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Thursday, July 13, 2006
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H.R.810
AlterNet: "... it looks like [U.S Senator Bill] Frist, who supports limited stem cell research, knew the deck was stacked against him on the issue, as both Durbin and Reid promised to loudly invoke H.R. 810 every single day in July or until it was formally placed on the Senate calendar.
"'I believe the President's policy should be modified. Which is why, with reservation, I support the house-passed embryonic stem cell research bill, H.R.810,' said Frist before the holiday recess. 'Let me be clear, this bill has deficiencies. If circumstances were different I would seek to ensure a much stronger ethical and scientific oversight mechanism, a clear prohibition on financial or other incentives between scientists and fertility clinics, and more explicit requirements regarding informed consent.'"
Thanks to Wired for the link.
"2008 pres"
7:00:55 PM 
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Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality
Edward Felten has penned an explanation of the technical background behind Internet Neutrality (pdf). He writes, "Network neutrality is a vexing issue. Proponents of neutrality regulation argue that the free, innovative Internet of today is threatened and government action is needed to protect it. Opponents argue that regulation is not needed, or will be flawed in practice, or is a bad idea even in principle.
"One of the reasons the network neutrality debate is so murky is that relatively few
people understand the mechanics of network discrimination. In reasoning about net
neutrality it helps to understand the technical motivations for discrimination, the various
kinds of discrimination and how they would actually be put into practice, and what
countermeasures would then be available to users and regulators. These are what I want
to explain in this essay.
"It's not my goal to answer every question about net neutrality-that would require a
book, not an essay. What I want to do is fill in some of the technical background in a
way that illuminates the core issues, in the hope of providing a little clarity to the
discussion."
"2008 pres"
6:56:53 PM
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Hair follicles provide bounty of stem cells
Science Blog: "Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have isolated a new source of adult stem cells that appear to have the potential to differentiate into several cell types. If their approach to growing these cells can be scaled up and proves to be safe and effective in animal and human studies, it could one day provide the tissue needed by an individual for treating a host of disorders, including peripheral nerve disease, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injury...
"Hair follicles are well known to be a source for adult stem cells. Using human embryonic stem cell culture conditions, the researchers isolated and grew a new type of multipotent adult stem cell from scalp tissue obtained from the National Institute of Health's Cooperative Human Tissue Network.
"The mutipotent stem cells grow as masses the investigators call hair spheres. After growing the 'raw' cells from the hair spheres in different types of growth factors, the investigators were able to differentiate the stem cells into multiple lineages, including nerve cells, smooth muscle cells, and melanocytes (skin pigment cells)."
"2008 pres"
6:46:34 PM
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Immigration
Rocky Mountain News: "As he listened last week to state and federal lawmakers debate what to do about illegal immigration, Tom Narum wasn't alone in his frustration. But Narum has his own plan to solve the problem: bypass the politicians and go straight to the people. The 39-year-old financial analyst and father of three - a self-described 'average guy' from Centennial - wants to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He has enlisted a few friends and relatives to help him start a Web-based campaign to raise the funds. Now all Narum needs is the estimated cost of $9.5 billion - yes, that's billion with a 'B' - and the permission of perhaps thousands of landowners. 'Actually,' Narum corrects, 'my goal is to raise four or five hundred million dollars, build about a hundred miles of the wall, and then, hopefully, when they see how it works, Congress will take over.'"
"2008 pres"
6:43:37 PM
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Deslination in California?
Water News Weekly: "Having completed a year-long California-focused analysis of desalination, Oakland's Pacific Institute concludes that most of the state's seawater desalination proposals are premature. According to their report, "Desalination, With a Grain of Salt," most if not all of the 21 desalination projects proposed in California fail to adequately address economic realities, environmental concerns, or potential social impacts. Recent gains in desalination efficiency are being offset by rising interest rates and increases in energy and construction costs. Even the cheapest estimates exceed the costs of conservation and efficiency improvements, fixing leaks, and other sources of new supply. As a result, desalination remains an extremely expensive source of fresh water for Californians...
"Desalination is energy intensive, making its already high costs vulnerable to rising energy prices. Electricity accounts for 44% of the typical water costs of a reverse-osmosis plant. An energy rate increase of 25% increases the cost of produced water by 11 percent. Energy price uncertainty creates costs that are ultimately paid by water users, but project cost estimates often omit such considerations. Statewide, proposals range in size from a small plant providing water for a private development along Cannery Row, Monterey to much larger plants in Southern California that would be among the largest desalination plants in the United States. The total capacity of the proposed plants could amount to approximately 450 million gallons per day, which would represent a massive 70-fold increase over current seawater desalination capacity."
