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Japan on Tuesday criticized China for trying to resolve territorial conflicts with shows of force that increase the risk of dangerous clashes and said North Korea appeared to have entered a "new phase" toward producing better long-range missiles while improving its nuclear weapons program.
Tokyo is particularly concerned by China's activities in waters around islands that both countries claim, according to the Ministry of Defense's annual report, which is a yearly snapshot of what Japan perceives to be its major security issues. The islands dispute has strained relations between Japan and China.
For months, ships from both countries have regularly patrolled around the small island group called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyutai in China. Though no military clashes have occurred, the cat-and-mouse game has raised fears of escalation between the Asian powers.
The report said Chinese aircraft and surveillance ships affiliated to China's maritime law enforcement agencies have repeatedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters and airspace and added that a Chinese naval ship directed its fire-control radar at Japanese destroyer in January, a move that could be seen as preparation for an attack.
"China has attempted to change the status quo by force based on its own assertion which is incompatible with the existing order of international law," the report said. "There is a concern over its future direction."
The annual report was the first issued under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He took office late last year and has been a strong advocate of bolstering Japan's military and taking a hawkish position toward China.
On North Korea, which Japan sees as another major security challenge for the region, the report said Pyongyang's third nuclear test — last February — and its launch of a long-range rocket in December last year suggest it might be making considerable progress on both fronts.
The report said North Korea appears to be pursuing research and development for deploying existing ballistic missiles, extending the range of its missiles and converting to solid fuel propulsion, which makes missiles easier to move around and harder to detect and destroy.
"We assess that North Korea's ballistic missile development is considered to have entered a new phase," it said. "In conjunction with its efforts to enhance its ballistic missile capability, the nuclear tests by North Korea pose a significant threat to Japan's security, and they are significantly detrimental to peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the international community."


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The sharing bag market is a fast growing category of the UK confectionery market, whether it is small bags of sweets for kids or old fashioned and retro sweets and chocolates in bags for adults to share. Hancocks can offer retailers a comprehensive wholesale bagged sweets range, including a newly launched range of sugar free sweets in bags.
At Hancocks.co.uk we offer you:
Bagged sweets are the ultimate convenience for shoppers and some confectionery retailers will find that offering pre packed sweets works better for them than pick and mix. Others will want to offer both formats to suit a wide audience.
Hancocks offers a number of display stands for bagged sweets to help you make the most of your space and to maximise your profit from selling sharing bags and sweet bags.
We recently launched our range of sugar free sweets in bags to compliment our range of sugar free sweets in jars. The sugar free market is definitely growing, especially with increasing health awareness and the growth of diabetes.
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John Nichols • TheNation.com • March 9, 2014
When the prairie populists of the North Dakota Non-Partisan League swept to power a century ago, with their promise to take on the plutocrats, one of the first orders of business was the establishment of state-run bank.
They did just that. And in just a few years the Bank of North Dakota will celebrate a 100th anniversary of assuring safe stewardship of state funds, providing loans at affordable rates and steering revenues toward the support of public projects.
After the 2008 financial meltdown, and the failure of Congress to regulate "too-big-to-fail" banks, activists and progressive legislators across the country began to explore the idea of replicating—or even expanding upon—the North Dakota model in other states.
But would the voters go for that?
Vermonters for a New Economy decided to test the idea.
Read the entire article here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »


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The University of Gothenburg is today one of the country's largest centres of learning with over 37,000 students and a rich variety of research.
Ever since what was then Göteborg University College started in 1891, donations from private individuals have been important. One example is the donation from Oscar Ekman which made possible the construction of the main University building in Vasaparken.
As state funding decreases in importance, in common with other universities, the University of Gothenburg is becoming increasingly dependent on different contributors and foundations. Donations and gifts are consequently very important for large areas of research and development.
By contributing financially to the University you are improving the prerequisites for increasing knowledge that can be of great benefit to large numbers of people – now and in the future.
Philanthropy and Partnership,
+46 70-633 79 73


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- 4 Beds
- 4 Full Baths
Property TypeResidential – Townhome
SubdivisionSunflower Th
Listing Date03/07/19
Year Built1993
Lot Size0.03 Acres (1,307 SqFt)
Parking2 Car Garage, Surface, Unassigned
Property Description
The enormous deck with incredible views towards Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch & Sawatch Range will take your breath away!Relax and enjoy the mountains!This wonderful open floor plan is perfect for entertaining, each bedroom has an upgraded bath.Vaulted Ceilings throughout! Kitchen offers stainless steel appliances, with a double oven, granite counter tops, eat in bar, lots of cabinets. Large Closets, 2 Car Garage. Abundant Wildlife.Up/Down Window Treatments. 6 units total in HOA.
Presented By
- Mountains
- Ski Slopes
- Deck
- Cable TV
- District Sewer
- District Water
- Electricity Avail.
- Natural Gas Avail.
