascar and its relatives' existence in South America provides strong evidence that the supercontinent Gondwana 'disassembled' during the latest part of the Cretaceous," said Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

Krause and colleagues have hypothesized this connection based on previous discoveries of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs, crocodiles and mammals in Madagascar that were very closely related to forms in South America.

Beelzebufo is one of the largest frogs on record and was perhaps the largest frog ever to exist. The size and robustness of its bones and its relatedness to the rotund South American forms indicates it was also probably the heaviest frog to exist.

The size, girth, appearance, and predatory nature of the frog prompted its discoverers to call it the "armored frog from hell." They derived the genus name from the Greek word for devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin word for toad (bufo). The species name, ampinga, means "shield."

The largest living frog today is the goliath frog of West Africa, which attains lengths of 12.5 inches and weights of 7.2 pounds. The largest frog alive on Madagascar today, at just over four inches long, "would have been a nice hors d'oeuvre for Beelzebufo," Krause said.

Since the discovery of the first bones found in northwestern Madagascar in 1993, Krause and his team have gathered some 75 fossil fragments of Beelzebufo. Through the accumulation of these fossils, the team has been able to reconstruct the frog's skeleton, including nearly the entire skull.

Not only was the frog huge, it was powerful in design, had a protective shield, an extremely wide mouth and powerful jaws. These features made Beelzebufo capable of killing lizards and other small vertebrates, perhaps even hatchling dinosaurs.

Source: National Science Foundation

Dang, and I thought the little tree frogs made a mess everywhere.

Dust in West up 500% in last 2 Centuries says CU-Boulder Study

2008-02-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

The West has become 500 percent dustier in the past two centuries due to westward U.S. expansion and accompanying human activity beginning in the 1800s, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sediment records from dust blown into alpine lakes in southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains over millennia indicates the sharp rise in dust deposits coincided with railroad, ranching and livestock activity in the middle of the last century, said geological sciences Assistant Professor Jason Neff, lead author on the study. The results have implications ranging from ecosystem alteration to human health, he said.

"From about 1860 to 1900, the dust deposition rates shot up so high that we initially thought there was a mistake in our data," said Neff. "But the evidence clearly shows the western U.S. had it's own Dust Bowl beginning in the 1800s when the railroads went in and cattle and sheep were introduced into the rangelands."

A paper on the research funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was published in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature Geoscience. Co-authors included CU-Boulder's Ashley Ballantyne, Lang Farmer and Corey Lawrence, Cornell University's Natalie Mahowald, the University of Arizona's Jessica Conroy and Jonathan Overpeck, Christopher Landry of the Center of Snow and Avalanche Studies in Silverton, Colo., the University of Utah's Tom Painter and the U.S. Geological Survey's Richard Reynolds.

The study indicates "dust fall" in the West over the past century was five to seven times heavier than at any time in the previous 5,000 years, said Neff, who is also a faculty member in CU-Boulder's Environmental Studies Program. While some fine-grained dust from Asia periodically falls on Colorado's San Juans, the abundance of larger-sized dust particles in the lake sediments there indicates most of the dust originated regionally in the Southwest, said the authors.

While droughts can trigger erosion and increased dust deposition, western U.S. droughts during the past two centuries have been relatively mild compared to droughts over the past 2,000 years, Neff said. Instead, the increased dustiness in the West coincides with intensive land use, primarily grazing, according to radiocarbon dating and lead isotope analysis of soil cores retrieved from lakebeds, he said.

"There were an estimated 40 million head of livestock on the western rangeland during the turn of the century, causing a massive and systematic degradation of the ecosystems," said Neff. The 1934 Taylor Grazing Act that imposed restrictions on western grazing lands coincided with a decrease in accumulation rates of the San Juan lake sediments in the study -- a decrease that continues to today, he said.

The study also shows more than a five-fold increase in nutrients and minerals in the lakebed sediments during the last 150 years, said Neff. Increases in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium -- byproducts of ranching, mining and agricultural activity - have been shown to change water alkalinity, aquatic productivity and nutrient cycling.

In the Niwot Ridge alpine region west of Boulder, for example, CU-Boulder researchers have observed increased algal growth in streams and lakes as a result of rising nitrogen deposition, as well as changes in the composition and diversity of wildflowers on the tundra. "Because these types of inputs have the potential to increase plant growth, the ultimate outcome of such depositions could change the fabric of our ecosystems," said Neff.

Excessive dust also can cause significant human health problems, including lung tissue damage, allergic reactions and respiratory problems, Neff said.

The San Juan lakes are located in an area dominated by rocky talus slopes with little soil and vegetation at about 13,000 feet in elevation and are located downwind of several major U.S. deserts like the Colorado Plateau and the Mojave. The site was chosen in part because the San Juans experience frequent wintertime dust deposition events -- usually between four to seven episodes annually, Neff said.

A study published in Geophysical Research Letters in 2007 involving co-authors of the Nature Geoscience paper, including Neff, showed wind-blown dust from disturbed lands in the Southwest shortened the duration of San Juan mountain snow cover by roughly a month. "The dust we see in these lakes is the same dust that causes earlier spring snowmelt here, so we can now definitively say that humans are in large part responsible for this melt," said Neff.

"There seems to be a perception that dusty conditions in the West are just the nature of the region," said Neff. "We have shown here that the increase in dust since the 1800s is a direct result of human activity and not part of the natural system."

Source: Eurekalert

Hmmmm. I see no mention of the environmental degredation caused by bison.

Burn Patient 10th to Die from Port Wentworth Sugar Refinery Explosion

2008-02-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A 10th victim of the Feb. 7 Imperial Sugar refinery blast in Port Wentworth, near Savannah, died in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital died on Friday, the hospital said.

Thirteen patients from the explosion remain in the burn center in critical condition and two others in serious condition, said Beth Frits, spokeswoman for the hospital.

Frits said the identify of the victim who died on Friday was being withheld pending notification of family members.

Source: News4Jax.com

CDC Report on Measles Outbreak in California

2008-02-23T08:24:00.000-08:00

Measles, once a common childhood disease in the United States, can result in severe complications, including encephalitis, pneumonia, and death. Because of successful implementation of measles vaccination programs, endemic measles transmission has been eliminated in the United States and the rest of the Americas. However, measles continues to occur in other regions of the world, including Europe (1). In January 2008, measles was identified in an unvaccinated boy from San Diego, California, who had recently traveled to Europe with his family. After his case was confirmed, an outbreak investigation and response were initiated by local and state health departments in coordination with CDC, using standard measles surveillance case definitions and classifications.* This report summarizes the preliminary results of that investigation, which has identified 11 additional cases of measles in unvaccinated children† in San Diego that are linked epidemiologically to the index case and include two generations of secondary transmission. Recommendations for preventing further measles transmission from importations in this and other U.S. settings include reminding health-care providers to 1) consider a diagnosis of measles in ill persons who have traveled overseas, 2) use appropriate infection-control practices to prevent transmission in health-care settings, and 3) maintain high coverage with measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine among children.

The index patient was an unvaccinated boy aged 7 years who had visited Switzerland with his family, returning to the United States on January 13, 2008. He had fever and sore throat on January 21, followed by cough, coryza, and conjunctivitis. On January 24, he attended school. On January 25, the date of his rash onset, he visited the offices of his family physician and his pediatrician. A diagnosis of scarlet fever was ruled out on the basis of a negative rapid test for streptococcus. When the boy’s condition became worse on January 26, he visited a children’s hospital inpatient laboratory, where blood specimens were collected for measles antibody testing; later that day, he was taken to the same hospital’s emergency department because of high fever 104°F (40°C) and generalized rash. No isolation precautions were instituted at the doctors’ offices or hospital facilities.

The boy’s measles immunoglobulin M (IgM) positive laboratory test result was reported to the county health department on February 1, 2008. During January 31–February 19, a total of 11 additional measles cases in unvaccinated infants and children aged 10 months–9 years were identified. These 11 cases included both of the index patient’s siblings (rash onset: February 3), five children in his school (rash onset: January 31–February 17), and four additional children (rash onset: February 6–10) who had been in the pediatrician’s office on January 25 at the same time as the index patient. Among these latter four patients, three were infants aged <12 months. One of the three infants was hospitalized for 2 days for dehydration; another infant traveled by airplane to Hawaii on February 9 while infectious.

Parents who have never personally experienced measles because they were vaccinated as children tend to underestimate what a deadly disease measles can be. They are also counting on a sufficient number of their neighbors immunizing their children so that any potential epidemic is averted, a strategy that I find extremely foolish.

On the other hand, if these people want to remove their progeny permanently from the gene pool through disease, should I really attempt to reason with them? Unfortunately, infants below vaccination age can contract the disease from an unvaccinated child through no fault of the parent.

Once ubiquitous, measles now is uncommon in the United States. In the prevaccine era, 3 to 4 million measles cases occurred every year, resulting in approximately 450 deaths, 28,000 hospitalizations, and 1,000 children with chronic disabilities from measles encephalitis. Because of successful implementation of measles vaccination programs, fewer than 100 measles cases are now reported annually in the United States and virtually all of those are linked to imported cases (2,3), reflecting the incidence of measles globally and travel patterns of U.S. residents and visitors. During 2006–2007, importations were most common from India, Japan, and countries in Europe, where measles transmission remains endemic and large outbreaks have occurred in recent years (CDC, unpublished data, 2008). Since November 2006, Switzerland has experienced that country’s largest measles outbreak since introduction of mandatory notification for measles in 1999 (1).

The San Diego import-associated outbreak, affecting exclusively an unvaccinated population and infants too young to be vaccinated, serves as a reminder that unvaccinated persons remain at risk for measles and that measles spreads rapidly in susceptible subgroups of the population unless effective outbreak-control strategies are implemented. Although notable progress has been made globally in measles control and elimination, measles still occurs throughout the world. U.S. travelers can be exposed to measles almost anywhere they travel, including to developed countries. To prevent acquiring measles during travel, U.S. residents aged >6 months traveling overseas should have documentation of measles immunity before travel (4). Travel histories should be obtained and a diagnosis of measles should be considered by physicians evaluating patients who have febrile rash illness within 3 weeks of traveling abroad.

Measles virus is highly infectious; vaccination coverage levels of >90% are needed to interrupt transmission and maintain elimination in populations. The ongoing outbreak in Switzerland, which has resulted in hospitalizations for pneumonia and encephalitis, has occurred in the context of vaccination coverage levels of 86% for 1 dose at age 2 years and 70% for the second dose for children aged <12 years. In the United States, vaccination coverage levels for at least 1 dose of MMR vaccine have been >90% among children aged 19–35 months and >95% among school-aged children during this decade. Although not measured routinely, 2-dose vaccine coverage is extremely high among U.S. schoolchildren because of school vaccination requirements.

Measles transmission in schools was common in the era before interruption of endemic-disease transmission, and school requirements for vaccination have been a successful strategy for achieving high vaccination coverage levels in this age group and decreasing transmission in school settings. In the United States, all states require children to be vaccinated in accordance with Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations before attending school (4). However, medical exemptions to immunization requirements for day care and school attendance are available in all states; in addition, 48 states offer nonmedical religious exemptions, and 21 states (including California) offer nonmedical PBEs.¶ These exemptions are defined differently by each state. The PBE allowed by California requires only a parental affidavit (5). Compared with vaccinated persons, those exempt from vaccination are 22 to 224 times more likely to contract measles (5--7).

The community transmission that has occurred during the San Diego outbreak is consistent with previous observations that the frequency of vaccination exemptors in a community is associated with the incidence of measles in that community; in addition, imported measles cases have demonstrated the potential for sizeable outbreaks in U.S. communities with suboptimal vaccine coverage (5,6,8). The public health response to this outbreak has included identification of cases, isolation of patients and vaccination, administration of immune globulin, and voluntary quarantine of contacts who have no evidence of measles immunity. Costs associated with control of these outbreaks can be substantial. In Iowa, the public health response to one imported measles case cost approximately $150,000 (9).

This outbreak also illustrates the risk for measles transmission in health-care settings. Airborne transmission of measles has been reported in emergency departments, physician offices, and pediatric ambulatory care-settings (10). Persons exposed to measles should be instructed to inform all health-care providers of their exposure before entering a health-care facility. Health-care personnel providing care to suspected measles patients (i.e., patients with febrile illness and generalized maculopapular rash or known contacts with prodromal symptoms) should apply appropriate isolation practices, including airborne precautions, in addition to taking standard precautions for such patients.**

Once a suspected measles case has been identified, prompt isolation of the potentially infectious patient and implementation of appropriate infection-control measures can help to decrease risk for transmission. Patients with suspected measles should be placed in an examination room, preferably an airborne-infection isolation room, as soon as possible and should not be permitted in patient waiting areas. Until placed in an airborne-infection isolation room, the patient should wear a surgical mask. If a surgical mask cannot be tolerated, other practical means to contain respiratory aerosols should be implemented. The door to the examination room should be kept closed, and all health-care personnel in contact with the patient should be documented as immune to measles. Health-care personnel and visitors without evidence of immunity (i.e., documentation of adequate vaccination, laboratory evidence of immunity, born before 1957, or documentation of physician-diagnosed measles) should be restricted from entering the rooms of patients known or suspected to have measles (4,10). The examination room should not be used for 2 hours after the infectious patient leaves. Suspected measles patients should not be referred to other locations for laboratory tests unless infection-control measures can be implemented at those locations.

Measles morbidity and mortality can be reduced through vaccination with MMR vaccine. Vaccination of U.S. travelers can reduce measles importations. Sustained high population immunity through vaccination, effective surveillance, and robust public health preparedness and response capacity are needed to keep the United States free from indigenous measles transmission and control any outbreaks associated with importations.

I have naturally acquired measles immunity; therefore, I made damn good and sure my children were immunized on schedule.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

Venzuelan Oil Production Capability Questioned

2008-02-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

The financial situation of state-run Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. could reach critical levels that might affect its production capability, both short- and mid-range, experts said Friday.

The financial muscle of the Venezuelan oil company, which has earned gross revenues exceeding $650 billion in the nine years of President Hugo Chávez’s administration, could be severely weakened by the extensive social expenditures the company is underwriting in Venezuela, the low level of investment in exploration and exploitation and an unusually high debt.

Just last year, PDVSA acquired a debt higher than $12 billion and it could be forced to pay about $10 billion to energy transnationals, including ExxonMobil, to compensate for the nationalizations the government carried out in mid-2007, said economist José Guerra, a professor at the Central University of Venezuela.

PDVSA’s president, Rafael Ramírez, has defended the company’s economic performance, claiming that last year 92.5 percent of the oil exports were under state control and that its fiscal contribution increased by 15 percent to more than $42 billion in 2007.

But the weakening of PDVSA’s finances could even compromise its compliance with the accords Chávez signed with more than a dozen Caribbean countries in an alliance called PetroCaribe, said Horacio Medina, an oil engineer and a former PDVSA executive.

During a forum organized by the University of Miami and the El Venezolano publishing group, Medina and Guerra this week analyzed in detail the financial health of the Venezuelan company, revealing a situation with important consequences for the United States, which receives about 1.3 billion barrels of Venezuelan crude a day.

A sudden cutoff of Venezuelan shipments to the U.S. is unlikely, but the Chávez administration is preparing ”a scenario to exit the U.S. market in the medium or long term,” Medina said.

Among the indications of this strategy, is the sale of Citgo’s participation in the Lyondell refinery in Texas in August 2006 and the dissolution of the alliance that Citgo maintained with the convenience-store chain 7 Eleven, Medina said.

Source: Miami Herald

The only thing Venezuela has going for it are the oil revenues. I don’t want to contemplate the implosion that would occur should they falter.

Al Qaeda in Iraq Executing Former "Allies"

2008-02-18T16:21:00.000-08:00

BALAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Video provided to CNN shows an al Qaeda in Iraq firing squad executing one-time allies -- fellow Sunni extremists -- who were not loyal enough to the terror organization, coalition military analysts said.

Analysts say the video shows al Qaeda in Iraq operatives executing nine Sunni men deemed disloyal.

In the video provided by coalition military officials, armed men wearing masks are shown standing behind nine kneeling men, all of whom are wearing blindfolds or hoods with their hands presumably tied behind their backs. The video shows the men being executed.

"Al Qaeda in Iraq, which is foreign led and foreign dominated here inside Iraq, is killing off other Sunni groups that are certainly not supportive of the government of Iraq, currently, or of the foreign occupation, but are not sharing the same ideology that al Qaeda in Iraq has," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said.

The video was recovered late last year during a raid on a compound near Samarra that was being used for killing and torture, a coalition official said.

