Lefty Blogs
williampfaff ++ ++
Russian News ++
seaton-newslinks. USA expat in Europe ++
bilegrip Asu spleen ++
us-rockstroh a rant, not a blog ++
aboutmyplanet eco ++
sfgate ++
crookedtimber ++
onthecommons ++
sjlendman ++
....
abutamam freeiraq ++
airamericaradio +
amygdalagf +
angryarab ++
annezook +
antiwar ++
norwegianity
terrorism-news
blogspot
ourtomorrow
politickybitch
welcome-to-pottersville
aviraqi
billmon ++ whiskeyB
consortiumnews ++
dahrjamailiraq
dailywarnews ++
drforbush +
english +
fallujahinpictures
freespeechradio
halcyondays ++
healingiraq
hereticalideas ++
icasualties
maru
om
boxspinning boxes

jamaicaobserver newspaper
jameswolcott +
lefarkins +
liberalgirlnextdoor ++
lonehighlander Libya, not lefty
mahablog +++ solid
maruthecrankpot +
indymedia melbourne
messopotamian +7Apr06
monkey ++
motherjones ++
fisk
nocapital +
norightturn +NZ
peakoil ++
pilger +
politicalhumor +
raedinthemiddle
rafahtoday Feb05?
rense w= wacko conspiracies
rigorousintuition x
hegemon ++
ruckus ++
rudepundit ++
satiricalpolitical +
scaramoucheblog ++
secretsinbaghdad ++15Ap06
Energring
aliveinbaghdad ++
riverbendblog ++
sideshow +++
signs-of-the-times +++
slashdot ++techy
talkleft ++
thinkprogress ++
thismodernworld +++
uncapitalist ++
velorution ++ bicycles
org ++Brazil peasants
warandpiece +
warfare.ru +russia military
greenpeace
allhatnocattle
alternet ++
americanpolitics
antiwar
gbruno ++YT
axisoflogic ++
blackcommentator
bobharris +
bradblog +
buckfush +funnies
buggery +
buzzflash ++
changeforamerica
countercurrents
counterpunch +++
crisispapers
crooksandliars ++?
csmonitor
dahrjamailiraqhref="http://www.dailykos.com/
davidcorn
democracynow
democracyuprising
dissidentvoice
earthfirstjournal
earthstation5
empirenotes
foodfirst
fpif
fromthewilderness
geocities
granta
grist ??
gristmagazine
guerrillanews
gulf
hizbollah
huffingtonpost ++
informationclearinghouse
infoshop +
inthesetimes x
iranmania x
ivaw
jihadunspun
juancole ++
kuro5hin ++ notlefty
kurtnimmo ++
lrb ++ Iraqi?
mahablog
lewrockwell ++
marklynas climate change
mnftiu get your war on comics
motherjones
nilemedia
nybooks
occupationwatch
oriononline
palestine
prisonplanet
rall ++ Ted Rall cartonist
ratical
redpepper
rense
robert
rollingstone
scoop
selvesandothers ++
smirkingchimp
snappingturtle
socialistworker
spiked
tblog
theiraqiroulette
theleftcoaster +
thepoorman +
tnr ++ magazine
tompaine ++ mag
traprockpeace ++
truthout +
boondocks ++
crowning3
. . . helix
Base
rain radar
Weather
worldtribunal +
worldwatch ++ $ required
zaman + Turkish news
youcantmakeitup + ?
youngfox ????????????
bareknucklepolitics videos?
popdrain videos??
discovery videos??
cs videos??
aegisIraq video??
mariyaguchi video??
iwilltryit video..
baghdadtreasure
ahram cairo newspaper
felbers
thepartyline
jfaughnan 28/04/2006 10:25AM
shrillblog +
thinkprogress +
marchforjustice + pictures
messopotamian + Iraqi not so radical, but scared (also see IraqTheModel which was a USA front, but is now also scared)
scaramoucheblog +
counterpunch
.............
blogads liberal blogs by CPM $ per view
malakandsky ++ stolid?
republicoft + black gay parent??
dailykos ++
rawstory ++
democraticunderground ++
atrios ++
workingforchange +
leftinthewest +
dembloggers +
talkingpointsmemo +
firedoglake ++
vastleft ++
pamspaulding +
americablog +
washingtonmonthly ++
mydd +
politics1 +
bartcop ++
politicalwire +
sisterstalk black lesbian?
culturekitchen ++
alternet
wonkette +++
billstclair +
freefreedomtoldhere ++ pipe bomb

......
almuajaha defunct
whynot defunct
winstonsmith defunct
samadams dormant
mquinn02 defunct
iraqblogcount ++14Apr06 suspended
iraqicomments most recent: jan2005
iraqidoctor most recent: Aug2005
georgemustgo + moved?
vialls ++Dormant (joe is dead)
warblogging Defunct
hammeroftruth quiescant?
mediastorm quiescant? +
bushwhackedusa defunct
hamasonline defunct
4Jul06