- Phone Available
- See Remarks
- Snow Removal
- Trash Pickup
- Natural Gas
- Dryer - Electric
- Washer
Financial Information
About Avon & Wildridge
Avon The Town of Avon used to be known for its prime location at the base of Beaver Creek Ski Resort, but Avon has come into its own in recent years thanks to thoughtful redevelopment projects, new restaurants and businesses, top-notch events and endless outdoor recreation. One of Avon's town jewels is Nottingham Lake, where you'll find everything from standup paddleboarding to concerts to family-friendly festivals. Free buses shuttle visitors and residents around town or up to the ski resort, and a transit center also provides quick and easy access to Vail. The Town has made many improvements in recent years to its pedestrian connections, making the town much more walkable overall. Avon has become an extension of the resorts, offering mountain living without any sacrifices. Wal-Mart, City Market and The Home Depot anchor the town's retail business mix, which also offers a variety of unique local retail businesses and some of the valley's top restaurants. The Westin Riverfront also offers gondola access from town to Beaver Creek Resort. The Town's 40,000-square-foot recreation center features an indoor waterslide, a 5-lane lap pool, and a state-of-the-art fitness facility. Just outside its doors, Nottingham Park Pavilion plays host to concerts and events, including the annual Fourth of July festivities which include one of the most impressive fireworks shows in the state. The real estate in Avon features a combination of townhomes, condominiums and single-family homes. Second-home owners have taken a particular liking to the Westin Riverfront, Basecamp, The Ascent and Brookside. Wildridge Perched high above the valley with views of Beaver Creek, Game Creek Bowl and Edwards, Wildridge is a community with a unique identity in the valley. Just a few minutes up the hill from Avon, Wildridge is a mix of condominium complexes, townhomes, duplexes and single-family homes. Lot sizes here are comparatively larger than what's available in most neighborhoods throughout the Vail Valley, and the expansive views add to one of Wildridge's greatest amenities — being surrounded by open space. Hiking and biking trails are fun for all ability levels, and the community's dedicated bike lanes — especially the uphill climbing lanes from Avon — add to the community's bike friendliness. Two playgrounds and a popular dog park make families with children and/or dogs feel especially welcome here. The extensive trail systems in sunny Wildridge also bring together an eclectic mix of local residents looking to get their lungs pumping outside or just to socialize with neighbors. Many residents enjoy an evening stroll around the neighborhood's trails, where friendships are formed and neighbors get to know each other. With no noise from I-70, a quality trail system and expansive views, life in Wildridge is mountaintop living at its finest.
Area Market Data
4 Beds 4 Baths
2 Beds 2 Baths
4 Beds 6 Baths
3 Beds 4 Baths
4 Beds 4 Baths
We get asked this question a lot. Below is a tool that gives you the ability to see what the market is like in your community. Find out what homes like your own are selling for right in your back yard. Simply enter in your address, choose the proximity of the search and find out market data for other homes that are selling near you.
While we'll provide you with plenty of information, this is a snapshot of your market data and there are real people behind the high-tech and automated tools. If you would like more detailed information or help in understanding the results we are here to help.
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The data relating to the real estate for sale on this website comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange program of the Vail Multi-List Service, Inc.
Copyright © 2020 Vail Multi List, Inc. (VMLS). The information displayed herein was derived from sources believed to be accurate, but has not been verified by VMLS. Buyers are cautioned to verify all information to their own satisfaction. This information is exclusively for viewers' personal, non- commercial use. Any republication or reproduction of the information herein without the express permission of the VMLS is strictly prohibited.
Listing courtesy of KKS Properties


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Remember Biden's Three Scenarios for Iraq: 1)One side kills the other 2)Federalization/fragmentation 3)Return of a Tyrant.
Well the Kurdish government is now rethinking its backing of Maliki and is claiming he is the new Saddam.
The Iraqi Army and the Peshmerga (the Kurdish militia) are preparing to go to war with another. That would be two US allies btw. Remember that every time you hear the Fred Thompson's of the world like last night proclaim at the Rep. Convention "we are winning" in Iraq. Who the F–k is We Dude? If the Iraqi Army and the Kurds fight each other who wins homes?
The Shia Arab v. Kurd fight involves where the Blue Line (the Kurdish Autonomous Regional Zone) exactly should be drawn vis a vis Khanaqin. [See the map under the green marked territory of Diyala north and slightly east of Baghdad].
Kirkuk is a powder keg ready to blow at a any second notice. That is a Sunni Arab v. Kurd fight but now is bringing in the Shia government because the Kurds backed Maliki on the premise that he would deal them Kirkuk for their support. The Kurds feel he is not moving quickly enough.
If there is a Scenario #4, it's the Lebanonization of Iraq. The Kurd and Shia alliance has been the dominant force since the US invasion and if it breaks down, all hell will be loosed. There is no way the Iraqi Army can cross the Blue Line. That is the 54-40 or Fight Marker for the Kurds. They will war if the Iraqi Army crosses that border.
Maliki is balking at the Sunni tribesmen, the Mahdi Army, wants the US out, and now wants to start some stuff with the Kurds. This could break up along all kinds of lines. Weird temporary alliances. Arab vs. Kurds. Shia Group 1 with Sunni Group 2 versus Shia Group 2 & Sunni Group 1.
The Kurds would likely turn to the Sunni if they fought the Shia except that they want to cleanse Kirkuk of the Sunni. So there could be a pan-Arab (Shia and Sunni) versus Kurd battle. I don't know, but it's going to get very ugly very quickly I'm worried.
[Added snark: Think Sarah Palin can explain this fight and what to do about it?]