A number of documents -- some found in the same raid -- bolster the coalition notion that al Qaeda in Iraq is waging a violent campaign against its former allies, intelligence analysts said. Watch how the documents could aid coalition forces »

Samarra is the site of a February 2006 attack on al-Askariya Mosque, revered by Shiites. The attack set off a wave of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis, who were suspected of perpetrating the attack. The northern Iraqi city lies in Salaheddin province, one of four provinces where coalition forces have beefed up operations against Sunni militants.

Coalition officials say the documents are indicative of a deep rift among the militant groups fighting coalition forces. Al Qaeda in Iraq "would like nothing more than to aggravate the situation," Smith said last week.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has a history of documenting its actions, the analysts said.

One document found in the Samarra raid shows the execution of a woman believed to have helped Iraqi police. Another describes the murders of 12 men who al Qaeda in Iraq felt were not sufficiently loyal.

In another document, al Qaeda in Iraq criticizes jihadist groups that it says are following "a false path," according to the analysts.

The analysts said one document also describes the stance of six Sunni splinter groups being targeted by al Qaeda in Iraq. The document, signed by leaders of the groups, outlines their opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq but includes a pledge to avoid attacks on civilians.

Coalition officials said the documents and video may reflect a move toward reconciliation among some Sunni factions.

In recent months, the U.S. has paid Sunnis and some Shiites $148 million to help fight extremists, military officials said. These groups have taken on many monikers, including Awakening Councils, Concerned Local Citizens and Sons of Iraq.

Coalition officials said they are trying to determine whether the documents found last year are a reason to expand efforts to bring more Sunnis into the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq.

Source: CNN

Guess they've never read "How to Make Friends and Influence People".

Is Transgenic Cotton More Profitable?

2008-02-18T14:58:00.000-08:00

NO.

Source: Agronomy Journal

Pizza Fusion: Saving the Planet One Pizza at a Time

2008-02-18T14:26:00.000-08:00

Two years ago on Valentine’s Day, two Florida Atlantic University business school buddies were having lunch, complaining about their miserable, soul-less jobs, when they had one of those ideas that would ultimately shape their destiny.

Forgo their reliable paychecks and open a pizza joint.

But this wouldn’t be just any pizza palace. It would be one in keeping with the times — an organic, earth-sustaining franchise that delivered its pizza pies in hybrid cars and would eventually become the nation’s first chain of organic pizzerias.

Two years after opening Pizza Fusion in Deerfield Beach, Michael Gordon and Vaughan Lazar have sold 55 franchises in eight states, with a new Weston store that is certified as meeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards of the U.S. Green Building Council.

A NOBLE CONCEPT

”We thought about creating a concept that was all about doing better and more, and pizza turned out to be the instrument,” said Gordon, a seasoned entrepreneur who for a time had owned his own candle store before going into real estate holdings. At the time of the idea for the pizzeria, Lazar was running his own printing and design firm.

”It was one of those stupid conversations. We can do this, being narcissistic and all,” Gordon said. “We didn’t know how difficult it was.”

For some perspective, consider this: Nationally, there are about 65,000 pizzerias, making the market highly saturated, said Pizza Today editor-in-chief Jeremy White. Restaurant industry estimates put the failure rate at somewhere between 60 percent and 80 percent.

”It’s a risky proposition to open a restaurant,” White said.

A furious four months followed that Valentine’s Day lunch, as the two put together the concept — ”Saving the Earth, one pizza at a time” — and secured the financial backing to open their first store.

The most difficult part, said Lazar, was solving the logistical nightmare of obtaining enough organic food from local farmers to run the restaurants.

”We had 18 distributors when we started,” he said.

Ultimately, they settled on United Natural Foods and its sister company, Albert’s Organics, which handles produce, meat and cheeses.

AN EDIBLE MISSION

Next the pair had to work on selling consumers on both their pizzas and their business model, Lazar said.

‘Our second challenge was educating people on what `organics’ is and what it is to be a green business and trying not to put the mission before the food,” he said. “People don’t like to chew on a mission.”

Because market studies can be so costly, they sought locations already scouted out by Whole Foods Market, the supermarket chain that made organic an everyday convenience.

”Obviously, they did the demographic studies that we can’t afford, [showing] that there was a market there to support organics,” Lazar said. “Their distribution was already set up, and we could just jump on that.”

BIG DAVE’S HELP

They also hired an expert in traditional pizzerias: ”Big Dave” Ostrander, who ran his own pizza joint in Michigan for 25 years and has written four books on the industry. He also coached the U.S. Pizza Team to a silver medal at the World Championships in 2003. Ostrander, who was initially wary of the whole green thing, gave them a two-week crash course on the pizza industry and its potential for generating impressive revenue. (The top-earning independent pizza restaurant, Amid’s East Coast Pizzeria in San Mateo, Calif., raked in $30 million in gross sales in 2006, according to Pizza Today.)

”It’s a very big tossup when you go green and turn the cost of the concept over to your customers. I had immediate reservations,” Ostrander said. “I was freaked out the first time they brought a $10 or $11 steak into the restaurant and a $4 pepper. I said we’re going to have a hard time making ends meet.”

But Gordon and Lazar were adamant, and after Ostrander spent several days in South Florida, he, too, became convinced that customers would pay more (the cost is about 20 percent higher) for organic food.

”I deal almost exclusively with indies — chains have guys like me who do the trouble shooting — and for an indie to do well and grow so well is amazing,” he said. “It’s phenomenal, actually.”

Within three weeks of opening, Gordon said, they received an offer of $1 million to buy a 25 percent stake in the company — an offer they rejected.

Read the rest here.

Heh. Interesting marketing concept and development of a niche market catering to suburban angst. Somebody *really* interested in “saving” the “environment” would probably not be eating delivered pizza regardless of the hybrid vehicle delivery or how “organic” it was.

Anybody else out there have a rather unlikely idea that turned into a cash cow that you’re still milking? I need to do something different and I’m slap out of ideas.

1/2 Million Poultry Workers Unemployed in Bangladesh

2008-02-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

DHAKA (AFP) — The spread of deadly bird flu in Bangladesh has forced the closure of 40 percent of the nation’s poultry farms and left half a million poultry workers jobless, industry officials said on Monday.

Government authorities said the virus was still “under control”, although it has spread to 43 out of the country’s 64 districts, forcing authorities to slaughter some 800,000 birds.

“It’s a natural disaster like cyclone or floods. The poor farmers who raise chickens in their backyards are particularly hard hit by the bird flu,” said Abdul Baki, principal scientific officer of the livestock department.

“But we still think things are under control,” Baki said, adding the government was launching a massive plan to compensate affected farmers.

Baki’s comments came as the authorities struggled to slaughter another 160,000 birds in one of the largest farms in the capital Dhaka. Officials said it would take another day to complete the slaughter.

The outbreak at Omega farm showed the disease was out of control, industry officials said.

“Omega is one of the top farms which rigorously maintained international bio-safety regulations but it was not spared by the deadly flu,” said M.M Khan, a senior official of the Bangladesh Poultry Association.

“The situation is so bad nobody is buying any poultry these days. They’re panicking. The crows and migrant birds are spreading the flu everywhere, leaving authorities simply hopeless,” Khan said.

Already some supermarkets in the capital have suspended poultry sales, he said,

The flu has forced closure of at least 40 percent of the country’s estimated 150,000 commercial farms, leaving at least half a million people jobless, Khan said.

The government has repeatedly urged people not to be frightened and begun a major drive to assure people that eating cooked poultry poses no health dangers.

It is also giving farmers 1.50 dollars compensation for each chicken slaughtered because of the virus.

Bangladesh was first hit by bird flu in February 2007 but the disease became dormant. Officials said outbreak resurfaced in January when 20 new districts were hit. So far in February another 11 have been hit.

Bangladesh’s poultry industry is one of the world’s largest, producing 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks annually.

Source:

Dang. Chicken and duck is a relatively inexpensive and quick maturing source of protein to a poverty-stricken nation. Even if bird flu does not mutate into a form that can easily infect humans, it is still causing considerable economic hardship.

Bird Flu Death in China

2008-02-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) — China’s Ministry of Health on Monday confirmed a human case of H5N1 bird flu in the central Hunan Province. A 22-year-old man surnamed Li in Jianghua County, Yongzhou City, suffered fever and headache on Jan. 16 and was hospitalized on Jan. 22. His symptoms worsened despite treatment.

Li died at 5 p.m. on Jan. 24 after all rescue measures failed.

His specimens tested positive for the bird flu virus strain H5N1, said the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The report didn’t identify how he might have contracted the disease.

The virus is most commonly passed from sick poultry to humans who have close contact with infected birds.

Statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO) show there have been 18 human deaths from the H5N1 strain, and 28 confirmed cases of infection in China since 2003.

By Feb. 1, of the total of cases of confirmed human bird flu infections worldwide, 225 have been fatal.

The local government undertook prevention and control measures once the case was reported. Those who had close contact with Li were put under strict medical observation. So far, none have shown signs of the disease, the ministry said.

The case has been reported to the WHO, authorities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and some foreign governments.

The latest confirmed case of human bird flu took place in the worst snow-stricken province of Hunan, where prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow have caused blackouts and traffic chaos.

On Feb. 15, the Ministry of Health said that no cases of infectious epidemic or mass food poisoning were reported in China’s snow-stricken areas by Feb. 14, and that the death toll caused by infectious diseases in the snow-stricken areas showed no year-on-year increase in the past month.

Source: Xinhua

I hope that China’s reassurances are accurate, but I wouldn’t want to place any wagers on that. China has a long history of being less than open about health matters.

Saving Old, Well-Adapted Breeds of Livestock Before They Become Extinct

2008-02-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2008) — Phil Sponenberg, professor of pathology and genetics in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, has spent more than 30 years working to make sure certain living pieces of history — some dating to the 15th century — don’t become extinct.

Sponenberg's brand of living history comes in the form of various rare strains of livestock, which were involved in events like Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Caribbean Islands and the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Sponenberg’s involvement began with Choctaw horses when he was a college student, and has spread to other kinds of animals through the years. Ancestors of Choctaw horses, Colonial Spanish horses were brought to the Caribbean Islands by Columbus and to Mexico by Hernándo Cortés. The horses were stolen from Mexico and rapidly traded north by Pueblo Indians.

These horses were noted by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their expedition to explore the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the Spanish influence extended up to the Carolinas, across the Gulf Coast, and throughout the West.

“The Choctaws were one of the tribes displaced from Mississippi, and they took their livestock with them,” Sponenberg says.

The breeding stock has dispersed and not everyone can recognize a rare breed when they have one. Sponenberg received a call about a short horse that was about to be gelded. It turned out that the small horse, Icki, was a Choctaw. “Icki was the end of his bloodline,” says Sponenberg, who was able to buy the stallion and return him to a small herd to sire more Choctaw horses.

Sponenberg has also identified another group of the Spanish horses still in the South — “Marsh Tacky” horses, which were used to manage cattle and to chase wild hogs across swampy terrain.

Another Spanish livestock breed Sponenberg has run across in his travels is South Pineywoods cattle — also known as Florida Cracker Cattle. Small, rugged, horned, heat-tolerant, and disease-resistant, “these cattle are exquisitely adapted to this environment,” Sponenberg says. They are also long-lived and productive.

Through the years, Sponenberg has also found more Spanish horses, cotton patch geese, old Spanish goats, and some locally adapted Spanish sheep.

In fact, Sponenberg himself is the owner of a Choctaw horse, and he raises Tennessee myotonic (fainting) goats. The goats are from two old lines from New Braunfels, Texas.

Saving rare breeds

Sponenberg says he loves field work — discovering a new pocket of preserved livestock, making friends, and working with the people who manage the animals. His success, he says, is a result of the friendships and interest he has created — but also because of the strategies he has developed through scientific research.

Along the way, Sponenberg has done work and published strategies specific to rare breeds conservation, documentation, and genetic management.

Now, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is providing technical support for recapturing certain animals for pure breeding. The Bureau of Land Management contacts him to identify Spanish-type horses in wild herds to help the bureau conserve the horses.

Sponenberg stays connected with conservation efforts and affiliations and works to establish new relationships. He has collaborated with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy since 1978, and with Iberian researchers since the early 1990s.

As a result of his work, several new strains of horses have been added and excluded through detailed blood typing or DNA typing.

About other rare breeds:

Pineywoods Cattle:

.....remain from the earliest days of Spanish control of what is now the southeastern United States
.....usefulness to local populations as sources of meat, milk, hides, and oxen persists today

Cotton Patch Geese:

.....used extensively to weed cotton fields in the early 1900s
.....avidly consume grassy weeds and leave alone broad-leaved plants like cotton

Pine Tacky saddle horses:

.....local Spanish-type horses, found in the deep South
only three have been discovered and identified to date

Gulf Coast or Native sheep:

.....adapted descendants of old family flocks from the coastal deep South
trace back to an Iberian origin and are now being registered by the Gulf Coast Native Sheep Alliance

A Boer Goat Descendent (sic).

Local goats:

.....Nearly extinct, largely due to crossbreeding to the imported Boer goat
.....identified strains are exquisitely adapted to the local area

Swine:

.....remnants of an old Iberian type, usually black or grey in color, and poorly muscled
.....historically desired as a source of lard and cured meat
.....often earnotched, several have fused toes (mulefoot) and wattles (fleshy appendages) on the neck

This is a particular passion of mine. The old breeds of livestock were (and are) adapted to the area in which they lived, could eat the local grasses, were resistant to disease, and could raise their progeny without assistance. They also taste good. For anybody that wishes to raise their own food, I strongly advise them to search out the old, endangered breeds. The latest super duper strain of layers for the huge poultry houses may give you many eggs, but will not be keeping your landscape bug free while supplementing her diet. (And for those of you who do not know, egg yolks should be a bright reddish orange in color (about the color of the sun when I post the no sunspots today picture), not the anemic yellow I've seen in store eggs.

The old lard-type hogs I used to grow (see mulefoot picture at top) were friendly, docile, happily shared the barn with nesting ducks and chickens, and had the best tasting bacon I've ever eaten.

Every house doesn't need a cow that gives 10 gallons of milk a day. A smaller pastured cow that grazed a good portion of her feed would be fine. A dual-purpose miniature cow such as a Dexter would probably work well.

Health Officials Watching Drug-Resistant Flu Strain

2008-02-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

Ten Chicago-area patients have tested positive for an unusual type of drug-resistant influenza, prompting concern and increased surveillance by local and federal health officials.

The strain of flu can be treated successfully with some drugs, but it does not respond to Tamiflu, the most common anti-viral medication for flu. The Illinois Department of Public Health issued a health alert to doctors and hospitals Thursday, suggesting that flu patients who are in intensive care receive a combination of drugs until their virus can be analyzed.

Officials said eight of the Tamiflu-resistant infections came from an outbreak at a single Chicago health-care facility, the name of which has not been released.

Source: Chicago Tribune

The significance of that is, of course, that the only treatment for H5N1 aka bird or avian flu are antiviral drugs.

Indonesia's Death Toll from Bird Flu Increases to 105

2008-02-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

JAKARTA (AP): Bird flu killed a 3-year-old boy and a teenager in Indonesia, the health ministry announced, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 105.

The latest victim was identified only as Han, a 3-year-old boy from the capital, Jakarta, who died Friday at a hospital in the city, radio El-Shinta reported Saturday.

Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official, confirmed the report but did not provide details.

Laboratory tests confirmed the boy had the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, Kandun said. It was not clear how he was infected.

Earlier Saturday, the Health Ministry said a 16-year-old Indonesian boy from Central Java province died of bird flu. The boy, whose name was not disclosed, became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry's Web site.

He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo, about 450 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, said Sumardi, a ministry spokesman. Like many Indonesians, he goes by one name.

Tests confirmed the teenager had been infected by the H5N1 virus, the ministry's Web site said.

Source: The Jakarta Post.

For "EcoMoms", Saving the Earth Begins at Home

2008-02-17T08:24:00.000-08:00

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The women gathered in the airy living room, wine poured and pleasantries exchanged. In no time, the conversation turned lively — not about the literary merits of Geraldine Brooks or Cormac McCarthy but the pitfalls of antibacterial hand sanitizers and how to retool the laundry using only cold water and biodegradable detergent during non-prime-time energy hours (after 7 p.m.).

Move over, Tupperware. The EcoMom party has arrived, with its ever-expanding “to do” list that includes preparing waste-free school lunches; lobbying for green building codes; transforming oneself into a “locovore,” eating locally grown food; and remembering not to idle the car when picking up children from school (if one must drive). Here, the small talk is about the volatile compounds emitted by dry-erase markers at school.

Perhaps not since the days of “dishpan hands” has the household been so all-consuming. But instead of gleaming floors and sparkling dishes, the obsession is on installing compact fluorescent light bulbs, buying in bulk and using “smart” power strips that shut off electricity to the espresso machine, microwave, X-Box, VCR, coffee grinder, television and laptop when not in use.