28 June 2006

Swift, Malaria, Mefloquine, connexins, Dingo Urine

Neo-Zion have spied on SWIFT, the system the rich use to move their money out of taxreach.
I predict this is the end for Neo-Zion. Old Money needs its secret offshore accounts, nobody fucks with them.
Old Money is content to co-exist with NarcoThugs, they wont allow SWIFT to be tapped. Cheney is running scared now the NYT has blown the whistle
democracynow
Some of the banks didn‘t know this was happening. The government‘s not just messing with its own citizens here, it‘s messing with business. And if anybody in this country believes in privacy, and I think they call it proprietary information, it‘s businessmen. Are they going to fight the government in a way that ordinary citizens could not?


Age now = 2 * a prime
Age previous birthday = 3 * a prime
Age next birthday = a prime
And I'm not 22

New UN Malaria Boss:
"The malaria community hates me," Dr. Kochi said in an interview in the W.H.O.'s small Manhattan office. "I said, basically, 'You are stupid.' Their science is very weak. The community is small and inward-looking and fighting each other."
In January, he attacked the drug industry, naming 18 companies that were selling artemisinin in single-pill form, and giving them 90 days to stop. Monotherapy encourages resistance, and if artemisinin was lost, he said, "it will be at least 10 years before a drug that good is discovered — basically, we're dead."
..
Dafra Pharma, a Belgian company that supplies about 25 percent of Africa's private market for malaria drugs, said her company had agreed to stop selling monotherapy and was developing pills mixing artemisinin with lumefantrine [Benflumetol], amodiaquine and other drugs.
.....................
cdc
Halofantrine (also called Halfan) is widely used CDC recommends X ..heart-related side effects, including deaths.
Atovaquone/proguanil is a combination US brand name, Malarone.
Doxycycline (many brand names and generic drugs are available) related to tetracycline.
Mefloquine (brand name Lariam ™ and generic)....[ 2%? get an immediate profound suicidal depression]
Primaquine..

.....................
medicalnewstoday07 Aug 2004
Brown U: mefloquine,..blocks two gap junction proteins, or connexins, ..the brains of..mice.. Connexins found in high concentrations in the brain are believed to play a critical role in movement, vision and memory.
..Cx36 and Cx50. There are..20 kinds of connexins in the brain and eye, as well in organs such as the heart, liver and pancreas. Cx36 is found in the brain; Cx50 is located in the lens. By specifically blocking them, Cruikshank said mefloquine will be a useful tool for electrical synapse study.
..could shed light on the cause of epilepsy and seizures. .. a Cx50 mutation can form cataracts in mice.
"Electrical synapses were only discovered in the neocortex of mammals five years ago," Connors said, "so they are still a mystery. ..
..mefloquine can cause ..depression and other psychotic side effects.: Connexin shut-down in the brain.??

aljazeera
27 June 2006 dingo urine can act as a repellent for use in everything from rehabilitating old mine sites to reducing roadkill.
.."When we presented tame kangaroos with coyote urine, they became interested in the new smell, but when presented with the dingo urine they were startled and fled,"

Einstein
why is this old guy wearing my jacket? flickr

27 June 2006

corn, Shalit, Nam Theun 2, Charlie Sheen, Moutaiko, LHC

newswise See through walls..
Ohio State University engineers have invented a radar system that is virtually undetectable, because its signal resembles random noise.
..components cost less than $100.
..The radar .can be tuned to penetrate solid walls ..
The radar is inherently .able to distinguish between many types of targets because of its ultra-wide-band
..He breathes, his heart beats, his body makes unintended motions."
These tiny motions could be used to locate disaster survivors who were pinned under rubble.. able to see objects that are nearby.
..might image tumors, blood clots, and foreign objects in the body. It could even measure bone density...

commondreams Robert Kennedy cries foul
In heavily Democratic areas around Youngstown, where nearly 100 voters reported entering "Kerry" on the touch screen and watching "Bush" light up

ethanol despite continuing doubts about whether the fuel provides a genuine energy saving,.. 39 new ethanol plants ..over .. 12 months, USA past Brazil as the world's largest ethanol producer.
..add 1.4 billion gallons a year, a 30% increase over current 4.6 bg/y..By 2008 8 bg/y
..But ADM..by far the biggest beneficiary of $2 billion subsidies..51-cent-a-gallon tax credit given to refiners and blenders that mix ethanol into their gasoline. ADM will earn $1.3 billion from ethanol in 2007 ..
..Last year corn 11 billion bushels ..second to 2004's record ..
.. ..Farmers subsidy $48 an acre not to raise crops
..the average processing plant ..net profit .. $5 a bushel ..buying for $2
.. that is before the ..tax credit..