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Can Anyone Fix Microsoft? Journal Asks Experts
The Wall Street Journal asked various tech and business leaders on how they would fix Microsoft. WSJ's Spencer Ante discusses on MoneyBeat. Photo: AP.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... ay ay ay mm mm ... Microsoft can use that longtime CEO Steve Palmer will be the midst of the year ... the Journal last eleven expert for tips on how they would turn around Microsoft's ... Spencer on pay joins us now ... I mean you talk about turning of my croissant traffic see Microsoft ... as goodwill are set to see this ... this is a profitable company ... saw a judge not the issue now into a profitable but yet the stock market is not value unit according to the province's generating is going to be some more of its ... what they believe its future ability to generate all that is in the Stock Market believes that ... it's it's doesn't have actually a bright future yet not all he still has a great idea a lovely ETS all these different you a lot of work that can be ... really up Bob Lutz in the area for their ideas of what they would do with Micra soft Gaffney ... didn't use our four themes of her ... actually I think one of the top teams is that Micra soft meat beam are entrepreneurial and that does this idea that it's become too bureaucratic into bloated ... patents protecting these old ... PC error franchises too much and it's not really ... willing to make these oddball decisions to serve ads to Friar Who's the former ... unfit Facebook Director Mall marker to cannibalize existing products to the field in the May to July mop ... issue of ... these companies ... all too often protect the old at that that ... and will be an Ofcom sacrificing the bill the Senate like ... to develop new products that people want to buy Apple is actually been willing to cannibalize itself ... yet ... I was in the Apple store in Grand Central Coast when the impressive ... although ... I thought ... was most and was engine was of didn't want long-term financing that correctly in on ... them I'd been through the Quanto weblog ask because yes I he's a little Sheahan enough to break into pieces the data presented pieces I thought that was interesting yet that ... that too often yet we know it's funny that was actually up proposed aam ... AMR a remedy those proposals during the Micra sauce antitrust trial ... when he boycotted figure out how to we are to retain this monopolist and able to forgive and to calm the baby bills right okay in it ... what's ironic is that balance proposes a way to ... um to control its power ... now it's actually be propose like fifteen years later when I've many years later as a way to actually a leash ... it's it's power ... and I think God ... they're they're something that made the summit of the uses I'd give the Micra soft is just too big to manage there is a trend in corporate America ... to break up these companies that think he speaks about ... to make another idea that came out another big theme is that ... whether the new leader Mike soft is ... usually more but technology clock person attacked ... Steve O'Mara is itself a marketing ... comes from sales marketing and run ... and what happens is when you get these periods when companies need to really shift to a new technology generation ... the ... there's a sense that they need people who actually are technologists to lead the charge because you need someone who understands ... not only within this to say the words going in and sells a marketing person may not be Obel the figure that out Apple is used in the interview Bob Lutz ... longtime CEO ... on Nov guru in OPTI guy yet and ... it's it's because he's not at ... the tech guys in on it either he said the same thing ... yes it is because what I mean Carter is in old cars or products you know it's like there they're actually very technologically driven these as a spineless ... so I think he brings the inside that ... you do indeed come ... up with the card I ... to Brierley the car company not like to sell some arcane or finance person to speak so not ... a good one other thing that's Winston is that ... hard decisions that need to be made like some people in the break of decision for some people think the new strategy of the company actually doesn't make sense Brett Taylor ... the former CTO Facebook said ... this new devices and services strategy is fundamentally flawed because ... the edge of the device strategy it's all about like making money on the hardware ... right where services is like you want to spread the software across multiple devices ... thirty seven new steel my clubhouse of Tikrit a critical look at that I think those are very sharp point is its ... hi to him talk about this ... I know Bill Alomar yet know you probably for years to win in the new person right yet I that's right they think you're a much


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Officials believe a fire at a suburban Illinois home Friday night was sparked by fireworks.
Firefighters with the Orland Fire Protection District responded to the 11200 block of Poplar Creek Lane in Orland Park around 9 p.m. Friday, just minutes before the city's official Fourth of July fireworks display was set to begin, after neighbors spotted flames on the roof of a home in the area, according to Town of Cicero spokesman Ray Hanania.
Officials said the flames were confined to an attached garage with a cedar-covered roof.
U.S. & World
The cause of the fire was determined to be fireworks used by someone in the area and the Orland Park Police Department was questioning one person in connection with the incident as of Saturday morning, officials said.
"People watch as fireworks shoot up into the sky, and when done professionally, it is fun. But when it is done individually, the individuals forget that's sometimes the fireworks can come back down and cause damage to property," said OFPD Chief Ken Brucki. "Fortunately, this home fire, which we believe was caused by the use of fireworks, did not result in any injuries but it did cause what could have been a major fire that would have changed the lives of the people living in the home."
Brucki said several other fires caused by fireworks were reported in the area but were considered "outdoor situations."
Police were on alert for fireworks Friday and Brucki said they will continue to be on alert through the holiday weekend.
"This is another reason why we constantly urge the public to leave the fireworks to the professionals," said OFPD Board President Jim Hickey. "They look beautiful when they are fired into the sky at night but no one thinks about the consequences of when the fireworks come down on property. You need professionals there to manage the fireworks and professional firefighters on standby to respond to any injuries or fires."


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It's hard not to be a bit of a Luddite when it comes to car technologies that could take the driver's attention away from the road as people really seem distracted enough, but we'll give the Peugeot BB1 a fair shake.
At the heart of the conceptual vehicle's ability to connect to the World Wide Web is an iPhone dock built into the dashboard. It would then handle all the processing by way of an on-board computer so — we can only guess — to free the iPhone up to serve up that net goodness. From there, you'd be able to do everything you'd be able to on a computer, from the looks of it.
Obviously, there are times when this would be super useful, such as emailing someone in the event that you need assistance. On the other hand, the Internet provides endless distractions, which hopefully won't be available to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. Check out more of the BB1 in Dvice's photo gallery.
For more gadget news, check out DVICE.com.


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In director Werner Herzog's 1982 film "Fitzcarraldo," a European ne'er-do-well (portrayed by Klaus Kinski) dreams of becoming rubber mogul in Peru, and comes up with a bizarre solution for reaching a potentially lucrative, but previously inaccessible, parcel of rubber trees. Fitzcarraldo sails up a river as far as he can go in a giant paddlewheel steamship, and then somehow convinces a crew of natives to drag the 300-ton (272.2-metric-ton) craft up a steep mountainside with ropes and pulleys so that he can get to another nearby river and sail on to his destination. Somehow, they succeed [source: Canby].