“It’s like eating too many brownies one day and then jogging extra the next,” said Kimberly Danek Pinkson, 38, the founder of the EcoMom Alliance, speaking to the group of efforts to curb eco-guilt through carbon offsets for air travel.

Part “Hints from Heloise” and part political self-help group, the alliance, which Ms. Pinkson says has 9,000 members across the country, joins a growing subculture dedicated to the “green mom,” with blogs and Web sites like greenandcleanmom.blogspot.com and eco-chick.com. Web-based organizations like the Center for a New American Dream in Takoma Park, Md., advocate reducing consumption and offer a registry that helps brides “celebrate the less-material wedding of your dreams.”

At an EcoMom circle in Palo Alto, executive mothers whipped out spreadsheets to tally their goals, inspired by a 10-step program that urges using only nontoxic products for cleaning, bathing and make-up, as well as cutting down garbage by 10 percent.

“I used to feel anxiety,” said Kathy Miller, 49, an alliance member, recalling life before she started investigating weather-sensitive irrigation controls for her garden with nine growing zones. “Now I feel I’m doing something.”

The notion of “ecoanxiety” has crept into the culture here. It was the subject of a recent cover story in San Francisco magazine that quotes a Berkeley mother so stressed out about the extravagance of her nightly baths that she started to reuse her daughter’s bath water. Where there is ecoanxiety, of course, there are ecotherapists.

Read the rest here.

Everybody searches for meaning in their life through religion of one kind or another. Looks like a group of people have found comfort in devoting their lives in service to Gaia.

Novel Approach Strips Staphylococcus aureus of Virulence

2008-02-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

An international team of researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has blocked staph infections in mice using a drug previously tested in clinical trials as a cholesterol-lowering agent. The novel approach, described in the February 14 online edition of Science, could offer a new direction for therapies against a bacterium that’s becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

“By following their scientific instinct about a basic biological process, the researchers made a surprising discovery with important clinical implications,” said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. “Although the results are still very preliminary, they offer a promising new lead for developing drugs to treat a very timely and medically important health concern.”

This work was supported by three NIH components: the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

A pigment similar to the one that gives carrots their color turns Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”) golden. In the bacterium, this pigment acts as an antioxidant to block the reactive oxygen molecules the immune system uses to kill bacteria.

Researchers had speculated that blocking pigment formation in staph could restore the immune system’s ability to thwart infection. While perusing a magazine on microbial research, Eric Oldfield, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign read how in 2005 University of California, San Diego researchers knocked out a gene in staph’s pigment-making pathway to create colorless—and less pathogenic—bacteria.

“I looked at the metabolic pathway and noticed that it was similar to the one for the production of cholesterol in humans,” said Oldfield, senior author of the Science paper, who had spent decades studying this pathway. With numerous cholesterol-lowering drugs already on the market and in development, he wondered if any could turn staph colorless and make them once again susceptible to the immune system.

Colleagues in Taiwan determined the structure of the enzyme that triggers the first critical step in staph’s pigment formation and observed striking similarities to an enzyme involved in human cholesterol production. They also captured the structures of several cholesterol-lowering drugs bound to the bacterial enzyme.

Building on their 2005 research that sparked the current study, Victor Nizet, M.D., and George Liu, M.D., Ph.D., now at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., tested eight different drug compounds that act on the human cholesterol enzyme. Three blocked pigment production in laboratory tests. When the researchers treated mice infected with S. aureus with one of the compounds, the bacterial population was reduced by 98 percent.

Because the approach reduces the virulence of the bacteria by stopping pigment production, it may not cause selective pressures on the population, which can lead to antibiotic resistance. It also targets only S. aureus, possibly reducing side effects.

“This is an entirely new approach that seems to work in animals, and now we need to take the next step to explore if it will work in humans,” said Oldfield.

Contributing authors also include Chia-I Liu, Ph.D., Wen-Yih Jeng, Ph.D., and Andrew H.-J. Wang, Ph.D., of the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan; Mary E. Hensler, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Diego; and Yongcheng Song, Ph.D., and Fenglin Yin, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Source: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

If this works out in human studies (and as we well know, products that cure mice do not always work out well in other species), it will be a wonderful new tool to treat people that have contracted this disease. My uncle died from an MRSA infection.

Whenever possible, I like to present the actual article instead of the condensed version presented on television shows and in newspapers. I have found those articles tend to present popular belief as fact and to draw inferences that do not exist.

Patient with Rare Disorder Responds to Cancer Drug

2008-02-17T05:28:00.000-08:00

A rare disorder caused by an excess of two types of immune cells—the mast cell found in various tissues and its blood-based twin, the basophil—has successfully been treated with a cancer drug, report scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, now available online at the Web site of the journal Haematologica, was a collaborative effort led by Dean Metcalfe, M.D., chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Allergic Diseases and Jan Cools, Ph.D., a staff scientist, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven within the Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology and the Department of Molecular and Developmental Genetics, in Leuven, Belgium.

A few years ago, the 61-year-old patient was referred to the NIH Clinical Center because he was quite ill with symptoms of systemic mastocytosis, a disease caused by excessive numbers of mast cells, and chronic basophilic leukemia, a rare type of bone marrow cancer characterized by an overabundance of basophils.

Systemic mastocytosis often results from a mutation in the gene that codes for the KIT receptor found on the surface of mast cells, a discovery first made by Dr. Metcalfe and his team in 1995. In this patient, however, the KIT receptor mutation was ruled out. In further studies, NIAID researchers and their collaborators found a chromosomal abnormality that led to the discovery of a fusion protein in the cell, created by two genes joining together. They also found that the fusion protein was the basis of the disorder and figured that the patient should respond to imatinib, a drug already approved to treat different types of cancers and systemic mastocytosis. After the patient was treated with the cancer drug imatinib, his clinical symptoms improved quickly and dramatically, and he remains in clinical remission three years after treatment was started.

This is a rare report of the simultaneous occurrence of these two conditions in one patient, and the first describing a response to therapy. Diagnosing a patient who has such an atypical disorder can be difficult, says Dr. Metcalfe. Recently, another patient with similar clinical findings was referred to their clinic. Based on their experience with the first patient, the researchers started treatment with imatinib and, according to Dr. Metcalfe, this patient also is responding well.

Identifying this newly recognized chromosomal abnormality and the fusion protein in patients who present with clinical findings of systemic mastocytosis and chronic basophilic leukemia may enable doctors to successfully treat these individuals with imatinib, according to Dr. Metcalfe.

ARTICLE: I Lahortiga et al. Activity of imatinib in systemic mastocytosis with chronic basophilic leukemia and a PRKG2-PDGFRB fusion. Haematologica DOI: 10.3324/haematol.11836 (2008

Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease

I'm glad that this apparently very rare disease now has an effective treatment.

Oceans' Fiercest Predators Now Vulnerable to Extinction

2008-02-17T05:12:00.000-08:00

Sharks are disappearing from the world’s oceans. The numbers of many large shark species have declined by more than half due to increased demand for shark fins and meat, recreational shark fisheries, as well as tuna and swordfish fisheries, where millions of sharks are taken as bycatch each year.

Now, the global status of large sharks has been assessed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which is widely recognized as the most comprehensive, scientific-based information source on the threat status of plants and animals.

“As a result of high and mostly unrestricted fishing pressure, many sharks are now considered to be at risk of extinction,” explained Julia Baum, a member of the IUCN’s Shark Specialist Group who will be speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Conference in Boston, which runs from February 14 to 18. She will outline management measures required to conserve sharks at an afternoon press conference on February 17.

“Of particular concern is the scalloped hammerhead shark, an iconic coastal species, which will be listed on the 2008 IUCN Red List as globally ‘endangered’ due to overfishing and high demand for its valuable fins in the shark fin trade,” added Baum, who is an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Baum pointed out that fishing for sharks in international waters is unrestricted, and she supports a recently adopted United Nations resolution calling for immediate shark catch limits as well as a meaningful ban on shark finning (the practice of removing only a shark’s fins and dumping the still live but now helpless shark into the ocean to die).

Research at Dalhousie University over the past five years, conducted by Baum and the late Ransom Myers, demonstrated the magnitude of shark declines in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. All species the team looked at had declined by over 50 per cent since the early 1970s. For many large coastal shark species, the declines were much greater: tiger, scalloped hammerhead, bull and dusky shark populations have all plummeted by more than 95 per cent.

Source:

I never thought I'd see the day where I thought sharks needed protection but that day has come.

Indonesia's Bird Flu Death Toll Reaches 104

2008-02-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A 16-year-old Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, bringing the nation’s death toll from the illness to 104, the Health Ministry said Saturday.

The boy became ill on Feb. 3 with a cough and other respiratory symptoms, according to the Health Ministry’s Web site.

He died a week later in a hospital in the city of Solo, about 280 miles southeast of the capital, Jakarta, said Sumardi, a ministry spokesman. Like he many Indonesians, Sumardi goes by one name.

Tests confirmed the boy had been infected with the dangerous H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the ministry’s Web site said.

The victim’s neighbors had sick chickens on their property and the boy apparently slaughtered some of them before he became ill, the ministry said.

Indonesia has regularly recorded human deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003.

Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, but health experts worry the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.

Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.

More than 225 people have died worldwide from the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: Associated Press, China Internet Information Center (English)

7-Year-Old Child with Bird Flu in Vietnam

2008-02-16T06:25:00.000-08:00

Vietnam's Health Ministry said a seven-year-old child from northern Hai Duong Province has been infected with H5N1, raising the total number of bird flu patients in Vietnam since 2003 to 105, according to local newspaper Young People on Saturday.

The child is under treatment at the Central Pediatrics Hospital in Hanoi capital. Some suspected human cases of bird flu infections are also under treatment at the city-based Tropical Diseases Hospital. Their specimens are being tested for H5N1 by Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

To date, Vietnam has reported a total of 105 human cases of bird flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started to hit the country in December 2003.

Since Feb. 13, two local people, a 27-year-old man named Hoang Van Doan from northern Ninh Binh Province and a 40-year-old man named Do Van San from northern Hai Duong Province, have died from bird flu, the newspaper said.

On Jan. 18, a 32-year-old ethnic man named Tran Van Dong from northern Tuyen Quang Province died from the disease.

Last December, after detecting no human cases of bird flu infections for nearly four months, the ministry confirmed that a four-year-old boy from northern Son La Province died on Dec. 16, 2007 from bird flu.

All the recently-detected bird flu patients have had close contacts with fowls, like slaughtering dead chickens for meal, before exhibiting bird flu symptoms. During the Lunar New Year Festival in early February, a large number of poultry were transported and slaughtered for meal across Vietnam.

The World Health Organization on Feb. 15 confirmed 103 cases of bird flu infections, including 49 fatalities in Vietnam. It has yet to confirm the two latest cases, including one fatality.

Vietnam currently has four localities having poultry being hit by bird flu: northern Thai Nguyen, central Quang Binh Province, northern Quang Ninh Province and southern Long An Province, the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday.

Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)

U.S. Versus French on Being Full

2008-02-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

It's the French paradox redux: Why don't the French get as fat as Americans, considering all the baguettes, wine, cheese, pate and pastries they eat?
Because they use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over.

"Furthermore, we have found that the heavier a person is -- French or American -- the more they rely on external cues to tell them to stop eating and the less they rely on whether they felt full," said senior author Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Department of Applied Economics and Management, now on leave to serve as executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion until January 2009.

The new study, an analysis of questionnaires from 133 Parisians and 145 Chicagoans about how they decide when to stop eating, is being published in the journal Obesity and is being presented this later month at an the Winter Marketing Educators conference.

"Over-relying on external cues to stop eating a meal may prove useful in offering a partial explanation of why body mass index [a calculation based on the relationship of weight to height] varies across people and potentially across cultures," said co-author Collin Payne, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher. He stressed that further studies should following up with smoking behavior and socio-economic differences as well. "Relying on internal cues for meal cessation, rather than on external cues, may improve eating patterns in the long term.

Source:

I don't know about any of the rest of you, but having somebody lecture me that I'm over-relying on external cues and should instead be relying on internal cues (like the French!) to tell me that I'm "full" is, well, one of those pieces of advice that I file under "gee, thanks, now give me something that I can really use".

So, uh, how much time do French women have for lunch? I can tell you that high school teachers (in my county) have a total of 25 minutes for lunch which includes walking to and from the cafeteria (which takes 10 minutes from my location), standing in line for food (maybe 5 minutes) and eating (using the shovel-it-in technique) will take perhaps 10 minutes. Lunch is also the time for a pee break which has to be fit somewhere within that 25 minute time frame. Elementary school teachers have even less time for lunch because they have to walk the students to lunch and walk the students back. No time there for waiting on those ol' feelings of satiety!

Maybe teachers are a bad example. How about medical people? According to my mom (retired nurse), they *often* did not take their half-hour lunch on the 12-hour shift at the hospital she was at, instead relying on grazing from vending machines, due to staffing shortages/high patient census. I don't think the feeling of satiety even came into play there. Just lots of stress and not enough time for a meal.

Thinking back over the number of jobs I've had over my working life (and there were a lot of different types of jobs because I get bored easily), I don't recall ever having any job/business where I could eat at a leisurely pace, waiting for feelings of satiety to set in so that I could quit eating, knowing that my stomach wouldn't be growling in distress the rest of the afternoon.

Does that mean that I am unaware of feelings of satiety and only rely on external cues for every meal? Well, no. When I go to a nice restaurant for a leisurely meal on the weekend and order my entree, I often find to my bemusement that I end up taking it home to consume at a later time because after the appetizer and soup or salad, I am completely full and do not want anything else.

I also find that in my evening meal at home, I tend to eat as rapidly as I do in the morning and afternoon during the workday because I have household and farm chores to do, blogs to read, telephone calls to make, and only 3 to 4 hours in the evening to get it done. Again, I just do not have the time to linger over food preparation and consumption. I suppose that is a cultural shortcoming of trying to do everything.

I suppose the Answer to Obesity is to cut the work ethic and be more French like.

The French probably haven't had people telling them that eggs were evil killers, alcohol would make you fat, cream and other fats would kill them, and margerine was better for them than butter, either.

Migratory Birds Not Main Source of Bird Flu: WWF

2008-02-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

Staff Report

LAHORE: Wild migratory birds may suffer from Avian Influenza (commonly known as bird flu), but they are not the main source of the disease’s outbreak in Pakistan, according to a study statement issued by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Lahore chapter on Friday.

The statement said that the statements about migratory birds being the main reason for the latest outbreak of bird flu in Pakistani poultry farms might have serious repercussions against the birds and their habitats. It said since the recent outbreak of bird flu in Sindh, WWF Pakistan had been in contact with BirdLife International, which carried out research on the role of wild birds, including migratory species, in the spread of HPAI H5N1.

The WWF said there were no sound grounds to support the allegations that migratory birds were solely responsible for the spread of H5N1. It said the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) collected samples from between 300,000 to 350,000 wild-birds across the world. None of these were found H5N1 positive. Likewise, sampling of 5000 water birds after the outbreak in Nigeria during 2006 found no traces of the virus (according to the Wildlife and the Environment Web). Despite increased sampling around the world, no fully documented migratory wild birds have tested positive for H5N1.

The WWF said the mapping of bird flu outbreaks across the world had shown that they followed poultry trade routes rather than the migratory birds’ flyways. Therefore, after a comprehensive critical review of recent scientific literature, it was concluded that poultry trade, rather than bird migration, was the main mechanism of the global dispersal of the H5N1 virus.

The organisation said the illegal trade of caged birds had transported the H5N1 virus the world over. It said, “Bird flu virus is transmitted farm to farm by the movement of live birds, people (especially with contaminated clothes), and contaminated vehicles, equipment, feed, and cages. Highly pathogenic viruses can survive for long periods in the environment, especially when temperatures are low. For example, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus can survive in bird faeces for at least 35 days at a low temperature (4 degree Celsius). At a much higher temperature (37 degree Celsius), H5N1 viruses have been shown to survive, in faecal samples, for six days (WHO).”

The WWF called for the media to educate the people about the bird flu virus and how it was being spread. It also called for the authorities to monitor any suspicious mortality of birds in the wild. It asked the zoos to vaccinate all birds against the virus. The organisation said poultry farms should have tracking numbers because once their birds got out in the market they could not be tracked back to the farms. The WWF said strict hygiene and bio-security measures should be taken at poultry farms and zoos – People and vehicles going to the farms should be disinfected, the birds’ caretakers should meticulously clean utensils, their hands and feet.

The statement said the organisation did not support mass culling of wild birds or the destruction of their habitats. It said the birds’ habitats should be left undisturbed so that they do not seek refuge near human settlements.