Moutaiko
We holidayed 5.5km from this island, but our heavy clinker-built, seagull powered dinghy never made it there. [5Jul06 update: this was a google-singlet, but now gbruno makes a doublet. google rocks]
hint: lat=-38.8543787878, lon=175.942871292

Having another passport in Zion doesnt help when Hamas grabs you..
Corporal Shalit, who also holds French citizenship,
The last Israeli soldier kidnapped was in October 1994, also by Hamas.
Nachshon Wachsman, who was also an American citizen

WorldBank buys a Dam:
..Nam Theun 2.. ..130-foot-high .. the first major dam backed by the World Bank after a self-imposed moratorium in the mid-1990's.. Asian Development Bank..four years from now.. on a tributary of the Mekong..
6,000 people will be displaced on the Nakai Plateau..livelihoods of at least 100,000 more will be affected..
For the first 25 years ..government will earn an estimated $2 billion.
..Aviva Imhof, campaigns director of the International Rivers Network..
"Construction is proceeding on deadline," she said after a two-week visit to the area. "But the social and environmental measures are lagging."

infowars Charlie Sheen interviewed
..in July01 pilot guns were removed, there since the 60s. Also Cheney subsumed the power to shoot-down..


March 2003 "According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska," former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report.

At full throttle (7 TeV beams), the energy stored in the LHC beam is 700 MegaJoules, or 10 TeraWatts of power while the beam is dumped. How big is that? Well, 10 TeraWatts is about half of the world’s total instantaneous power output.

Joules
1 litre petrol 3.4E76
Battleship guns 3E8
LHC Beam 7E8
Gulfstream G500 2.4E9
767 @253m/sec 5E9


26 June 2006

Endless Forms, quaich

Endless Forms most beautiful. by Sean Carroll
- fascinating book, maybe not as revolutionary as Carroll claims.

The most amazing claim he makes is that repetitive patterns are not made by one organising principle:
"The genes expressed in stripes in the early fly embryo were some of the first to have their switches examined. One of the most surprising discoveries made in taking these genetic switches apart was that individual stripes of multistripe patterns are encoded by separate switches. For example, even though the seven stripes of some tool kit patterns appear very similar and evenly spaced, each stripe is drawn by a different switch that integrates different combinations of longitudinal inputs.
...
mathematicians.. influenced by a 1952 paper by the genius Alan Turing .. "The chemical basis of morphogenesis" many theoreticians sought to explain how periodic patterns could be organised across entire large structures. While the math and models are beautiful, none of this theory has been borne out by the discoveries of the last twenty years.."
(emphsis added) I find this very hard to accept. A python with 'hundreds of thoracic vertebrae' must surely have a generator to make each (somite?) vertebra similar.
It is clear that particular segments must be identified if they are to have particular legs etc, but I predict that a prior uniformly regular generator will be found.
I read another fly-stripe book around 2001 which had some great stuff on how the stripes get crisp. Sadly I cant recall the title, nor find it on my shelves... anyway the beautiful immuno-flourescant pictures in EFMB are not the first.
peripatus

Interesting that Onychophora are now held to have all 10 Hox genes that arthropods have.
The rule now seems to be: duplicate some genes first, use them later.
SC claims that the 'hopeful monster' idea is now dead, but some of the changes he instances are extremely saltational, eg mice have twice doubled the flies set of Hox. Each doubling must have been quite an event, even if not monstrous.
I recall in NZ around 1967 finding a peripatus in a crumbly log in Manawatu. I didnt realise its significance.

One symmetry breaking that SC does not discuss much is the left-right distinction. Front-back & Top bottom can be 'random' but information is required to choose right. A famous wrong choice was by Gregory Bateson - he guessed that some spiral structure on the oocyte surface would dictate polarity. It is now believed that the choice is molecular. Cilia are chiral because Amino acids are chiefly L. Cilia all turn clockwise, and churn some molecule to one side.
SC does mention "situs inversus" where the liver can be on the left, etc.
Recent imaging studies of the brains of situs inversus individuals reveal that the left-right asymmetries in the frontal lobe and planum temporale are also reversed. However these individuals still have left-hemisphere dominance in speech production and are generally right handed
- if this is true, and I take most brain imaging cum grano salis, then a lot of handwaving about speech, humans over apes etc is challenged. Brocas region without significance?
I would love to get Behe to shake (whichever) hand of a situs inversus sufferer, and offer congratulations on surviving with defective cilia, those unchangeable devils.

I am pleased to see June Pallot memorialised by ... the 'JUNE PALLOT PRIZE' for the Best Conference Paper will be presented with an engraved quaich (A QUAICH is a special kind of shallow two-handled drinking cup/bowl in Scotland.)