In the end, fortune still eludes Fitzcarraldo, but something about his determination and sheer gall resonates with us. After all, if there's a single enduring trait that humans have demonstrated throughout the ages, it's the never-ending desire to move really big, heavy objects that can't move under their own power. We still marvel at how the ancient Egyptians managed to drag 2.5-ton (2.3-metric-ton) blocks of granite for miles and then lift them into place when they built the pyramids, all without modern machinery. (Scientists have determined that they used teams of oxen to pull the stones along a slipway lubricated with oil, and then eased them up ramps built of mud brick and coated with plaster [source: Science Daily].) And we can't help but be impressed at the ingenuity of a contractor named B.C. Miller, who in 1888 jacked up the three-story, 174-room Brighton Beach Hotel and built a small stretch of railroad beneath it, so he could move the structure 600 feet (188.8 meters) inland on flatbed cars to protect it from beach erosion [sources: Boston Evening Transcript, Brooklyn Public Library]. Today, we'll fill a stadium to watch a monster truck-pulling contest.
Here's the lowdown on 10 of the heaviest objects that humans have ever relocated.
A Meteorite
Ahnighito, also known as the Cape York Meteorite, is a scary-big, 4.5 billion-year-old piece of an asteroid that fell out of the sky and landed in Greenland about 10,000 years ago. Non-Greenlanders first heard about it in 1818, but it wasn't until 1894 that intrepid Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary actually located the meteorite. For some reason, he thought it would be a swell idea to take it back to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Before Peary could get the meteorite onto a ship, he had to get it to the coast, and that required the construction of Greenland's first and only railroad. It took three years to get all that done and transport the meteorite to its present location, where it sits on a special display stand whose supports are anchored into the bedrock beneath the museum [sources: Fabricius, American Museum of Natural History].
A Big Rig ... Towed By a Man
Trucks generally move under their own power, but if the engine won't start on your big rig, you might want to call Rev. Kevin Fast for help. The Canadian minister-strongman, who oversees a 120-member congregation at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Cobourg, Ont., has made a hobby out of pulling trucks with sheer brawn.
In 1996, he earned his first entry in the Guinness Book of World Records by towing a 17.6-ton (16-metric-ton) truck for 98.4 feet (30 meters). Six years after that, he improved the record by towing a 28.6-ton (26-metric ton) fire truck the same distance, and in 2008, moved the standard even higher, by dragging a truck weighing 63.1 tons (57.2 metric tons). As Fast once explained to a newspaper reporter, his motto is "Go big, or go home" [source: National Post]. In addition to his truck-towing records, Fast also set the record for aircraft by towing a 208-ton (188.7-metric-ton) plane in 2009 [source: Catel].
A Huge Boulder
The ancient Greeks had the myth of Sisyphus, whom the Gods punished by compelling him to drag a giant stone up a hillside, only to have it roll back to its origin so that he had to repeat the task for eternity. Fortunately, the crew charged with moving a 340-ton (308.4-metric-ton), 21.5-foot (6.6-meter)-high boulder 85 miles (136.8 kilometers) from a valley in Riverside County, Calif., to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art only had to do it once.
Using heavy machinery, they hoisted the boulder -- believed to be the biggest ever moved -- onto a 176-wheel transporter truck, which then drove at night over roads that were temporarily closed to traffic so that it wouldn't present a hazard to motorists. The vehicle inched along at a speed of 10 miles per hour (16 kilometers per hour), and it took a week-and-a-half to make the journey. The purpose of this grueling exercise was to provide artist Michael Heizer with raw material for his giant outdoor sculpture "Levitated Mass," which allows visitors to walk down a 456-foot-long (139-meter), 15-foot-deep (4.5-meter) concrete trough that runs underneath the boulder. Michael Govan, the museum's chief executive, boasted to the Los Angeles Times that "it's pretty clear that this is one of the largest monoliths that's ever been moved" [sources: DesignTaxi, Times Editors].
An 850-ton Engine
These days, it's tough even for the record books to keep up with stupendous moving feats, so the newest trend seems to be for folks who move big objects to toot their horns by posting videos on YouTube. One example of that is the Texas Department of Transportation, which in 2010 moved a 850-ton (771.1-metric-ton) Toshiba steam turbine engine from the Port of Houston to a power plant in Riesel, east of Waco.
In order to move the machine, officials had to put together a custom rig consisting of two truck cabs and a total of 520 tires. The unwieldy vehicle stretched the length of a football field but was just 39 feet (11.9 meters) wide. It hauled the massive engine about 250 miles (402 kilometers) on state roads and across 82 bridges at a speed of about 10 miles (16 kilometers) per day, according to a video posted on YouTube by the department, which claims that the turbine represents "the heaviest load that has ever been moved this distance in Texas" [source: TxDOTpio].
A Ship ... Hauled by a Man
Big ships generally move under their own power, or else are guided into harbors by tugboats. But some blokes like to do things the hard way. In 1999, a 34-year-old British strongman named Simon Ford grabbed a rope and pulled the HMS Lancaster, a 2,000-ton (1,814-metric ton) Royal Navy frigate, and its 157-man crew about 25 feet (7.6 meters) at the Devonport dockyard, in Plymouth. Ford, who was performing the feat for charity, collapsed afterward and had difficulty breathing, according to news reports [source: Independent].
A Rocket
Big space rockets are used to transport satellites and manned spaceships into orbit, but before they can do that, somebody has to wheel them into place on the launching pad. And as you might imagine, the immense Saturn V rocket that NASA used to send astronauts to the Moon in the late 1960s to mid-1970s was quite a load to move.
The Saturn V was 363 feet (110.6 meters) tall, which made it 60 feet (18.3 meters) bigger than the Statue of Liberty, and when fully loaded with fuel for liftoff, it tipped the scale at 3,100 tons (2,812 metric tons). That's roughly the weight of 400 elephants [source: NASA]. In order to move the behemoth, NASA had to develop a truck that was nearly as big as the rocket itself, the 2,750-ton, 131-foot-long (39.9-meter) crawler-transporter, which inched along on tanklike treads on a special 3.5-mile-long (5.6-kilometer) road whose surface was coated with Tennessee river rock to reduce the friction. It was designed to be powerful enough to move the equivalent of three Saturn Vs, though nobody has ever tried such a feat.