Source: Daily Times

I've read other accounts that come to the same conclusion.

Total Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-15T17:18:00.000-08:00

Feb. 13, 2008: On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010.

The Sun goes down. The Moon comes up. You go out and look at the sky. Observing the eclipse is that easy. Maximum eclipse, and maximum beauty, occurs at 10:26 pm EST (7:26 pm PST).

A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes through the shadow of Earth. You might expect the Moon to grow even more ashen than usual, but in fact it transforms into an orb of vivid red.

Why red? That is the color of Earth's shadow.

Consider the following: Most shadows we're familiar with are black or gray; step outside on a sunny day and look at your own. Earth's shadow is different because, unlike you, Earth has an atmosphere. The delicate layer of dusty air surrounding our planet reddens and redirects the light of the sun, filling the dark behind Earth with a sunset-red glow. The exact tint--anything from bright orange to blood red is possible--depends on the unpredictable state of the atmosphere at the time of the eclipse. "Only the shadow knows," says astronomer Jack Horkheimer of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.

Transiting the shadow's core takes about an hour. The first hints of red appear around 10 pm EST (7 pm PST), heralding a profusion of coppery hues that roll across the Moon's surface enveloping every crater, mountain and moon rock, only to fade away again after 11 pm EST (8 pm PST). No special filter or telescope is required to see this spectacular event. It is a bright and leisurely display visible from cities and countryside alike.

While you're watching, be alert for another color: turquoise. Observers of several recent lunar eclipses have reported a flash of turquoise bracketing the red of totality.

"The blue and turquoise shades at the edge of Earth's shadow were incredible," recalls amateur astronomer Eva Seidenfaden of Trier, Germany, who took the picture at right during the European lunar eclipse of March 3-4, 2007. Dozens of other photographers have documented the same phenomenon.

The source of the turquoise is ozone. Eclipse researcher Dr. Richard Keen of the University of Colorado explains: "During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the moon passes through the stratosphere where it is reddened by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer." This can be seen, he says, as a soft blue fringe around the red core of Earth's shadow.

To catch the turquoise on Feb. 20th, he advises, "look during the first and last minutes of totality." That would be around 10:01 pm EST and 10:51 pm EST (7:01 and 7:51 pm PST).

Blood red, bright orange, gentle turquoise: it's all good. Mark your calendar in vivid color for the Feb. 20th lunar eclipse.

Editor's note: This story is written for an American audience, but not only Americans can see the eclipse. People in Europe and western Africa are also favored. International maps and timetables may be found here.

Source: NASA

I hope it's a clear night so that I can see this one!

More Horses Being Abandoned

2008-02-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

A press release from the Unwanted Horse Coalition says economic factors, including high hay costs, are among the reasons cited in news reports for a growing number of unwanted and abandoned horses in the U.S. Over the last month, articles in newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have reported on an apparent increase in the numbers of unwanted horses. A recent headline in The Wall Street Journal read,”Leaner Pastures: As Horses Multiply, Neglect Cases Rise.”

Regional newspapers and television stations have also reported that state agencies and horse rescue groups are seeing a growing number of horses that can no longer be cared for by owners.

Some of the reports suggest that rescue groups are about to be overwhelmed and may have to start turning horses away. The articles blame the problem on factors such as sharply rising hay costs, the drought in many parts of the U.S., over-breeding, the downturn in the economy, the costs of euthanasia and carcass disposal and the closing of the nation’s three slaughter facilities, which removed the floor on the value of horses.

The Unwanted Horse Coalition, which operates under the auspices of the American Horse Council, includes over 20 national organizations. It was created to educate horse owners and potential horse owners about what it means to “own responsibly.” Learn more about the coalition at www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org, or call the American Horse Council at 202-296-4031.

Source: Hay and Forage Grower

I could have a pasture FULL of horses, good ones, if I had the forage for them. People are giving away horses because they simply cannot afford to feed them and even then they may not be able to find a home. I have a friend that is divorced with 7 horses and nowhere to put them and no one will take them.

There used to be a value to horses when there were slaughter facilities. Now horses are valueless, and I don’t see the people that were so concerned about the “inhumanity” of slaughtering unwanted horses stepping forward to assume the feed bill to keep them from starving.

I always thought slaughter was more humane than slowly starving an animal to death.

Finding the Missing Ice Age

2008-02-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Maureen Raymo puts what looks like a pinch of sand on a glass slide and powers up her microscope. Under magnification, the grains are revealed to be fossilized shells of tiny ocean creatures that existed millions of years ago. Raymo, a College of Arts and Sciences earth sciences research professor, is a paleoclimatologist, and these remains are to her what dinosaur bones are to paleontologists: keys to the past.

Raymo studies these shells to better understand the ice ages that have waxed and waned over millions of years on our planet. At the moment, she’s searching for evidence to support a theory she and several colleagues recently proposed to explain a conundrum that has puzzled researchers for years: why the timing of ice growth and decay was different between one million and three million years ago compared to the pattern observed for the last million years.

Scientists know that irregularities in the Earth’s orbit, which occur every 23,000, 41,000, and 100,000 years, affect global climate cycles. Those deviations can nudge the northern hemisphere farther from the sun, causing ice to remain through the summer and auguring a new ice age, like the one that ended 10,000 years ago in North America. But starting in the late Pliocene era, some three million years ago, evidence of the 23,000-year cycle of climate change disappeared from the climate record.

Read the rest at BU Today.

Good grief. People are finding microscopic fossils to confirm the existence of ice ages millions of years ago. In the meantime, I can't find car keys, glasses, watches, or books that I had the previous evening. I feel so inadequate now. Thanks a lot.

HemCon Bandage Update

2008-02-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

There is a new bandage currently being used on the battlefields in Iraq called a HemCon® Bandage that is made from the shells of shrimp. I queried our allergist as to the safety of this Bandage for the shellfish allergic, because the product is now being marketed to local EMTs across the USA. The response that our allergist received from the company is as follows:There have been no known allergic reactions as a result of using the HemCon Bandage since distribution began in 2003 and there have been no adverse effects reported in over 500,000 bandages shipped. HemCon Medical Technologies, Inc. has results from a shellfish allergy study conducted by its chitosan supplier which demonstrates that, out of 221 individuals with suspected hypersensitivity, including 8 individuals with known shellfish allergies, none demonstrated any dermal sensitivity when pricked with a chitosan test solution. However, since chitosan is extracted from the shells of shrimp, other shellfish and fungi, individuals with known shellfish allergies should exercise caution in the use of products containing chitosan.

Source: AllergicChild.com

I was wondering as well whether those chitosan bandages would cause a reaction/anaphylactic shock in those unfortunate individuals with a severe shellfish allergy. Supposedly not, but it might be a good idea to wear one of those medical allergy alert bracelets in the event of an accident.

The Touch, the Feel, and Now the Heal of Cotton

2008-02-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Its cultivation may be ancient—dating as far back as 5,000
years ago—but cotton, and its characteristically soft, downy
fibers, could be just what modern medicine has been waiting
for.

Believed to have first been grown in the Indus Valley of
current-day Pakistan and India, cotton is a favorite fiber in terms
of its innate softness, breathability, and agronomic abundance.
Nothing wicks moisture away better on a steamy August day. No
other fabric feels as naturally smooth and airy against the skin.
And now, thanks to research done by an ARS chemist in New
Orleans, Louisiana, this fabric basic is poised to help address
one of our healthcare system’s most costly medical conditions:
debilitating chronic wounds.

Read the rest at Agricultural Research Magazine.

Clothes that will stop hemorrhages, bandages that will promote healing of pressure sores, and sheets that are absorbent and kill microbes. All of these are in development.

Rising Food Prices Intensify Food Insecurity in Developing Countries

2008-02-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

Recent hikes in oil prices have raised serious concerns in low-income countries, both because of the financial burden of the higher energy import bill and potential constraints on imports of necessities like food and raw materials. Higher oil prices also have sparked energy security concerns worldwide, increasing the demand for biofuel production. The use of feed crops for biofuels, coupled with greater food demand spurred by high income growth in populous countries, such as China and India, has reversed the long-term path of declining price trends for several commodities.

Worldwide agricultural commodity price increases were significant during 2004-06: corn prices rose 54 percent; wheat, 34 percent; soybean oil, 71 percent; and sugar, 75 percent. But this trend accelerated in 2007, due to continued demand for biofuels and drought in major producing countries. Wheat prices have risen more than 35 percent since the 2006 harvest, while corn prices have increased nearly 28 percent. The price of soybean oil has been particularly volatile, due to high demand growth in China, the U.S., and the European Union (EU), as well as lower global stocks.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that the high food prices of 2006 increased the food import bill of developing countries by 10 percent over 2005 levels. For 2007, the food import bill for these countries increased at a much higher rate, an estimated 25 percent.

Price Rises Will Have Greatest Impact on Import-Dependent Countries

The 2006 ERS Food Security Assessment report for developing countries projected a slight increase in food availability during the next decade, mainly because of improvements in Asia. This increased availability is projected to lead to a 5-percent drop in the number of food insecure people in the 70 low-income countries included in the ERS analysis. But, with the recent surge in food prices, prospects are not so bright for many of the lowest income countries. Projections of food availability consider both domestic production and food imports. Changes in import capacity have direct implications on the food security of low-income countries where food import dependency has increased because of greater demand stemming from income and population growth, as well as slow gains in domestic production. For highly import-dependent or highly food-insecure countries, any decline in import capacity stemming from rising food prices can have challenging food security implications.

Food Price Hikes in 2006 Offset by Record Crops and Higher Export Revenues

In 2006, higher food and oil prices resulted in an estimated decline in total commercial imports by the 70 developing countries. However, most of the expected impact of higher oil and food prices on food security was offset by favorable weather leading to record or above-average crop production, as well as higher export earnings of some of the low-income countries. Higher prices for copper and aluminum brought significant financial gains to some of the poorest countries, such as Zambia, Tajikistan, Guinea, and Mozambique. Increased construction in China, which accounted for 50 percent of the growth in consumption for copper and aluminum metals, prompted the rise in metal prices, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report.

Strong demand growth for labor in industrial countries and emerging markets also helped offset the impact of food and fuel import price increases in several countries. In Central America, remittances (transfers of money from foreign workers to their home countries) grew to account for 10-20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2005, supporting growth in consumption. Asia is the largest recipient of remittances, accounting for 45 percent of the world total; IMF estimates that remittances contributed to about 10 percent of GDP in the Philippines and Nepal. Sri Lanka benefited from the economic boom in oil-exporting countries because more than 80 percent of its migrant workers were working in the oil-exporting Gulf States.

But will export prices for less developed countries continue to grow in the medium term, preventing an erosion in terms of trade for low-income countries? The 2006 IMF Outlook report argues that prices of metals will decline because the reserves of metals are more plentiful than oil reserves. The price trend for agricultural raw materials is less predictable because weather-related shocks will continue to create annual price volatility.

Grains and Oilseeds Crucial in Developing Country Diets

Price increases for grains and oilseeds are of particular concern to low-income countries as these commodities constitute a large share of their citizens’ diets. Low-cost grains historically have been a dietary staple in the poorest countries. In low-income Asian countries, grains account for an average of 63 percent of the diet; in North Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS—11 former Soviet republics), about 60 percent. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the region most vulnerable to food insecurity, grains account for nearly half of the calories consumed. The share of grains in the diet is lowest—about 43 percent—in lower income Latin America. In all regions, the situation varies by country. For example, in Bangladesh, the share is 80 percent, while in Eritrea and Ethiopia, both among the most food-insecure countries in the world, the share is around 70 percent.

The vegetable oil share of diets in low-income countries has risen as higher incomes made processed foods more accessible. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of vegetable oil increased from less than 8 percent of the diet in 1980 to 12 percent in more recent years. In lower income Asian and Latin American countries, the share is now roughly 10 percent, up from 5-7 percent in 1980.

Read the rest at Amber Waves.

While I do feel compassion for the people affected in the developing countries, some of the food insecurities have less to do with rising commodity prices than they do with exceptionally stupid political policies (hello, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe).

Suspended Animation Via Hypothermia

2008-02-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

A handful of adventuresome scientists are studying the molecular secrets of hibernation and extreme hypothermia in hopes of finding a new generation of treatments that can slow down metabolism for just a few hours. Their goal is to buy time after a car accident, gunshot wound or massive heart attack to get a person into the hospital and into surgery before they die or suffer extensive brain damage.

Their work is in the very preliminary stages, and human trials are only now being planned. But the implications are huge if any of these treatments work. Without oxygen, heart cells begin to die in 20 minutes. Brain cells last just 5 minutes without oxygen. Despite defibrillators and other modern gear, survival rates after cardiac arrest are around 30% inside hospitals and 5% or so outside of them.Source: Forbes

I hope this works but wonder how clinical trials will be done.

Oil Around the World

2008-02-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

The February issue of Geotimes has an interesting assortment of oil discoveries and their attendant problems around the world. I recommend that you read it.

Excerpt:

Norway’s economy depends on the sea. Many tons of cod, herring, mackerel and other fish hauled in from Norwegian waters land on dinner plates around the world each year, making Norway the world’s second-largest fish exporter. Fifty years ago, no one would have predicted that another offshore resource — hydrocarbons — would one day supersede fish as Norway’s most valuable asset.

“The chances of finding coal, oil or sulfur on the continental shelf off the Norwegian coast can be discounted,” an official from the Norwegian Geological Survey wrote in a letter to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1958. The following year, however, a large gas field was discovered in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands, prompting speculation that similar deposits might lie a bit farther north. Exploration in Norwegian waters began in the early 1960s. By 1966, oil was discovered in the country’s first offshore well, and oil production began five years later in Norway’s first major oil field, Ekofisk. As of 2005, Norway was the world’s third-largest natural gas exporter and fifth-largest oil exporter. In 2006, these exports brought the country $94 billion — 15 times more than the value of fish exports, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

After more than 35 years of oil and gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf, NPD estimates 65 percent of the region’s resources have yet to be tapped and a quarter have yet to be discovered. Current production and exploration activities are concentrated in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. But oil and gas fields in these areas are maturing and production is beginning to decline. This has led companies to set their sights on Norway’s Arctic territory. “We expect one-third of future petroleum potential to be within the Barents Sea,” says geologist Bente Nyland, NPD’s director general. Compared to the heavily explored North Sea and Norwegian Sea, the Barents Sea is “virgin area,” and the last place left to find a major oil or gas discovery in Norway, she says.

Read the rest of the article on Norway. Other countries featured include India, Libya, the South China sea, and Iraq.

From Contra Rebel to Auto Mechanic in Florida

2008-02-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

MIAMI –
At the end of Nicaragua’s civil war, Juan Gregorio Rodriguez traded his life as a Contra rebel for that of auto mechanic in Florida. He kept in touch with other rebels and supported their political efforts, but mostly from afar.That changed in 2006, when the Contras’ nemesis, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, was elected president, 16 years after his Soviet-backed government lost power in a vote that ended the guerrilla conflict in which some 30,000 people died.

His return to power has galvanized dozens of former Contras in the United States to plunge back into the politics of their Central American homeland, lobbying for support from the U.S. Congress and joining anti-Ortega movements with former colleagues in Nicaragua. Some even warn darkly that armed resistance is again a possibility.

What really disturbs these former Contras is Ortega’s plan to revive Sandinista neighborhood watch committees, which became his eyes and ears during his first presidency. Rodriguez and some other ex-Contras also feel betrayed by compromises made by their former comrades in arms since the war. Some have even joined the Sandinistas: Ortega’s vice president, Jaime Morales, is a former Contra spokesman.

“Many of our former leaders sold out to the Sandinistas. The leaders in the field were left to help the families of those who fought in the resistance,” said the wiry Rodriguez, who lives in Miami and was once known as Comandante Camilo. Now they wonder how “we’ve lost to the same enemy we fought,” he said.

Today’s Contras are a shadow of the movement the CIA built around a core of former soldiers who had served the dictatorship toppled by the Sandinistas in 1979. With U.S. arms and funds smuggled into Nicaragua from clandestine bases in neighboring Honduras, it grew into one of Central America’s largest guerrilla armies.

But continued support despite a congressional ban damaged the Reagan administration’s reputation, and the Contras disbanded before the 1990 election led to three consecutive anti-Sandinista governments.

Some entered politics. Some continued to fight as irregulars, demanding benefits for ex-fighters or as bandits. Many struggled for jobs in a Nicaraguan economy devastated by years of war and muddled Sandinista policies. And a few left for the United States, even as other refugees were returned home.

The newly energized Contras in Florida say their opposition will be peaceful, but some suggest they could rearm if Ortega attempts to reinstate socialist policies.