"colorado water"
6:36:18 PM
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Political allegiance impacts brain's response to candidates
Science Blog: "A new UCLA imaging study finds political party allegiance affects the brain activity of partisans viewing the faces of candidates.
"Published online July 9, 2006, by the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychologia, the study finds a partisan's brain responds to the opposition candidate's face by activating cognitive networks designed to regulate emotion.
"Researchers at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA suggest the neural activity has one of three goals: 1) suppression of unpleasant emotions; 2) suppression of latent positive feelings toward an opposing candidate; or 3) an increase in negative feelings toward an opposing candidate.
'We still have much to learn about the neural basis of political decision making; however, these findings show party allegiance has a clear impact on brain activity,' said lead author Marco Iacoboni, associate professor in residence at the Semel Institute, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Brain Research Institute."
No word whether or not this explains the current echo chamber phenomena.
"denver 2006"
6:29:58 PM
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Dodd for president?
Political Wire: "Six 'political veterans' signed on to Sen. Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) possible presidential bid today, 'as the Connecticut Democrat began to expand his efforts to raise money and develop a network of supporters in key states,' David Lightman reports."
"2008 pres"
5:49:56 PM
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HB1022
The Wash Park Prophet thinks that HB1022 is probably a waste of time for all concerned. From the article, "The trouble is that there is no good faith legal argument under existing law for the lawsuit the attorney general is mandated to bring by this referendum. The the attorney general is just going to have to [resort to] making [stuff] up, contrary to well settled law, and disclose to the court that he or she wants it to ignore precedent and change the law to rule in Colorado's favor. Courts generally respond to legal tactics like this by promptly dismissing the case, and all lawyers hate losing."
"denver 2006"
5:45:13 PM
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Managing the flood water
Managing river flows during the Southwest Monsoon is no piece of cake. Here's an article about efforts last weekend on the Arkansas River from the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "The Arkansas River took a wild ride through Pueblo and to points east in the past week, as water officials tried to pace releases with the whims of Mother Nature. Last week, releases from Pueblo Dam were stepped up to release flood water that came into Lake Pueblo from a brief, heavy storm. The releases were coordinated with heavy flows on Fountain Creek, which cannot be regulated, to avoid flooding at Avondale. Arkansas River flows were tripled last Thursday, to 3,000 cubic feet per second from about 1,000 cfs...
"... after a steady rain Saturday evening, more flood water had to be evacuated from Lake Pueblo, and releases were increased to about 4,000 cfs on Sunday...
"The state has the responsibility to manage Pueblo Dam releases so that the gauge at Avondale stays below 6,000 cfs, if possible. That would have happened, except the north Pueblo storm was unusually intense. At one point, the Fountain Creek gauge at the Arkansas River confluence peaked briefly at 10,000 cfs, eventually sending the Avondale gauge to more than 8,000 cfs. Meanwhile, sheets of water were entering the river above Avondale through the normally dry Chico Creek basin, according to local reports. There is no stream gauge at Chico Creek to determine how much it contributed, [Water Division 2 Engineer Steve Witte] said...
"Flows from Lake Pueblo were cut back Tuesday, and were measured at 720 cfs Wednesday. Fountain Creek was flowing at 320 cfs. The flood water that flowed through Pueblo was captured by junior storage rights downstream, Witte explained. All junior irrigation rights were satisfied during the flooding. In addition, the Fort Lyon Canal was diverting 500 cfs into its storage canal, while the Amity Canal was storing more than 500 cfs through a transfer storage right into John Martin Reservoir. Amity has an 880 cfs right, not totally satisfied by the recent flooding. If flood waters produce more than 1,000 acre-feet of water per day above the Amity right, the water is stored in John Martin and later allocated under terms spelled out in the Arkansas River Compact: 60 percent for Colorado use and 40 percent for Kansas. Colorado's share is further divided among irrigators below John Martin, Witte said. If John Martin were to fill and unclaimed water flowed over the state line, the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District could claim the water and store it in Lake Pueblo, Witte said."
"colorado water"
6:15:36 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 8:22:23 PM.
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