The two crawler-transporters -- the largest tracked vehicles ever built -- cost about $14 million in the 1960s, which would translate to about $100 million in today's dollars. But they proved so adept at moving the Saturn V that NASA also used them for the Space Shuttle, and is upgrading one of the two vehicles to handle the Space Launch System, the new booster rocket that NASA is developing for future manned missions [source: Major].
A Hotel
We're not exactly sure how much the Brighton Beach Hotel weighed when it was moved in 1888, but we'll go out on a limb and assume that San Jose's Hotel Montgomery, which was built in 1911, is a whole lot heavier. It's four stories tall -- a story higher than the one in Brighton Beach -- and featured a restaurant, a ballroom, and two dining rooms to go with its 142 rooms. It also was the first hotel in its area to be built with reinforced concrete to make it resistant to both fire and earthquakes.
While the original Montgomery was pretty grand in its day, over the decades it declined in elegance and fell into a state of disrepair. In 1989, after plans were made to build a fancy new hotel on its site, San Jose officials decided to relocate the historic structure instead of demolishing it. The Montgomery, which weighed an estimated 4,800 tons (4,354 metric tons), was jacked up so that specially-designed, remote-controlled, rubber-wheeled cars could be slid beneath it. Then the entire structure was moved 186 feet (56.6 meters) away to its present location. That might sound like an ordeal, but the $8.5 million cost of moving the hotel was a lot less than the cost of building a comparable structure. Another $4.5 million was spent to retrofit the Montgomery to make it even more resilient in the event of an earthquake [source: Joie de Vivre Hospitality].
An Evaporator
If you thought that turbine engine in Texas was big, get a load of this load, which also is the subject of a celebratory YouTube video. In January 2012, Al-Majdouie, which describes itself as a project logistics and supply chain company -- a fancy way of saying it moves stuff -- transported a giant device called an evaporator down a road to a water desalination plant being built in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, the company's press release doesn't detail the distance that the machinery traveled, but it does tell us that it was pretty darned huge -- the length of a football field and 4,891 tons (4,437 metric tons) in weight -- which makes it slightly bigger than the Hotel Montgomery.
To move the evaporator, Al-Majdouie used a tractor-trailer truck with 172 axles and 688 double-width tires. The company boasts that the cargo is the biggest ever moved by road in the Middle East, and that probably holds true for the world as well. And they're planning to move a bunch more of them in the near future [source: Almajdouie].
The Titanic
We'd feel remiss if we didn't find a way to fit in a reference to the Titanic, the massive floating luxury hotel that met with a tragic fate by colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912. While the contemporary ocean liner Oasis of the Seas dwarfs the Titanic in size, the Oasis -- like most other modern big ships -- was floated by filling up its dry dock with water, so that it could sail out under its own power. The Titanic, in contrast, was launched the old-fashioned way, by using gravity to slide it down into the water.
On the day of its initial launch in May 1911 from the Belfast shipyard where it was built, the Titanic became the biggest object ever moved by humans up until that time. The ship, which at the time was still being finished, weighed roughly 26,000 tons (23,587 metric tons). Workers used 22 tons (20 metric tons) of tallow and soap to create a 1-inch-thick (2.5-centimeter) layer of lubrication on the slipway, so that the Titanic's bulk could be eased down into the water. At a quarter after noon that day, a rocket was launched in celebration and the timbers holding back the ship were knocked free, and it slid down into the water. The cheering crowd didn't realize it, but the ill-fated ship's launching also caused the first of its many fatalities -- a worker named James Dobbins was struck by one of the timbers [source: Eaton].
A Natural Gas Drilling Platform
Until we start lassoing asteroids for their minerals, it's a safe bet that the record for the most unfathomably gigantic object ever moved by human beings will be held by the Troll A Platform. The Troll A, an offshore natural gas drilling platform off the west coast of Norway, weighs an astonishing 1.2 million tons (1.1 million metric tons) and stands 1,548 feet (471.8 meters) tall, which makes it both the heaviest and the tallest thing that people have transported from one spot to another [sources: Statoil].
Getting the platform to its location 174 miles (280 kilometers) from the Norwegian coast required the services of 10 tugboats -- eight spread out in front pulling the platform, and another two behind it to steer. The unwieldy armada was able to travel at just one knot per hour, so that it took seven days and six hours to get to the destination. Once there, the tugs moved into a star formation around the platform to support it as it was ballasted to stabilize it, and piles were driven 118 feet (36 meters) into the sea bed to hold the platform in place [source: Potter].
London Bridge Has Never Fallen Down, But It Keeps Getting Rebuilt
Despite what the nursery rhyme says, London Bridge is not falling down and never has. But the bridge spanning the Thames has been rebuilt over and over.
Author's Note: 10 Heaviest Objects Mankind Has Ever Moved
I'm fascinated with moving heavy objects, in part because when I was a child, my father actually bought an apartment house that was about to be torn down and moved it to a lot a few yards away that he owned. As I remember, he got a pretty good deal on the building itself, and jacking it up, tearing down the foundation and rolling it up the hill to its new location was a fairly simple process. What turned out to be difficult were the local zoning and building inspection bureaucrats, who kept the project stalled for a couple of years, until they finally relented and allowed my father to build a foundation under the building. Apparently, the idea of moving a building was strange and scary to them, and they figured it would come sliding down the hill. We owned the apartment house for a number of years before he sold it to a friend. As far as I know, the building is still in the spot where my dad moved it.