“We are trying to focus on civic efforts, to build political leaders,” said Salvador Marin, a surgeon who treated Contra rebels in the mountains during the 1980s. “When we started, we had pistols and hunting rifles and no experience. Through the years, we gained that experience and still have it … A true war would depend on how extreme are the conditions imposed by Ortega.”

But Nicaragua’s army chief, Gen. Omar Halleslevens, says he sees no sign of Contras rearming there.

Source: Miami Herald

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict he’s probably not a Hillary voter.

I have to agree with Comandante Camilo that restarting the neighborhood spy program is not a good sign.

1,500 Years of Cooling in the Arctic?

2008-02-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

The Arctic is melting, right? There is simply no questioning this pillar of the greenhouse scare, and images of ice melting, polar bears struggling, and indigenous people crying the blues are all part of any self-respecting presentation of global warming. Imagine a study published in a major journal showing that a location in the Arctic has “a trend of -0.3°C over the last 1,500 years.” Of course, you would never have learned of such a result had you not discovered World Climate Report.

The article is forthcoming in Climate Dynamics, and the work was conducted by Håkan Grudd of Stockholm University’s Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, and despite the results, the research was not funded by industry. The focus here is the Torneträsk area in northern Sweden near 68.5°N (within the Arctic Circle) where Scots pines have been growing for millennia. Grudd not only sampled living trees, but he also collected subfossil samples found as dead wood on dry ground and from submerged logs retrieved from small mountain lakes. Many other studies have shown that the pines are sensitive to summer temperatures, so in theory, the tree samples should allow a very long term and relatively accurate reconstruction of past thermal conditions.

Read the rest at World Climate Report.

Seems that the medieval warm period was warmer than we thought. THAT may put a crimp into the carbon indulgence sales business.

For the record, I live in Florida and have lived in Arizona's Sonoran desert in the summer without A/C. I LOVE warm weather.

Joe Bastardi Predicts a Shift Towards Colder Weather

2008-02-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

He doesn't base it on questionable models, either, but actual data from the past. Believe him or not, your prerogative, but he DID get the shift from El Nino to La Nina and the colder than normal winter right while the global warmenists....didn't.

Read it for yourself.

Peruvian Mummies had lice?

2008-02-09T12:24:00.000-08:00

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Lice from 1,000-year-old mummies in Peru may unravel important clues about a different sort of passage: the migration patterns of America’s earliest humans, a new University of Florida study suggests.

“It’s kind of quirky that a parasite we love to hate can actually inform us how we traveled around the globe,” said David Reed, an assistant curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus and one of the study’s authors.

DNA sequencing found the strain of lice to be genetically the same as the form of body lice that spawns several deadly diseases, including typhus, which was blamed for the loss of Napoleon’s grand army and millions of other soldiers, he said.

The discovery of these parasites on 11th-century Peruvian mummies proves they were infesting the native Americans nearly 500 years before Europeans arrived, Reed said. His findings are published this week in an online edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

“This definitely goes against the grain of conventional thought that all diseases were transmitted from the Old World to the New World at the time of Columbus,” he said.

It came as a surprise to Reed and his research team that the type of lice on the mummies was of the same genetic type as those found as far away as the highlands of Papua, New Guinea, instead of the form of head lice that is widespread in the Western Hemisphere, Reed said. This latter version, the bane of many school children, accounts for more than half the cases of lice that appear in the United States, Canada and Central America, he said.

“Given its abundance in the Americas on living humans, we thought for sure that this form of lice was the one that was here all along and had been established in the New World with the first peoples,” he said.

“We hope to be able to understand human migration patterns by investigating their parasites since people have carried these parasites with them as they moved around the globe,” he said. “Called a parascript, it’s a whole other transcript of our evolutionary history that can either add to what we know or in some cases inform us about things we didn’t know.”

Looking at evidence from parasites’ perspectives, for example, may yield valuable clues about when the first Americans arrived on the continent and which route they took, Reed said. Building upon this DNA sequencing work, scientists may be able to link the 1,000-year-old lice found in the Western Hemisphere with those in Siberia or Mongolia, confirming existing theories that America’s earliest residents originated there, he said.

Had these immigrants traveled by land masses, there was a very small window of time, about 13,000 years ago, when the glaciers retreated enough to allow passage through the Bering Strait on the way to South America, Reed said. Another proposed theory is a seafaring route, but this would have required sophisticated oceangoing vessels for which no evidence from the time exists, he said.

Being able to chart these early migration patterns would give insight into how these early immigrants lived, Reed said. “If you’re skirting the edge of glaciers, it’s obviously a very cold time period and humans would have needed certain creature comforts just to stay alive, such as tight clothing to maintain warmth,” he said.

Today, the people who don’t have the opportunity to change their clothes are the ones at risk for epidemic typhus, which along with the lesser-known diseases of relapsing fever and trench fever are carried by body lice, Reed said. These pests lay their eggs in clothing fibers and washing the clothes is all it takes to get rid of them, he said.

“The disease pops up primarily in refugees who have been displaced from their homeland with the clothes on their backs and nothing else,” he said. “They’re living in crowded conditions where hygiene is poor.”

Reed said he hopes the team’s lice research might someday increase human understanding of typhus by pinpointing where the disease originated.

Studying parasites to learn about their hosts’ history has been around for only about 20 years, Reed said. “By looking at things like tapeworms, pinworms, lice or bedbugs that humans have carried around for at least tens of thousands of years, and in some cases millions of years,” he said, “we can learn much more about human evolutionary history.”

Source: University of Florida News

They're gene sequencing 1,000-year-old lice. This ability did not even exist when I was in high school (or college). I'm sure that many people are quite blase about it (oh, yeah, whatever, head lice, ick!) but the feat is just amazing.

The "true cost" of biofuels

2008-02-09T04:58:00.000-08:00

ARLINGTON, VA — February 7, 2007 — A new study by The Nature Conservancy and the University of Minnesota finds that converting land for biofuel crops results in major carbon emissions, actually worsening the problem of climate change instead of mitigating it.

The first-of-its-kind study will be published in Science later this month and was posted online today.

“This research examines the conversion of land for biofuels and asks the question ‘Is it worth it?’ Does the carbon you lose by converting forests, grasslands, and peatlands outweigh the carbon you ‘save’ by using biofuels instead of fossil fuels? And surprisingly, the answer is no,” said lead author Joe Fargione, a scientist for The Nature Conservancy. “These natural areas store a lot of carbon, so converting them to croplands results in tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.”

Fargione continued, “We analyzed all the benefits of using biofuels as alternatives to oil, but we found that the benefits fall far short of the carbon losses. It’s what we call ‘the carbon debt.’ If you’re trying to mitigate climate change, it simply does not make sense to convert land for biofuels production.”

According to research, the conversion of peatlands for palm oil plantations in Indonesia resulted in the greatest carbon losses, or ‘debt,’ followed by the production of soy in the Amazon.

“All the biofuels we use now cause habitat destruction, either directly or indirectly,” Fargione noted. “Global agriculture is already producing food for 6 billion people. Producing food-based biofuel, too, will require that still more land be converted to agriculture.”

These findings coincide with observations that increased demand for ethanol corn crops in the U.S. is likely contributing to conversion of the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado (tropical savanna). American farmers traditionally rotated corn crops with soybeans, but now, they are planting corn every year to meet the ethanol demand. Instead, Brazilian farmers are planting more of the world’s soybeans – and they’re deforesting the Amazon to do it.

Fargione and co-authors Jason Hill, David Tilman, Stephen Polasky, and Peter Hawthorne from the University of Minnesota also found significant carbon debt in the conversion of grasslands in the U.S. and rainforests in Indonesia.

“In finding solutions to climate change, we must ensure that the cure is not worse than the disease,” noted Jimmie Powell, who leads the energy team at The Nature Conservancy. “We cannot afford to ignore the consequences of converting land for biofuels. Doing so means we might unintentionally promote fuel alternatives that are worse than fossil fuels they are designed to replace. These findings should be incorporated into carbon emissions policy going forward.”

Researchers did note that some biofuels do not contribute to climate change because they do not require the conversion of native habitat. These include waste from agriculture and forest lands and native grasses and woody biomass grown on marginal lands unsuitable for crop production. The researchers urge that all fuels be fully evaluated for their impacts on climate change, including impacts on habitat conversion.

“We will need to implement many approaches simultaneously to solve climate change – there is no silver bullet. But there are many silver BBs,” said Fargione. “Some biofuels may be one silver BB, but only if produced without requiring additional land to be converted from native habitats to agriculture.”

Source: The Nature Conservancy

Oddly enough (or perhaps not), the only people that this seems to come as a surprise to are the people that want "something" done immediately to combat "global warming" (now reframed as "climate change"). I'm going to postulate that said people are nice urbanites or suburbanites that are completely clueless about farming and ranching. Out of curiosity, did anybody check to see what the carbon loss was for converting Florida wetlands to housing developments for Yankees and Canadians that prefer warmth to ice, or turning prime farmland into a shopping center?

We are not searching for alternative fuels to combat "climate change" (which is an unwinnable war against ma nature who has always changed the climate and will continue to do so) but for energy independence and lower-priced fuels. Will corn and soybeans solve our problems? Not at this time. How about forage (cellulosic ethanol)? Again, there will be a trade off with higher food prices (meat) when forage crops are diverted into making fuel. Nuclear plants and electrical generation have their own problems that need solving; i.e., nuclear waste. However, were I residing in a country with an economy based on petroleum export, I'd be getting very nervous at the sheer amount of research and brainpower devoted to finding a replacement for oil.

First Documented Case of Pest Resistance to Bt cotton

2008-02-09T04:11:00.000-08:00

A pest insect known as bollworm is the first to evolve resistance in the field to plants modified to produce an insecticide called Bt, according to a new research report.

Bt-resistant populations of bollworm, Helicoverpa zea, were found in more than a dozen crop fields in Mississippi and Arkansas between 2003 and 2006.

“What we’re seeing is evolution in action,” said lead researcher Bruce Tabashnik. “This is the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to a Bt crop.”

Bt crops are so named because they have been genetically altered to produce Bt toxins, which kill some insects. The toxins are produced in nature by the widespread bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, hence the abbreviation Bt.

The bollworm resistance to Bt cotton was discovered when a team of University of Arizona entomologists analyzed published data from monitoring studies of six major caterpillar pests of Bt crops in Australia, China, Spain and the U.S. The data documenting bollworm resistance were first collected seven years after Bt cotton was introduced in 1996.

“Resistance is a decrease in pest susceptibility that can be measured over human experience,” said Tabashnik, professor and head of UA’s entomology department and an expert in insect resistance to insecticides. “When you use an insecticide to control a pest, some populations eventually evolves resistance.”

The researchers write in their report that Bt cotton and Bt corn have been grown on more than 162 million hectares (400 million acres) worldwide since 1996, “generating one of the largest selections for insect resistance ever known.”

Even so, the researchers found that most caterpillar pests of cotton and corn remained susceptible to Bt crops.

“The resistance occurred in one particular pest in one part of the U.S.,” Tabashnik said. “The other major pests attacking Bt crops have not evolved resistance. And even most bollworm populations have not evolved resistance.”

The field outcomes refute some experts’ worst-case scenarios that predicted pests would become resistant to Bt crops in as few as three years, he said.

“The only other case of field-evolved resistance to Bt toxins involves resistance to Bt sprays,” Tabashnik said. He added that such sprays have been used for decades, but now represent a small proportion of the Bt used against crop pests.

The bollworm is a major cotton pest in the southeastern U.S. and Texas, but not in Arizona. The major caterpillar pest of cotton in Arizona is a different species known as pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, which has remained susceptible to the Bt toxin in biotech cotton.

Tabashnik and his colleagues’ article, “Insect resistance to Bt crops: evidence versus theory,” will be published in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology. His co-authors are Aaron J. Gassmann, a former UA postdoctoral fellow now an assistant professor at Iowa State University; David W. Crowder, a UA doctoral student; and Yves Carrière, a UA professor of entomology. Tabashnik and Carrière are members of UA’s BIO5 Institute.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the research.

Source: University of Arizona

Well…..we all knew it was going to happen, just not when. I am pleasantly surprised that it took this long.

Melanoma Breakthrough?

2008-02-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

One might call it a tale of two melanocytes. Given the same genetic mutation, why does one melanocyte shut down growth and become a relatively benign mole, while another rages out of control and develops into deadly melanoma"

In trying to tease out the answer to this simple question, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have uncovered a protein that stops the growth of melanoma, a cancer that develops from pigment-producing cells in the skin called melanocytes. HHMI investigator Michael Green and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School reported their identification of the genetic underpinnings of a new way to thwart one of the deadliest forms of cancer in the February 8, 2008, issue of the journal Cell.

Green and his colleagues began by designing experiments that would help them determine what separates melanomas from ordinary moles at the genetic level. Moles, also known as nevi, and melanoma often result from the same genetic mutation, and the biological pathway that differentiates the two had been a mystery. The new study uncovers a relatively unknown protein that regulates the melanocyte’s “decision” to ward off cancer by either entering a programmed hibernation or committing suicide.

According to the American Cancer Society, 60,000 people in the United States developed melanoma in 2007, and more than 8,000 died of the disease. Melanoma is caused by the uncontrolled proliferation of melanocytes, whose pigment, melanin, protects the skin against the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Nevi, which are benign, are also caused by abnormal growth and differentiation of melanocytes.

While nevi are, by definition, non-cancerous, more than half the time the same mutation is at fault in melanoma and nevi: a single amino acid change in a protein called BRAF. BRAF is part of a signaling system that is important for cell growth and proliferation. The BRAF mutation found in nevi and melanoma increases the activity of the BRAF protein, prompting cells to multiply abnormally. In some melanocytes with this mutation, the proliferation cannot be stopped, and cancer develops.

But sometimes when the mutated BRAF gene is expressed in melanocytes, those cells go into a state of permanent hibernation via a process known as senescence. These cells form nevi, not melanoma. This, according to Green, indicates that the genetic checks and balances within those cells are working correctly. “The cell has sensed this oncogenic influence—activated BRAF—and that induces an anti-cancer mechanism to throw the cell into this frozen state,” he said. Green added that sometimes cells simply commit suicide instead of senescing.

Cancer results when something blocks this failsafe mechanism, said Green. “While this phenomenon was known, the components and the pathways involved were not,” he said.

Green, his postdoctoral fellow Narendra Wajapeyee, and their colleagues did a genome-wide search for the proteins involved. They used engineered retroviruses to insert short bits of RNA to selectively turn off individual genes in a series of melanocytes. Some of the cells progressed to cancer, while others did not. After testing thousands of genes, they found 17 that were required for activated BRAF to induce either senescence or suicide. Together, Green said, the proteins made by these genes make up the body’s melanoma defense pathway.

Green’s group found that three of those proteins are required for both the senescence and programmed cell death pathways. The identity of one of those proteins, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7), surprised the researchers. Not much was known about IGFBP7, except that it was secreted, said Green. A secreted protein does not stay inside the cell that produces it, but instead is released from the cell and moves through the blood to other cells. Green said that a secreted protein’s role in the pathway caught them off guard, because “we would have thought this process would be purely intracellular.”

Green and his colleagues focused their attention on IGFBP7 because its presence suggested something intriguing: If one otherwise healthy melanocyte begins expressing BRAF, the IGFBP7 it produces can enter cells around it, prompting lots of melanocytes to “switch off,” rather than risking a tumor.

In the experiments reported in Cell, the researchers exposed human melanoma cells in culture to recombinant IGFBP7. The protein had the same genetic code as the human version, but was produced using genetically modified insect cells. The melanoma cells that were treated with IGFBP7 committed suicide-- just as though their anti-cancer mechanism was working correctly.

The researchers also injected the protein into the bloodstream of mice on to which human melanoma tumors had been grafted. IGFBP7 entered the tumor cells and stopped their growth in the mice. “Melanoma cells [caused by BRAF mutations] shut off expression of this key regulator,” said Green. “Because of that, the cells escape from senescence and form a tumor.”

According to Green, the research also answers another controversy in the field: Are nevi dead-ends or are they precursors to melanoma" “If you go in and see a dermatologist, if they see a mole, they will generally… cut it off,” he said. “They don’t want to take the chance that it could be a precursor.”

However, Green thinks his results point in the other direction. Because IGFBP7 is a secreted protein, even if one activated BRAF-containing -- but otherwise healthy -- cell in the nevi stopped producing IGFBP7 and threatened to form a tumor, the IGFBP7 being secreted from the cells around it would kill it. “It’s an extremely powerful anti-cancer mechanism,” said Green.

The team’s findings are important not only from a research standpoint, but also for future clinical treatments, Green noted. Melanoma can be surgically removed if caught early, but in advanced cases there is really no treatment for it. Green said IGFBP7’s ability to target melanoma tumors throughout the body may make it a powerful tool for cancer therapy. “We’re really very excited about the prospects of trying to advance this as a melanoma treatment,” he said.

Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Interesting. I've always been interested in what turns a mole into a melanoma, considering that I come from a freckly, moley family. Seems that those moles, rather than being a melanoma precursor, could actually be protective. Who knew?

Critics Say NASA's New Rocket Program Flawed

2008-02-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

CAPE CANAVERAL - The rocket that NASA is betting on to return humans to space after the space shuttle retires is in trouble.

Assailed by a loud chorus of critics, hobbled by a lack of money and beset by technical problems, the Ares I launch vehicle is suffering from a growing perception that it is another NASA project that will never get off the ground.

In particular, some critics have urged that NASA ditch the untested Ares, a so-called "stick" rocket powered by five segments of the solid rocket boosters used on the shuttle, in favor of the Atlas V401, which is already used by the military and CIA to reliably launch spy satellites into orbit.

Read the rest.
I certainly hate to hear of more problems bedeviling the Space Coast. Rather than wasting money, I view the expenditure of funds on exploring space a good investment in mankind's survival.

Appeals court rejects water settlement

2008-02-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

TALLAHASSEE - The Army Corps of Engineers overstepped its authority five years ago when it granted Georgia additional water rights that affected rivers in Florida and Alabama, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Florida experts were elated, saying the decision will "level the playing field" in a multistate tug-of-war over water that spans nearly 20 years.

"It's tremendous, because now we're all back to where we ought to be," said Dan Tonsmeire with the Apalachicola Riverkeeper environmental advocacy group. "Nobody has an advantage."

The water wars are over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint rivers system, whose flow is controlled by the corps.

For Florida, what's at stake is the Apalachicola River and the nearly $200-million oyster and seafood industry that depends on it. For Georgia, it's the water supply for Atlanta and surrounding industry, like Coca-Cola. For Alabama, it's the ability to turn the lights on throughout most of the state.

In 2003, Florida and Alabama complained Georgia got the upper hand in water negotiations, when the corps, Georgia and other water providers unveiled a settlement agreement, that gave Georgia up to 20 years worth of "temporary" use of reservoir tied into the river system. Florida and Alabama sued to stop the deal, but lost.

On Tuesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said Georgia and the corps, don't have the authority to dedicate that much water to Atlanta without first asking Congress, because such an agreement "constitutes a major operational change," wrote the three-judge panel.

The agreement between the corps and Georgia has never been implemented due to the litigation.

Read the rest at the St. Petersburg Times.

And about time, too.

Florida Lawmakers Proposing Tougher Immigration Laws

2008-02-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

TALLAHASSEE - State lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled a series of immigration-related bills aimed at making it tougher to hire illegal immigrants, limiting public services they can receive and penalizing anyone who brings them into Florida.

The last proposal comes in response to a unique problem facing Florida: the growing number of Cubans and others smuggled across the Florida Straits each month.

The majority of the half-dozen bills reflect similar measures proposed in states across the country, all backed by the national nonprofit Federation for Immigration Reform, which supports a freeze on nearly all immigration.

Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, led the call for tighter immigration laws during a news conference at the state Capitol.

"We want to make sure the state of Florida can do everything in its power to deal with illegals," she said. "It's a federal issue, but there are things states can do."

Harrell has proposed a law that would make it illegal for any state funds to go to day labor centers where illegal immigrants are among those seeking work, usually in construction and landscaping.

Those supporting the proposals, including Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, represent the Republican Party's most ardent hard-liners when it comes to immigration.

Brown sponsored the most comprehensive bill (HB 73), much of which simply codifies existing practices or parallels federal law.

The bill would prohibit cities from restricting any efforts to enforce immigration laws, pre-empting municipalities from creating so-called "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants. The bill also requires driver's licenses to be issued only to U.S. citizens or those with legal status in Florida. Brown also wants verification of immigration status for those seeking certain public benefits but said he wasn't yet sure which benefits.

"I don't know that there will be anything," he said. "I've got some research to do myself on what services they are getting."

Brown argued the state doesn't know how much of its resources go to illegal immigrants because nobody ever asks. The law would provide this crucial information, he said.

The aspect of the bill that could have the greatest effect on Florida business is a requirement that anyone contracting with the state participate in the federal government's volunteer worker verification program. Under the program, employers run the names of prospective employees through Social Security and Department of Homeland Security databases.

The program has been criticized by Congress's investigative arm for its high rate of error. Immigrant advocates argue the state lacks the authority to require such participation.

The bills are being reviewed by committee and require approval before they can be considered by the full chambers.

Source: Tampa Bay Online

The states are overrun and, as the Federal government continues to abrogate its responsibilities for border protection, the states will have to enact their own laws for their own protection.

Mysterious Bird Flu Baffles Indonesian Scientists

2008-02-06T15:21:00.001-08:00

JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesian scientists and officials said they were baffled by the "mysterious" behaviour of the bird flu virus here, which has already claimed nine lives this year in the world's worst-hit nation.

Indonesia has reported 126 cases of H5N1 bird flu, 103 of them fatal, since 2005. This year's victims have all come from the capital Jakarta and its satellite cities.

Officials from the ministry of agriculture's bird flu control unit told a media briefing that the risk factors for human infection remained unclear after studies were conducted around victims' homes.

"In some of the cases we found the virus in the water and chickens, but in many other cases the studies showed no signs of the virus in the surroundings," said the unit's Tjahjani Widjastuti at the briefing late Tuesday.

The usual mode of transmission of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is directly from an infected bird -- typically poultry -- to humans.

"The behaviour (of the virus in Indonesia) is mysterious and we are competing with the dynamics of the virus. There needs to be deeper study on why there are more cases in humans, what are the risk factors... so we can cut the chain of infection to humans," Widjastuti said.

Read the rest here.

If people are contracting and dying of H5N1 without any known poultry contact and the water is not contaminated, then there is another vector that has yet to be discovered. Nothing mysterious about that. Meanwhile, the 2 orphan ducklings are doing well inside a box in the (sigh) house.

Exotic Pets Can Carry Exotic Diseases

2008-02-05T16:10:00.001-08:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 60 percent of the currently known human pathogens and 75 percent of emerging infectious pathogens are zoonotic; they include rabies, plague, leptospirosis, tularemia, West Nile virus, Ebola, Marburg, SARS, and Nipah (CDC 2007). Even domestic cats and dogs can serve as a source of human disease, but the risks posed by Fluffy and Fido are well known and understood. These species have been the companions of humans for thousands of years, and, at least in the developed world, most of the risks from them can be controlled: vaccinating prevents the spread of rabies, deworming kills the intestinal parasites that cause ocular or visceral larval migrans, and applying insecticides repels ticks that spread the agent of Lyme disease.

Cats and dogs are no longer the only pets found in US homes, however. The Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 large exotic felids, 17.3 million birds, 8.8 million reptiles, and 3000 great apes are being kept as pets in this country. In 2005 alone, 210 million animals were legally imported into the United States to satisfy the growing demand for exotic species. An unknowable number of pets, animal parts, and meat were smuggled in during the same time period, making up a large part—a portion ranked second only to the illegal drug trade—of the estimated $10 billion per year international black market (Ebrahim 2006).

Introducing so many animals into a new and unnatural environment—our homes—after removing them from the ecosystems in which they evolved represents a disruption of substantial magnitude. This displacement brings these animals into close proximity with species they have not previously encountered, and the public health consequences may be startling.

The most famous, or perhaps infamous, example is the outbreak in the United States of monkeypox in humans, a result of humans's close contact with prairie dogs sold as pets. Human monkeypox, which in its original environment affects primarily children, has a clinical course similar to that of smallpox, although its fatality rate is lower. This disease, which had not previously been seen outside of Africa (where exposure is thought to take place through contact with wild rodents), was diagnosed in 81 patients in the American Midwest during the summer of 2003. It turned out that Gambian giant rats, imported into the United States for the pet trade, had been housed next to prairie dogs. Asymptomatically infected rats transmitted the virus to the prairie dogs, which then passed it along to the humans who brought them home. Curiously, no suspected, probable, or confirmed cases of monkeypox occurred in humans who had contact only with the Gambian rats, or with any other African rodents (CDC 2003).

Clearly, the surprising thing is not that monkeypox infected US residents, but that such cases have not arisen more often. With our penchant for sharing our living spaces with creatures from foreign lands, outbreaks of other diseases will surely occur. What isn'st clear is how to best protect ourselves.

One approach, the one used most often to augment the generic requirement for a health certificate, is to regulate and legislate for known risks—it is now illegal to import African rodents into the United States, for example. Unfortunately, this approach is reactive rather than proactive, because it relies on the transmission of disease to humans—exactly what we are trying to prevent.

A more proactive alternative would be to regulate the unknown risks—in other words, prevent the importation of species (and thus the pathogens they harbor) that are not well understood. The precautionary principle supports this approach: it puts the onus on the importers and the eventual owners either to prove that a particular species does not have the potential to cause harm, or to provide ways to mitigate any risk. A third approach, a complete ban on importing exotic species for pets, has also been proposed, but is strongly opposed by both potential owners and members of the pet-trade industry. No matter which approach is eventually taken, however, it would be prudent to remember the already vast scale of the illegal market.
Source:

People living in Florida are no strangers to exotic pets being released and then reproducing wildly with no natural predators to keep them in check. As this National Geographic article points out, we are undergoing immense ecological damage from exotic animals imported for the pet market that owners tire of and release, or the animals become too dangerous for the owners and the owners set them free without thinking of, or caring about, the consequences.

I would be delighted if the exotic animal trade were shut down tomorrow.

Mice Pump Iron to Lose Weight

2008-02-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Weight training melts fat and improves metabolism, says study of obese mice
When it comes to losing weight, pumping iron may be just as important as running on the treadmill, suggests a new study in the February issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press.

Researchers used a genetic trick in obese mice that caused the mice’s muscles to bulk up as though they had been lifting weights. The researchers found that the “genetically reprogrammed” mice lost fat and showed other signs of metabolic improvement throughout the body. What’s more, those benefits were seen even though the mice continued eating a diet high in both fat and sugar and didn’t increase their physical activity at all.

“We’ve shown that type II muscle does more than allow you to pick up heavy objects,” said Kenneth Walsh of Boston University School of Medicine. “It is also important in controlling whole-body metabolism.”

The type II, or fast, muscle fibers found plentifully in body builders are well suited to dealing with abrupt and heavy loads. On the other hand, the muscles of long-distance runners are rich in type I, or slow, fibers that can endure lesser loads over longer periods of time. Earlier studies focused primarily on the importance of type I muscle, with its abundance of energy-burning mitochondria, for regulating metabolism, Walsh said. Indeed, those studies have indicated that an increase in “energy burn” in muscle can protect against weight gain and metabolic dysfunction.

“Resistance training builds the white meat,” Walsh said, referring to the relatively mitochondria-poor type II muscle. “There is some evidence it’s good for you, but it’s not immediately clear why. Now, we’ve provided a scientific rationale.”

Walsh’s group developed mice in which they could turn type II muscle growth on or off by flipping a genetic switch specifically in skeletal muscle. The gene they manipulated, known as Akt1, is preferentially activated in skeletal muscle in response to resistance training, but not endurance training, the researchers knew.

Rather than becoming strong and fat “sumo mice” as some of the researchers had expected, the modified mice gained type II muscle and strength while they lost fat. The mice also showed a resolution of hepatic steatosis, otherwise known as fatty liver, and improvements in a variety of other metabolic parameters. The Akt1-driven growth of skeletal muscle counteracted the usual effects of a high-fat, high-sucrose diet on patterns of gene activity in the liver and increased the breakdown of fatty acids there, the researchers showed.

“These findings indicate that type II muscle has a previously unappreciated role in regulating whole-body metabolism through its ability to alter the metabolic properties of remote tissues,” the researchers concluded. “These data also suggest that strength training, in addition to the widely prescribed therapy of endurance training, may be of particular benefit to overweight individuals.”

“The work of [Walsh and his colleagues] reveals the intricate interplay between diet, energy balance, and the function/morphology of diverse tissue systems such as skeletal muscle and liver,” said Brooke Harrison and Leslie Leinwand of the University of Colorado at Boulder in a commentary. “These findings indicate that interventions designed to increase skeletal muscle mass in at-risk human populations may prove to be critical weapons in the fight against obesity and obesity-related comorbidities including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and cancer.”

###
The researchers include Yasuhiro Izumiya, Teresa Hopkins, Carl Morris, Kaori Sato, Ling Zeng, Jason Viereck, James A. Hamilton, Noriyuki Ouchi, Nathan K. LeBrasseur, and Kenneth Walsh, of Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA.
Source:

Hunh. I had a knee injury a year ago that curtailed both my weightlifting activity AND my cardio activity and in that time, I've been engaged in a sedentary occupation that has left me with a double whammy of excess weight and deconditioning. The obstacles to be overcome to get back into shape look as daunting as Mt. Everest.

Maybe, instead of jumping back into exercise with both left feet and trying to bench press waaaaaay too much and start out with 5 miles instead of 1, I should just maybe do a light workout for a month to get the muscles somewhat used to exercising again, and see what happens.

Woman Puts Seatbelt on Case of Beer but not Baby

2008-02-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL -- Investigators say a woman accused of drunk driving had a case of beer buckled up safely, and a one year old girl sitting in the backseat without a seatbelt or car seat.

On Super Bowl Sunday, a deputy saw a car drive through a red light and swerve back and forth over the center lane on U.S. 1 South.

The deputy stopped the car.

Investigators say the woman, who identified herself as Tina Williams, smelled of alcohol.

According to the report, Williams told the deputy she never had a license and was running out of gas.

The deputy saw a case of Busch beer in the front seat with a seat belt around it, and a baby girl in the backseat.

When asked why the girl wasn't restrained, Williams reportedly told the officer, "I don't know."

Williams told the deputy she had a few drinks. Authorities say she staggered when she got out of her car.

The deputy arrested her for DUI after she failed a field sobriety test.

Authorities also found two silver metal pipes in her purse.

Williams faces charges of driving under the influence, child endangerment, driving without a valid license running a red light and not having a seatbelt or child restraint.

Well, glad to see that she had her priorities in order.

Who Knew I Could be Hip?

2008-02-04T18:58:00.001-08:00

I was passing a young man fashionably loitering on the sidewalk today and noticed that his pink satin embroidered jacket (which clashed with his red patterned shorts and boxers but in a nice, eye popping kinda way) had a price tag hanging from the back. I helpfully told him ”Baby, you have a tag hanging from the back of your jacket!” just in case he wanted to remove it because being embarrassed in public is the absolute worst thing to ever happen to a teenager, or so I recalled.

“Ma’am, hanging tags are HIP.”

“They are?”

“Yes’m.”

How ’bout that?! Next time I forget to remove a tag, I can feel smugly content basking in the knowledge that I am at the cutting edge of fashion. Of course, my tags aren’t going to say $250 for an embroidered jacket. My tags are generally marked final clearance $3.97.

103rd Bird Flu Death in Indonesia

2008-02-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A 29-year old Indonesian woman has died of bird flu, bringing the death toll from the virus in the Southeast Asian country to 103, the health ministry said on Monday.

The woman, from Tangerang, west of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, died on Saturday after being treated at the city’s Persahabatan hospital for about a week, ministry spokeswoman Lily Sulistyowati said in a statement.

The woman’s neighbors kept chickens but the source of the infection remained unclear, she said.

The woman is the eighth person to die of bird flu in Indonesia this year. Some experts say the flare-up is caused by a number factors such as damp weather and poor sanitation during the rainy season.

“Fowl remains the source of bird flu infections,” the spokeswoman said.

The ministry also said that a 38-year-old woman from western Jakarta had tested positive for bird flu. She was being treated at Persahabatan and had been put on a ventilator, the statement said.

Her case brought the number of bird flu cases in the country to 126. Of these, 103 people have died, making Indonesia the country with the highest death toll from the disease.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting bird flu, endemic in bird populations in most of Indonesia.

Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human. Millions of people could die because they would have no immunity to the new strain.

Defenseless Against Influenza

2008-02-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

The World Health Organization announced mystifying news last week: The garden-variety influenza virus H1N1 that periodically besets the world, and is doing so this winter, seems to be developing a startling new resistance to Tamiflu (oseltamivir), the first and most important of antiviral drugs for influenza.That such a thing should happen is curious. No one bothers much with Tamiflu as a primary weapon of attack against the regular flu — at least not outside Japan, where aggressive marketing by a subsidiary of the global patent-holder, Hoffman-La Roche, has convinced the populace to more or less pop the stuff like candy. For flu programs in nursing homes and hospitals elsewhere, other antivirals come a lot cheaper and work just as well.