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- Al Majdouie. "Almajdouie Moves World's Largest Evaporator." Almajdouie.com. Jan. 8, 2012. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.almajdouie.com/en/mediacenter/news/12-01-08/Almajdouie_Moves_World%E2%80%99s_Largest_Evaporator.aspx
- Boston Evening Transcript. "A Gigantic Work." Boston Evening Transcript. April 4, 1888. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1Jk-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=S1oMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6028,250706&dq=biggest+building+ever+moved&hl=en
- Brooklyn Public Library. "Brighton Beach." Brooklypubliclibrary.org. (Sept. 25, 2012)
- Canby, Vincent. "Herzog's 'Fitzcarraldo,' a Spectacle." The New York Times. Oct. 10, 1982. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/ourbrooklyn/brightonbeach/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B01EFDB143BF933A25753C1A964948260
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- Clarkson, Andrew. "Titanic's Launch." Titanic-Titanic.com. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.titanic-titanic.com/titanic_launch.shtml
- Eaton, John P. and Charles A. Haas. "Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy." W.W. Norton. 1995. (Sept. 28, 2012) http://books.google.com/books?id=uia8zRfX1koC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=launching+of+the+titanic&source=bl&ots=26od8kMtT3&sig=Eq6nFGTcskJfbpfcbPNpsQWuSno&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Rq5lUIuxD4XOqAHxnIGgDQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=launching%20of%20the%20titanic&f=false
- Design Taxi. "Is This The Heaviest Object Ever Transported In Modern Times?" Designtaxi.com. Aug. 10, 2012. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://designtaxi.com/news/353277/Is-This-The-Heaviest-Object-Ever-Transported-In-Modern-Times/
- Fabricius, Karl. "7 Most Massive Single Meteorites on Earth." Environmentalgraffiti.com. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/most-massive-single-meteorites-earth/17225
- Independent. "Strongman Sunk by Navy Frigate." Independent.co.uk. Feb. 19, 1999. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/strongman-sunk-by-navy-frigate-1071701.html
- Joie de Vivre Hospitality. "Joie de Vivre Hospitality Opens the Restored Montgomery Hotel in Downtown San Jose 93 Years After Original Opening." Hospitality.net. July 13, 2004. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4020010.html
- Major, Jason. "NASA's Colossal Crawler Gets Souped-Up for SLS." Universe Today. Sept. 6, 2012. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.universetoday.com/97229/nasas-colossal-crawler-gets-souped-up-for-sls/
- NASA. "What Was the Saturn V?" Nasa.gov. Sept. 17, 2010. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/what-was-the-saturn-v-58.html
- National Post. "Reverend's quiet manner belies his record-beating feats of strength." Canada.com. Oct. 5, 2009. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=e36f44d0-1d45-4f96-84e8-ffb776772fb5
- Potter, Nell. "Troll and Heidrun: End of an era or forerunners of a modern world?" Offshore. August 1995. (Sept. 26, 2012) http://w3.nexis.com/new/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T15616367766&format=GNBFI&sort=BOOLEAN&startDocNo=326&resultsUrlKey=29_T15616367770&cisb=22_T15616367769&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8035&docNo=332
- Royal Caribbean Oasis. "Oasis of the Seas: Float Out." YouTube. May 26, 2009. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU3-G4SOqcw
- Statoil. "The Ultimate Move." Goodideas.statoil.com. (Sept. 26, 2012) http://goodideas.statoil.com/gas-machine#/big-move
- Times Editors. "Giant Rock Arrives at LACMA." Los Angeles Times. Feb. 29, 2012. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://framework.latimes.com/2012/02/29/lacma-rock/#/0
- TxDOTpio. "TxDOT's Heaviest Load." YouTube. Feb. 23, 2010. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4pn4a4a2lA
- ScienceDaily. "How Were The Egyptian Pyramids Built?" March 29, 2008. (Sept. 25, 2012) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328104302.htm


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11:12:30 am, by Tom, 2088 words, 16250 views
Categories: Information
Albert Sabin and the monkeys who gave summer back to the children.
Albert Sabin has been called "the doctor who gave summer back to the children."*
Because of his decades of research to develop the oral polio vaccine, children today know nothing of the fear that polio brought to the United States every summer well into the 20th century. Swimming pools and movie theaters were closed and children were kept inside their homes by frightened parents. Worldwide, the disease killed millions of people and left legions of others permanently disabled.
We've just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of Dr. Sabin's vaccine. Estimates suggest that in just its first two years of worldwide use, the vaccine prevented nearly 500,000 deaths and five million cases of polio. Today, the world is on the brink of realizing Dr. Sabin's lifetime dream: the eradication of polio from the planet.
The development of the oral polio vaccine required years of extensive research with rabbits, monkeys and rodents.
Animal rights activists long ago seized on a single phrase by Dr. Albert Sabin, and have been using it ever since to try to support their outrageous claim that the developer of the oral polio vaccine(OPV) opposed the use of animals in research.
That phrase, "The work on prevention (of polio) was long delayed by an erroneous conception of the nature of the human disease based on misleading experimental models of disease in monkeys" spoken by Dr. Sabin during a congressional hearing in 1984, has been used in animal rights publications and comments for over two decades.
Dr. Sabin, a member of the Board of Directors of the pro-research Americans for Medical Progress until his death in 1993, spent years working to correct the record. Here is a letter he wrote to the editor of the Winston Salem Journal, published in 1992.
It is true that in the early years of polio research some lines of inquiry eventually proved unsuccessful. An overreliance on a strain of the virus known as the MV strain that had become adapted to survive only in nervous tissue, and the fact that the Rhesus macaque, while a good model for many aspects of polio, cannot be infected through ingestion via the mouth, led to the incorrect assumption that polio could only infect nerve cells (despite evidence to the contrary from both clinical studies and laboratory studies with other polio strains and monkey species). These mistakes were unfortunate, though understandable given the fact that virology as a science was in its infancy.