The problem is that the world, Canada included, has been counting on Tamiflu to come through in the event of a global epidemic of the H5N1 avian flu virus. This strategy always carried with it a high amount of uncertainty; the odd, surprising behaviour of H1N1 can only make matters worse.

It would not be such a great shock to see Tamiflu resistance develop in H1N1 because of overprescribing. Public health experts warned against this danger in 2005, when the drug was still scarce and patients panicked by headlines about avian flu were besieging their doctors. It was all too easy to imagine that jittery personal stockpilers of the drug might ransack their medical cabinets the instant they displayed any symptoms of flu or flu-like illness.

Yet according to the latest WHO report, the Tamiflu-resistant strain turns out to be most predominant in Europe, particularly Norway. It hasn’t been spotted at all in Tamiflu-crazy Japan, where one would expect to see it first if human irresponsibility were to blame. The organization cannot be sure that “selective drug pressure” bears no responsibility for this new clinical surprise, but none of the patients who were found to have the Tamiflu-resistant virus had taken the drug or been in contact with a user of it.

The implications for avian flu planning, the WHO says, are “uncertain” at this point. Avian flu has not yet begun to spread efficiently from human to human. Its mechanism of action on human victims is different enough from that of H1N1 that there remains hope that Tamiflu will be useful against H5N1. And in a way, physicians would be glad to have Tamiflu turn out to be useless against less threatening types of influenza, in order to reduce casual users’ price pressure on a drug that governments are only now topping up their stockpiles of. (Hoffman- La Roche actually issued a warning this week that it expects 2008 revenues from Tamiflu to be dramatically lower as the first desperate surge of government stockpiling finally ends.)

But the really frightening story lurking in the background is that no one is too sure whether Tamiflu will do any good at all against pandemic avian flu, which so far has an observed mortality rate of about 50% in humans who get it from working or living with poultry. If H5N1 mutates into a virus that readily jumps from human to human, unforeseeable changes will arise in the virus’ structure and activity. A layman can only be nervous at hearing that the world’s best scientists have apparently underestimated the ability of ordinary flu to outmanoeuvre our best flu drug.

And so far, real-world tests of Tamiflu against H5N1 have been disappointing. Indeed, there are critics who don’t consider its performance all that dazzling against any type of influenza at all. Vietnamese doctors who tried it with bird flu patients there, in the eye of the H5N1 storm, described it as “useless,” and some subvariants of H5N1 are already known to be Tamiflu-resistant. The WHO is now experimenting with tackling H5N1 by means of higher dosages — which, if it appears at all effective, will create another pell-mell stockpiling race amongst governments — and combining it with other drugs. Meanwhile, everyone is wondering what the ultimate shelf life of Tamiflu will turn out to be: It is still a new drug, and the known life span is just five years.

One day, perhaps, we will all be able to sleep easier knowing that the threat of viral pandemic is a thing of the past, thanks to an abundantly equipped arsenal of proven, broad-spectrum antivirals. But there are no magic bullets yet. We are still vulnerable, and our most important defences in the event of a catastrophe will, for now, remain those available to our ancestors: minimizing unnecessary interpersonal contact and practicing good hygiene.

Source:

That IS bad news. Having an emergency supply of food and essential medications on hand just in case is a good idea.

No Fat People Served Here

2008-02-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

In Mississippi, a legislator has decided that people are too fat and in order to punish them, has come up with this law that will actually be voted on:

HOUSE BILL NO. 282

An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi:

SECTION 1.

(1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.

(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.

In the words of Dave Barry, I am not making this shit up. Read it here for yourself.

Now, as the people that are the sponsors of the bill are pale-hued white men, I have to wonder whether this is “concern” about health, or whether it is just racial/sexual discrimination in that the government, AKA the great white father, has to look out for the weak-minded fair sex and minorities, to whit:

Women of racial and ethnic minorities are affected disproportionately by obesity. Among African Americans, the proportion of women who are obese is 80 percent higher than the proportion of men who are obese(USDHHS, 2000). When compared to non-Hispanic white women, 69 percent of African American women are overweight or obese (Klauer, 2002). The prevalence of obesity increases up to age 60 after which there is a decline (Klauer, 2002).

So these legislators, safe and under guard in their ivory towers of state government, actually expect some minimum-wage worker at a restaurant to weigh patrons coming in for, say, a business lunch and then announce the people in the party that are too fat and eject them? I don’t think so.

These people are supposed to be governing for the good of the state of Mississippi. Have these people even thought of the consequences to the state of Mississippi of such a bill? Restaurants would not be able to operate and would have to close down. Do these Einsteins of health protection have any programs in place due to the economic repercussions of such a move? I really didn’t think so. Did it even occur to them that this could be considered racist/sexist in that the majority of people it would affect are minorities and/or women? Did it occur to them that this is discrimination which is, the last time I checked, illegal?

Mss Kumquat Gets Our Vote

2008-01-27T16:14:00.000-08:00

By Dave Barry, in the Miami Herald

On Tuesday, millions of Florida voters will head for the polls. Being Floridians, many of them will become confused and drive into buildings, canals, cemeteries, other Floridians, etc. But some will actually make it to the polls, where they will cast ballots that will play a crucial role in the presidential election. Or, in the case of Democrats, not.

It turns out that the 2008 Florida Democratic primary doesn’t count. Florida will be sending the same number of delegates to the 2008 Democratic convention as Uzbekistan. This may seem unfair, but there’s a simple, logical explanation: The whole primary system is insane. Consider the process so far:

First, Iowa held ”caucuses,” in which Iowans gathered in small groups at night and engaged in some mysterious Iowan ritual that for all we know involves having intimate relations with corn. Right after that, Wyoming had a primary, but it was only for Republicans, because Wyoming Democrats (apparently, there are at least two) will hold their primary on March 8. Most of the candidates ignored Wyoming and focused on the New Hampshire primary, except Rudy Giuliani, who’s following a shrewd strategy, originally developed by the Miami Dolphins, of not entering the race until he has been mathematically eliminated. After New Hampshire came Michigan, where the ballot listed all the Republicans, but only certain Democrats — including Chris Dodd, who had already dropped out if the race — but not including Barack Obama or John Edwards.

After Michigan came the Nevada caucuses, in which Hillary Clinton got more votes but Barack Obama got more delegates. (If you don’t understand how that could happen, then you have never been to a casino.) Then came the South Carolina Republican primary, which of course was not held on the same day as the South Carolina Democratic primary, which was Saturday. Then comes Florida, in which Republican voters will elect some delegates, although the total will only be half the number Florida was originally supposed to get. Meanwhile, Florida Democrats, as I mentioned, will have the same impact on their party’s nomination as if they fed their ballots to ducks.

I am not making any of this up: This is our actual primary system, except (I hope) the part about the corn. We’re selecting candidates for the most important job in the world via a process that’s less rational than the one used to choose Miss Kumquat of Pasco County.

How did we end up with this ridiculous system? We got it through endless petty squabbling, in both parties, over the issue of which states get to go first. That’s right: When confronted with what should be a minor procedural problem, the leaders of our major political parties can’t even work intelligently with their own allies, let alone their opponents. This is why, no matter who wins in November, I am optimistic about the future of the nation. (I’m referring to Uzbekistan.)

Anyway, for those of you who plan to vote Tuesday, here’s a quick overview of the political situation:

THE REPUBLICAN RACE: It’s still wide open. Mitt ”Mitt” Romney holds a slight edge in delegates, plus a heifer he got for winning Wyoming. Right behind him are John McCain, Chuck Norris and the late Ronald Reagan.

Bringing up the rear is Rudy, who needs a win and has been frantically courting Florida voters. He’s mowing your lawn right now.

THE DEMOCRATIC RACE: It’s down to Obama vs. Clinton, and it’s getting nasty. They hate each other, with the kind of passionate hatred that you see only between two people who hold essentially the same positions on everything. Edwards is still running, but at this point they don’t even bother to put a microphone on him for the debates. He just waves his arms to indicate how he’s going to take on the big corporations.

There are also some referendum questions on the Florida ballot. The big one concerns the plan to amend the state property tax. This is a complicated question, and it’s your duty, as a citizen, to do the research, get the facts and figure out whether the amendment will help — or hurt — me. Then let me know, OK? Because I am way too busy.

So that’s the situation, Floridians.

On Tuesday, it’s your turn to stand up and be counted, unless of course you’re a Democrat. But whatever you are, you should get out there and vote, even if you have no earthly idea for what or whom you’re voting, or why, because that’s what democracy is all about.

Also, Rudy, if you’re reading this: My hedge needs trimming.

I also have to wonder whether Hillary would be quite as enthusiastic about overturning the DNC ban on Florida delegates if Obama wins Florida?

I’m going to be quite lonely without the 14 or 15 calls from other political figures telling me who they are supporting and why I should vote for that candidate, as well as the candidates attacking each others’ records, and John McCain’s wife calling to get all outraged about people lying about her husband’s record. Or maybe she’s all outraged because we have figured out her husband’s record on our own.

With all the daily calls, I have yet to be contacted by one of those polling services that purports to know the political leanings of Floridians. Oh, well. I’ve already voted anyway. (But perhaps we better keep that between us just in case I could get somebody to clean my house in return for my vote.)

New House Guests

2008-01-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

It was a cold morning this morning and when I fed the horse and sheep, I could hear weak peeping noises from a duck's nest. The duck was nowhere to be found (perhaps motherhood didn't live up to her expectations), and some little lifeless duckling bodies were lying huddled over the eggs in the cold. One of the eggs was peeping weakly. It felt cold. I picked it up, and could hear more weak peeping from the nest. Another egg with a tiny hole chipped in it. I put them both in my pocket, and checked the other cold eggs. A tiny little duck bill protruded from one, not moving.

I brought the eggs inside and tried warming them with a hair dryer which was not exactly optimally temperature controlled. I didn't want to take the chance of cooking them in the shell, so I peeled the shell and dried them. I briefly abandoned them to locate and unpack a Hova-Bator incubator that had been bought for the daughter's poultry @ 10 years previously, but the box had never been opened. I brought it in from where it had been stored and assembled it, periodically warming the little ducklings with a hair dryer.

The incubator temperature controls works great after all that time! Now they are in the incubator with the controls set @ 100 degrees. I'll probably leave them in there the rest of the day before moving them to a box with a heat lamp so they can get their first meal.

Nearly Time to Order Chicks!

2008-01-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

"SwampWoman", you may say, "what in the world is wrong with you?" "You've been warning us about the dangers of H5N1 for months now, and you put in a link to order newly hatched chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery?"

Yep. I'm concerned about H5N1 but not yet concerned enough to get rid of my poultry. I like to hear the roosters crowing, chickens quietly clucking in content, the hens calling to their chicks as they are on a bug search-and-destroy mission. What I do NOT like is when they are on a flower garden search-and-destroy mission and they eat my newly-rooted hydrangea cuttings or the new petunias. (I need to get them under better control.) Until such time as I get them under better control, I'd better not order any new ones!

Years ago, daughter showed some fancy bantams at the fair. Afterwards, they were turned in with my flock of Araucanas and cross-bred like crazy. Now I've got various-sized vigorous chickens running around that are self-supporting, hide their nests so I don't get any eggs, and raise their young with no help from me (unless I find some peeps that ducks accidentally hatched or whose momma got snatched by a fox or hawk). I can't just let them be eaten by possums, poor babies! These chickens may have a feathery crest, feathered legs, and some still have the feathered ears and lay the colored eggs of the Araucanas. The roosters will fight each other to the death but are timid around small humans, always a plus.

I actually have 3 separate flocks in 3 different areas--there are the horse barn chickens whose territory is around the stables and pasture. They roost in the stable, and tend to be plain-legged bantams and Araucana crosses. The sheep barn roosting chickens are some descendants, apparently, of the old Australorp rooster (also a show chicken). Those chickens are black. Then I have some that like to roost in the trees around the house and crow loudly at 3 a.m. Those are the Cochin, Polish, and Buff Orpington descendants. These now just have some minor feathering of the legs and a small feathery crest, not the exaggerated feathering of the purebreds. There used to be quite a few white/light-colored chickens in this group, but white chickens are easier to see at night even in the trees by an irate person with a shotgun that has been awakened by said crowing roosters.

Murray McMurray isn't a source for people that dream of showing champion chickens. It's a source for folks that, like me, like to have the poultry around and aren't so concerned about whether the coloring of the feathers and/or conformation is outstanding enough to be of championship quality.

Early Voting in Florida/Rant

2008-01-26T15:05:00.001-08:00

Like I suspect many people did, I waited for the final debates in Florida before voting for a candidate. I did not vote based on whether or not the candidate shared my religious views, something which seems to be of much greater importance to the press than it is to the ordinary voter. I did not vote based on what they promised for the future. I voted based on past performance.

You see, there are several things important to me in a candidate. We lost our family business after 9/11, and I never want to see terrorists hitting our country like that again. A person that I believe can be trusted to take care of national security is very important to me.

As a person who has been self-employed for 30 years and just took a salaried job last September, I know just how important it is to reform the tax laws in order to keep our economy strong. Sarbanes-Oxley needs to go. Corporate tax rates need to be cut. As the ol’ saying goes, I never got a job (or a great deal of business) from a poor person. Why is the government even talking about giving tax rebates to people that do not pay taxes? That’s crazy. How about (wild idea here) giving tax rebates back to the people that actually pay taxes?

Control of illegal immigration is another thing that I’m ticked off at Washington about. Those people are insulated from the effects of illegal immigrants displacing American citizens from jobs. The young men without educations that used to go into construction or maintenance jobs and still earn a pretty decent living can no longer do so because the jobs have been filled at a lower rate of pay by unskilled workers from Mexico and places south. Narcotrafficers can travel in and out of the country unchecked. I’m more tired than I can say of illegal aliens killing citizens and then fleeing back across the border where they are protected. I’m also very worried that if these people can travel back and forth, then who else may be coming through our borders?

I would like to see an actual sane energy policy coming out of Washington instead of some starry-eyed environmentalist on crack bullsh**. No, I don’t believe that turning corn into fuel is going to be the energy future and anybody with any common sense doesn’t, either. Right now, we have an oil-based economy so I suggest that we exploit it instead of worrying about polar bears which, if they cannot tolerate a tiny little portion of the ANWR being drilled in, deserve to go extinct. (And if you look at that wasteland, you do not see polar bears lounging about.) Cuba and China are drilling off of Florida’s coast, so why the hell isn’t America?

Well, as I have said, I’m less interested in what a politician tells me he/she is going to do for me than I am in looking at what he (or she) has done in the past. While looking at a candidate’s job performance in the past is no guarantee of future good behavior, hiring a candidate that has lied to and stolen from his/her past employers is only asking for trouble.

Happy "I Did Not Have Sex with That Woman, Monica Lewinsky" Day!

2008-01-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, January 26, 1998. How time does fly!

"Broke" with Pay Day Still a Week Away

2008-01-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

I had a telephone conversation today with my daughter. “Dang, payday is a week away, my bank account is nearly empty, and I need to buy feed for the livestock as well as gas.” Normally, feed is not a problem but this year, with hay prices being high and a recent freeze putting the coastal bermuda into dormancy, I was hurtin’.

“Oh, pulleeeeze, mom”, I heard her say and could only imagine the eye roll that went along with it, “you have not been entirely broke a day in your life.”

“But I AM!” I wailed.

“Really? Did you cash in those milk jugs full of change?”

Well, I hadn’t actually thought of them as money but more as ~~decorations~~ dust collectors.

“Well, no”, I told her.

“Did you even count the change in your purses? I know that you hardly ever spend change.”

“Umm…….”.

”Mom, you could knock somebody out with one of your purses! They feel like you carry bowling balls in them or something.” Well, weightbearing exercise is supposed to protect you from osteoporosis.

“Dump out one of your purses and just count the change. Now.”

I dumped the red alligator purse and the black purse that goes with everything and counted out $27.78 in change.

I have a lot more purses. Guess those milk jugs full of change won’t have to be emptied just yet. Some of the livestock definitely needs to go to market before I have to count pennies.

Doesn't Anybody Want to Be a Plain Vice President Anymore?

2008-01-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

Disney is looking for a chief magic official for its amusement parks.

Couples Resorts employs a chief romance officer.

BankAtlantic has a manager of a department entitled “Office of Wow!”

What’s going on with corporate titles? Doesn’t anybody want to be a plain vice president, anymore?

“We laugh about it all the time,” says Mick Lasher, who heads the executive search firm Lasher Associates in Weston. “It’s just ludicrous. We’ve gone so far to be team-oriented. We’re so afraid to put meaningful titles on people.”

Job titles can be creative as long as they fit a job and are clear, experts say. But employees with less traditional titles risk losing credibility in looking for that next job. Unusual titles also may be missing “key words” recruiters and potential employers search for in resumes online.