However, these failed attempts do not cancel out the fact that animal research, and research using monkeys in particular, was absolutely crucial to the development of vaccines for polio. Without it the polio vaccine would certainly not have been developed by the end of the 1950's, and we might even still be waiting for it.
These vital contributions made by animal research to the development of polio vaccines were not limited to the work of Albert Sabin, and include:
(i) The discovery by Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper in 1908 that polio was caused by a virus, a discovery made by inoculating macaque monkeys with an extract of nervous tissue from polio victims that was shown to be free of other infectious agents.
(ii) The subsequent discovery by Simon Flexner that blood serum from infected macaque monkeys could protect against polio infection.
(iii) The discovery by Carl Kling and colleagues in 1911, following an earlier discovery that polio virus could be isolated from the lymph nodes of the small intestine of monkeys, that polio virus was present in the throat and intestinal tissues of people who dies from polio. Soon afterwards they isolated virus from the intestines of patients suffering from acute polio, and importantly from family members who did not display the symptoms of polio, establishing that healthy carriers played an important role in spreading the disease. In these studies the presence of polio was demonstrated by injecting filtered fluid from the patients into monkeys, the only method then available to confirm the presence of polio (Introduction to Epidemiology, fifth edition, by Ray M, Merill, Jones and Bartlett Learning).
(iv) The discovery in the early 1930's by the Australian scientists Macfarlane Burnet and Jean Macnamara that antibodies against one strain of polio did not always protect macaque monkeys against infection with another strain.
(v) The discovery by John Enders, Thomas Weller and Frederick Robbins that the polio virus could be grown in a number of tissue types, not just nerve tissue as previously assumed, a discovery that required the use of mice and monkeys to prove that the cultured virus was indeed polio and still capable of causing paralysis.
(vi) The determination in 1949 by David Bodian and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University that there were three major families of polio virus, referred to as types 1, 2, and 3, and that a separate vaccine would be necessary for each to give broad protection against polio.
(vii) The confirmation by David Bodian and colleagues in the late 1940's and early 1950's that the polio virus entered the body through the mouth, and then needed to pass into the blood stream before it could infect nervous tissue, and that if you could block the infection in the blood you could prevent the virus from entering nerve tissue and causing paralysis. The work of Enders and Bodian paved the way for the development of vaccines by Salk and Sabin.
(viii) The evaluation by Jonas Salk and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh of vaccine candidates produced by inactivating the virus with formalin under a range of conditions, until a vaccine was identified that was effective and safe enough for human trials.
(ix) The evaluation by Albert Sabin of hundreds of polio virus strains in hundreds of monkeys and scores of chimps before identifying attenuated strains that were capable of efficiently entering the body through the digestive system and provoking an adequate immune response to protect against the different pathogenic strains of polio while not causing the disease themselves.
Animal rights activists are free to express their opposition to the use of animals in research, but they cannot do so by blatantly robbing society of scientific achievements. This one fact is clear -- if our critics had their way, today millions of children would be dead or disabled from polio and other infectious diseases.
* Of course Jonas Salk is equally, if not even more, deserving of this accolade.
05:54:36 pm, by Tom, 1011 words, 8334 views
Categories: Information
Animal studies point to clinical trial of hypothermia for stroke victims
On Monday Dr Malcolm Macleod, head of experimental neuroscience at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, joined scientists from the European Stroke Research Network for Hypothermia (EuroHYP) in urging European governments to fund a trial of moderate hypothermia for the treatment of ischemic stroke victims. In ischemic stroke the blood supply to part of the brain is blocked, leading to the death of nerve cells in the affected area, which can result in death or long-term disability. In an interview with the BBC Dr Macleod was reported as saying that:
This call does not come as a great surprise for me; when I was researching the role of animal research in the development of brain cooling to treat perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HEI), a condition where a lack of oxygen and reduced blood supply during or shortly after birth causes brain damage, I found that all the papers I read cited animal studies of hypothermia to prevent damage in ischemic stroke. This is not surprising as in both conditions injury results from impaired blood supply.
IMAGE: CT image of an ischemic stroke. The dark area in top left quadrant of brain shows the damaged brain area. Welcome Images.
The publications page of the EuroHYP website lists the most important publications supporting their decision to initiate large-scale clinical trials of hypothermia in stroke. Among them is a 2010 review by Bart van der Worp, Malcolm MacLeod and Rainer Kollmar entitled "Therapeutic hypothermia for acute ischemic stroke: ready to start large randomized trials?" which highlights the importance of studies in animal models of stroke in demonstrating the potential of hypothermia in stroke, and states:
Among the papers cited by this review is a systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2007 by a group of neurologists led by Dr Mcleod and Dr van der Worp which made a very thorough examination of over one hundred studies of different hyporhermia techniques in a range of animal models of ischemic stroke. This study is clear about the limitations of the studies, and identifies several areas where further animal studies are warranted, such as the longer term effect of hypothermia on the risk of developing pneumonia. Overall the authors conclude that:
This is important, as anyone familiar with stroke research will recognize Dr Macleod and Dr van der Worp as fierce critics of inadequate design and reporting of some preclinical animal studies, and of mistakes made when designing clinical trials due to the misinterpretation and misapplication of the results of animal studies. Quite often they found that the design of clinical trials was so different to the design of the preclinical study that it was impossible to tell whether the failure of a treatment in human patients actually contradicted the earlier success in an animal model, both outcomes were entirely plausible even if you assumed that there was absolutely no fundamental biological difference between the effects of stroke in the animal model and in human patients. For example, one problem is that the majority of neurprotective drugs evaluaded in the past few decades were shown to be effective in animal models of stroke only when administered very soon after induction of stroke - usually after less than half an hour - whereas in clinical trials there were usually long delays - four hours or more- before initiation of treatment. The fact that hypothermia has a neuroprotective effect in animal models up to three hours after stroke onset will make design of a clinical trial that matches the conditions under which treatment was successful easier, though as with all stroke treatment the earlier it is started the better!