Some nouveau job titles are not understandable to the lay person, says Kim Kerrigan, president of Corporate Classrooms, a Fort Lauderdale-based employee training firm. He uses the example of the traditional “vice president of engineering” compared with a New Age title of “tech support engineer level II.”

“I would wonder what that is,” Kerrigan says. “A title should reflect what you do and what your major responsibility is.”

But some South Florida executives defend their inventive titles.

Greg Dalmotte, BankAtlantic’s manager of the Office of Wow, says he faced skepticism initially, but now employees are on board with his department. “We’re responsible for driving employee engagement, creating an environment where people like coming to work.”

The Office of Wow provides employee training, recognizes workers for reaching milestones, and holds special events at the Fort Lauderdale-based bank. Managers reward employees with “wow” bucks, which allow them to buy DVD players, Coach handbags and other items.

Dalmotte, formerly in sales, takes his engagement role seriously. For a Deal or No Deal event at the bank, he shaved his head to become “Wowie Mandel,” imitating TV show host Howie Mandel.

Creative titles even have invaded human resources.

Burger King’sPete Smith, chief human resources director, recently hired Robert Perkins to be the Miami-based fast-food chain’s vice president of inclusion and talent management.

“Inclusion,” Smith says, refers to more than old-fashioned diversity. “It’s about embracing how we get our work done. It also has a global aspect.”

Perkins’ role fits Burger King’s strategy, Smith says, because “our customers are every race, creed, sex, and culture in 70-plus countries.”

Unusual titles may be most prevalent in the hospitality industry.

Kerrigan points to W Hotels, soon to open a property on Fort Lauderdale beach, which uses innovative titles for hotel service people. “If you want room service or a button sewed, you call the ‘whatever, whenever agent.’”

Meanwhile, Disney is advertising for a chief magic official, an hourly job traveling to Disney parks to create magical experiences.

“The ideal candidate must never be grumpy … have good manners, but also be able to pillage and plunder with pirates when necessary. Also required, pockets full of pixie dust … and most importantly, a belief in all things magical,” according to the job description posted on DreamCMO.com.

It’s a real job, Disney representatives say, for at least a year.

Randy Russell, chief romance officer for Couples Resorts, which operates its Jamaica resorts from an office in Miramar, came up with his own job title. The goal was to set Couples apart from other Caribbean resorts, he says, and “it has transferred to how we treat our guests in the hotel.”

Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel

Well, my preferred job title was always “Boss Lady”, as opposed to the guys that wore the HMFIC caps. I suppose that showed a horrible lack of imagination, and I should have worn a “Wonder Woman” T-shirt. Carrying the magic lasso, though, probably would have gotten me investigated as a racist.

Saudi Women Can Now Stay in Hotels Alone

2008-01-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Women in Saudi Arabia can now stay in a hotel or a furnished apartment without a male guardian, according to a government decision that comes as the country faces increasing criticism for its severe restrictions on women.

The daily Al-Watan, which is deemed close to the Saudi government, reported Monday that the ministry issued a circular to hotels asking them to accept lone women - as long as their information is sent to a local police station.

The decision was adopted after a study conducted by the Interior Ministry, the Supreme Commission of Tourism and the religious police authority known as the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Saudi women, under strict Islamic law, suffer severe restrictions on daily life: They are not allowed to be anywhere with an unrelated man, cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

The paper interviewed some Saudi women who complained that they had been severely inconvenienced by the rules banning them from staying in the hotels alone.

It quoted a woman identified as saying that she once arrived late at night at King Fahd airport on an internal flight and was denied a hotel room because she was alone.

Another woman, Fatima Ibrahim, said her son-in-law quarreled with his wife and daughters and threw them out of the house. When they tried to get a hotel room, they were asked to get a permission from the police.

Saudi Arabia has come under intense international criticism, including from its ally, the United States, especially over its treatment of women in the kingdom's legal system. King Abdullah pardoned a rape victim last month after her case sparked international outcry because she had been sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a a man who was not her relative.

Source:

Sigh. Well, at least there is that tiniest bit of improvement in women's lives under a very repressive Islamic government.

Ooops! Local Worker Accused of Deleting $2.5 Million Worth of Files--Because of a Help-Wanted Ad

2008-01-23T18:12:00.001-08:00

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The target may be high-tech, but the emotion involved is as old as humanity. Spite, anger, and revenge. Police say that’s what filled a woman’s heart after she picked up the classified ads.

When Marie Cooley came across a job that looked like hers in the classifieds, she admits she was certain she was about to be fired.

So police say late Sunday night, she crept into the Mandarin office where she worked at Steven E. Hutchins Architects.

“She decided to go and mess up everything for everybody,” said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ken Jefferson.

Jefferson says Cooley accessed the company’s server with her own account. And with a handful of mouse clicks and keystrokes, he says she deleted seven years’ worth of architectural drawings.

Seven years of work — gone in seconds.

The company put the value of the vaporized files at $2.5 million.

“She decided to be spiteful and go in and sabotage the records. And she did a very good job of that,” Jefferson said.

According to police, Cooley confessed to the crime. It’s a second degree felony that could lay the blueprints for a five-year prison sentence.

Folks at the architecture firm didn’t want to talk on camera about the disastrous deletion.

The owner did tell First Coast News that he’s paid good money to recover those files and he says he’s now managed to get every deleted drawing back from its digital death.

“The lesson to be learned here is that you can’t depend on having just one set of records or files and having your employees have access to them. You’ve got to have some kind of backup,” Jefferson said.

And here’s the most sobering part: the owner of the architecture firm says Marie Cooley was not going to be fired. He says the job listing was for his wife’s business — not his.

Source:

There may be a moral there somewhere about the danger of leaping to conclusions without supporting evidence. Meanwhile, the lady has gone from valued employee to unemployed woman likely to spend several years in prison.

Business owners, too, may want to think about how trustworthy their trusted employees really are.

New England Journal of Medicine--Update on Influenza A (H5N1) Infection in Humans

2008-01-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting article, and you do not have to sign in to read the overview. One of the parts that I thought was most interesting was this:

In one quarter or more of patients with influenza A (H5N1) virus infection, the source of exposure is unclear, and environment-to-human transmission remains possible. For some patients, the only identified risk factor was visiting a live-poultry market. Plausible transmission routes include contact with virus-contaminated fomites or with fertilizer containing poultry feces, followed by self-inoculation of the respiratory tract or inhalation of aerosolized infectious excreta. It is unknown whether influenza A (H5N1) virus infection can begin in the human gastrointestinal tract. In several patients, diarrheal disease preceded respiratory symptoms, and virus has been detected in feces. Acquisition of influenza A (H5N1) virus infection in the gastrointestinal tract has been implicated in other mammals. Drinking potable water and eating properly cooked foods are not considered to be risk factors, but ingestion of virus-contaminated products or swimming or bathing in virus-contaminated water might pose a risk. (Please see complete article for footnotes.)

I was aware that in 25% (or more) of the cases the method of exposure was unknown. It took a commentor posting in a previous avian flu article in reference to the likelihood of infection from contaminated water that made me realize that most of the news articles I had read mentioned contact with poultry as a source of infection, limited cluster of infection among closely-related people (one or more of whom had contact with poultry), or that the infected person had no known contact with poultry. Alternative avenues of infection are, in general, not mentioned, although they are surely known.

I’m not sure if this is because the people writing the articles were not sufficiently curious about alternative means of infection to ask questions about other possible means of contraction, or whether the information about other possible means of exposure is not published to allay fears of contracting a virus that has, so far, infected only a few.

Chavez says he chews coca daily

2008-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

BY CASTO OCANDO

El Nuevo Herald
Venezuela’s controversial President Hugo Chávez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca — the source of cocaine — raising questions about the legality of his actions.

Chávez’s comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as “armies.”

”I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,” he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience.

Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ‘’sends me Coppelia ice cream and a lot of other things that regularly reach me from Havana,” Bolivian President Evo Morales “sends me coca paste . . . I recommend it to you.”

It was not clear what Chávez meant. Indigenous Bolivians and Peruvians can legally chew coca leaves as a mild stimulant and to kill hunger. But coca paste is a semi-refined product — between leaves and cocaine — considered highly addictive and often smoked as basuco or pitillo.

”It is another symptom that [Chávez] has totally lost the concept of limits,” said Aníbal Romero, a political scientist with the Caracas Metropolitan University. “It shows Chávez is a man out of control.”

More seriously, Venezuelan and Bolivian analysts said Chávez’s comments amount to a dangerous endorsement of a substance controlled around the world, and perhaps even an illegal act by a very public head of state.

”If he is affirming that he consumes coca paste, he is admitting that he is consuming a substance that is illegal in Bolivia as well as Venezuela,” said Hernán Maldonado, a Bolivian analyst living in Miami. ”Plus, it’s an accusation that Evo Morales is a narco-trafficker” for sending him the paste.

Morales is the longtime head of a Bolivian coca-growers’ union and is known to chew coca in public, even during cabinet meetings, since he took office. Bolivia limits the coca acreage in an effort to control supplies of coca leaf that wind up being refined into cocaine.

Most likely, however, it seems Chávez was referring to chewing coca leaves, a traditional and legal practice among indigenous groups in the high Andes mountains but illegal in Venezuela, according to experts.

”Venezuela signed the Vienna Convention of 1961, which regulates everything that has to do with narcotics,” said Mildred Camero, former president of the government’s main counter-narcotics agency, the National Council Against the Illicit Use of Drugs. “On the list . . . the coca leaf was prohibited.”

For the rest of the story, go here:

I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised given Hugo’s deranged handling of the Venezuelan economy and exaggerated sense of his importance on the world stage. Why indeed would he believe that laws that bind his countrymen similarly apply to him?

Also read Hugo Chavez: Latin America’s Money Man. Hugo’s ambitions do not stop at the Venezuelan border.

Political Talking Heads Versus Breakfast

2008-01-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

I got up to cook breakfast this morning, and turned on Fox to see the results of the South Carolina primary. All I wanted to know was first, second, and third in the GOP, and among the Dems, whether Clinton or Obama was victorious (since everybody knew in advance who 3rd and 4th would be).

Sounds simple, doesn't it? I did not want to see the opinions on the various Republican campaigns by the Democratic strategists, or to hear the reasons why Huckabee was finished, Thompson was finished, or Giuliani was finished by the people that didn't have any actual ideas on how to make America better or stronger but could only criticize others that were making the attempt. I did not want to see Hillary Clinton accused of "race baiting". All I wanted to know was the results and not have my intelligence insulted by the various "experts" brought in because I am quite capable of making my own analyses of the various candidates' strengths and weaknesses, thank you very much.

I switched over to the local station and instead of political coverage, learned how to make cookies from a store-bought cake mix. The news morning show website was supposed to have it posted online so I didn't write anything down, but nooooooo. So here's a link to cake mix cookie recipes if you feel the urge to experiment. The cookie recipe given was similar to #3 with the addition of 2 Tbs. of brown sugar and a half cup? of chopped cashews and a (forgotten) quantity of toffee chips. I would use a devil's food or German chocolate cake mix and use pecans, but that's just me.

I haven't actually made a cake since I started getting rounder. Maybe I'm getting rounder because I have not been eating a sufficient quantity of cake (or maybe I'm suffering from a severe shortage of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts). This begs for further research. I need to write a grant. Women everywhere need this information!

No, I did not actually make cookies for breakfast. The political coverage put me off eating entirely so I went back to bed and snuggled in the warm blankets for awhile longer. Hmmmmm. Watching Fox political coverage as the next weight loss strategy? It could work! (And another grant application is clearly in order.)

8-Year-Old Indonesian Boy Dead from Bird Flu

2008-01-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

JAKARTA: An Indonesian boy has died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the disease to 97, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The 8-year-old boy from the town of Tangerang died early on Friday after being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Hospital for Infectious Disease in the capital, Jakarta, said Sunan Raja, an official at the ministry's bird flu center.

He said the boy had been admitted to a local hospital on Wednesday, nine days after he developed symptoms of fever and cough.

Raja said laboratory results confirmed that the boy had the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

The boy lived near a poultry slaughterhouse in the Cipondoh neighborhood in the western outskirts of Jakarta, Raja said.

Indonesia has recorded human bird flu deaths regularly since 2003, when the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia.

Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.

Source:

More Water Restrictions for South Florida

2008-01-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

South Florida Records Two Driest Back-to-Back Years

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, January 8, 2008 (ENS) - The past two years have been the driest back-to-back calendar years in South Florida since rainfall recordkeeping began in 1932, meteorologists at the South Florida Water Management District confirmed today.

The 2006-2007 rainfall total of 83.63 inches district-wide displaces by nearly an inch the previous low of 84.59 inches that fell 50 years ago in 1955-56.

Last year was the ninth-driest year in the 76-year record with rainfall of just 42.88inches, across the district, 82 percent of the historical average,

It followed rainfall of only 40.75 inches in 2006, the sixth-driest year on record.

The combined two-year total is nearly two feet less than the historical district-wide average of 104.5 inches for a typical two-year period.

"The district's rainfall data confirms that South Florida is still in the grips of a severe regional drought, which has led to a multi-year water shortage the likes of which we have never experienced," said SFWMD Governing Board Chairman Eric Buermann.

"South Florida residents - as well as water managers - must live with limited water supplies this dry season, and we all must practice conservation and follow the one-day-a-week restrictions if we are to successfully minimize the impacts of this water shortage," he said.

All during 2007, the district imposed one new water restriction after another in an effort to conserve scant water supplies.

Now, the most restrictive rules ever imposed in South Florida take effect next week.

In December and for the first time in the agency's history, the district declared an extreme water shortage, and established a one-day-a-week watering schedule for residential landscape irrigation.

Landscape irrigation accounts for up to half of all household water consumption in the state of Florida and totals more than seven billion gallons per day nationwide.

The new restrictions become effective Tuesday, January 15. Enforcement, including issuing of of civil fines and notices of violation will begin on that date. For information on watering days and times, as well as restrictions on specific use classes, visit www.sfwmd.gov/conserve.

Source:
In checking the rain gauge, I found that we had a hair over 7" of that elusive wet stuff in my little area of NE Florida this week.

If you read the article, you will find that Lake Okechobee is at very low levels and you may infer that this is due to the drought, which is not entirely correct. The level was reduced to make room for the record number of hurricanes (and heavy rainfall) predicted for the summer hurricane season (which never materialized) as there were concerns with whether or not the dike would hold.

State Bans Allstate from Selling New Auto Policies

2008-01-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

TALLAHASSEE -- Cranking up the heat, Florida regulators will suspend Allstate's license to sell auto insurance in the state until the company cooperates with an investigation into why its homeowners rates haven't fallen.

It's an unprecedented move for the state Office of Insurance Regulation, which is on the warpath because homeowners' premiums are still high despite passage of an insurance overhaul law in January 2007. The office is seeking information concerning how Allstate sets its rates and pays claims, and the company has refused to provide it.

''This is an ongoing and blatant disregard for the laws of the state of Florida. This can't and won't continue,'' Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Wednesday.

The move sends a powerful message to the rest of Florida's insurance industry that rates must come down. Already, regulators and a special Senate panel have subpoenaed other insurers, and Gov. Charlie Crist has threatened a class-action lawsuit to compel the companies to provide insurance relief to homeowners.

The state's action against Allstate is expected to cause minimal financial pain for the company, especially if the ban is brief, because existing policies are exempted. Allstate customers can renew, and consumers looking for carriers will be able to find another insurer in Florida's highly competitive auto insurance market.

The biggest losers will be Allstate's agents, who will miss out on lucrative new business. Also taking a blow: Florida's reputation as an industry-friendly state.

''It's a big game of chicken,'' said Jay Brown, a lawyer with Houston's Beirne, Maynard and Parsons who does insurance litigation work. ``The last thing the state or Allstate wants is to lose a carrier from the auto insurance market.''

Joseph Dawson, of Dawson & Finkelstein, whose practice specializes in insurance litigation, said absent a circuit court ruling reversing McCarty's decision, Allstate will have to stop selling new auto policies in Florida.

Allstate is still weighing its options, said Adam Shores, a company spokesman.

The Office of Insurance Regulation's order is effective when it is delivered to Allstate's parent company in Northbrook, Ill. The order was expected to be ready by Thursday morning.

The ban is in effect until Allstate complies with the office's subpoena.

''Our goal is to bring insurers into the state, and so I regret that Allstate put McCarty in this position,'' said Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D-Cooper City. ``But we have to show the insurance industry that they are not the ones in charge, and they must comply with the laws of Florida.''

Speaking as somebody who has never had a (house) insurance claim that lives in a relatively safe area from hurricanes but whose insurance has quadrupled anyway, I'd like some answers, please.