It is notable that unlike animal rights campaigners who use deficiencies in some animal studies to call for a ban on it, Macleod and van der Worp understand its continuing importance to medical progress, and have worked with animal researchers to improve both the design and reporting of the preclinical animal studies that underpin the decisions to initiate clinical trials. Initiatives such as the ARRIVE guidelines are similar in many ways to recent improvements the design of clinical trials supported by the work of the Cochrane collaboration, and the widespread adoption of standards for the reporting of clinical trials.
So the animal evidence supporting the clinical initiation of trials of hypothermia for ischemic stroke had to satisfy a very strict panel of judges, we hope that funding is provided to initiate these important trials in the very near future.
Finally, and completely off topic, there was an interesting item in Nature news on the use of RNAi to attack block viral replication in a mouse model of HIV infection. It's an interesting application of an exciting new technology that I have discussed several times on the Speaking of Research blog, indeed back in 2008 I covered the work of another group who are using a mouse model of HIV to aid development of RNAi based therapies for HIV infection. It is fascinating work, though as the Nature article stresses the technique needs to be refined, re-evaluated and improved a lot in animal models before it can be tried out in clinical trials of HIV patients. I expect that Drs Macleod and van der Worp would agree with that sentiment.
Paul Browne
11:26:30 am, by Tom, 993 words, 10122 views
Categories: Information
From the bench and the bedside; how animal research is taming Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system – the brain and spinal cord - affecting about one person in every thousand in the USA. It is an inflammatory condition, where the immune system attacks the myelin sheath that surrounds the axons of nerve cells. Myelin is a fatty material that insulates nerves, acting much like the covering of an electric wire and allowing the nerve to transmit its impulses rapidly. It is the speed and efficiency with which these impulses are conducted that permits smooth, rapid and co-ordinated movements to be performed with little conscious effort. Loss of myelin interrupts these impulses, and the nerve cells themselves are also damaged and eventually die.
The consequences for people with MS can be devastating, and MS is associated with a wide variety of symptoms, including muscle weakness, spasms, ataxia, problems with speech and vision, acute and chronic pain, and fatigue. MS is a very variable disorder, and the rate at which it progresses varies considerably from one patient to another, but a defining characteristic of it is the lesions that are visible by MRI where the myelin has come under attack. The relapses, attacks of worsening neurological function that are often found in MS, are closely associated appearance of new lesions in the CNS, although not all new lesions cause a relapse.
Until about 20 years ago there were no treatments available that could prevent relapses or slow the progression of MS – known as disease modifying treatments - but thanks to the efforts of scientists working around the word this situation has begun to change. A number of effective disease modifying treatments are now available, the most recent to receive FDA approval is Fingolimod (known as FTY720 during its development), a drug whose immunosuppressant properties in reducing transplant rejection and as a treatment for MS were evaluated in a range of animal models during its development.
These drugs may soon be joined by another. A couple of years ago I wrote about the crucial role of studies in mice, rats, and dogs in the development of a new disease modifying treatment called Laquinimod, and last week the manufacturers of laquinimod announced that it had performed well in a phase III clinical trial, safely reducing the number of relapses and slowing progression of disability. This is excellent news, and one more step towards turning MS form being an incurable disease to being a manageable disease.
One reason I say manageable rather than curable is that while these treatments are effective in reducing the number of relapses for many patients they do not work for all patients and all forms of MS (particularly for primary progressive MS), and can sometimes have serious side effects that prevent patients from continuing treatment. That is why scientists are continuing to study the biological mechanisms in MS, a disease whose origin is still not fully understood, though clinical and animal research indicates that both genetic and environmental factors play a role, their ultimate goal is to develop treatments that can stop relapses altogether.
Another reason for not referring to disease modifying treatments as "cures" is that they do not directly repair the damaged myelin sheath at the lesions. Spontaneous repair of the damaged myelin sheath in MS lesions does happen and plays an important role in limiting neurological damage, but until now the molecular basis of myelin regeneration by cells called oligodentrocytes, in the central nervous system (CNS) has been poorly understood. The Guardian reports on how scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered how to promote remyelination in MS lesions by activating a population of stem cells in the CNS called oligodentrocyte precursor cells (1).
The team led by Professor Robin Franklin generated a comprehensive transcriptional profile of 22,000 genes during the separate stages of spontaneous remyelination that follow focal toxin-induced demyelination in the rat CNS, and found that the level of retinoid acid receptor RXR-gamma expression was increased during remyelination. Cells of the oligodendrocyte lineage expressed RXR-gamma in rat tissues that were undergoing remyelination, in both active lesions and in older remyelinated lesions. By examining post-mortem brain samples from MS patients, they were able to show that RXR-gamma expression was also elevated in oligodendrocyte precursor cells at the active lesion sites, supporting a general role for RXR-gamma in remyelination. Interesting as these findings were they did not demonstrate that RXR-gamma is actually required for remyelination, so they next performed studies to determine whether blocking the function of RXR-gamma would prevent remyelination.
Knockdown of RXR-gamma by RNA interference or RXR-specific antagonists severely inhibited the differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells into mature oligodendrocytes in culture. In mice that lacked RXR-gamma, adult oligodendrocyte precursor cells efficiently repopulated lesions after demyelination, but showed delayed differentiation into mature oligodendrocytes. The next question was whether increasing the activity of RXR-gamma would speed up remyelination. Administration of the RXR agonist 9-cis-retinoic acid to demyelinated mouse cerebellar slice cultures and then to aged rats in vivo after focal demyelination caused an increase in remyelinated axons. Focal toxin-induced demyelination was used to produce the lesions, rather than an immunity mediated model of demyelination such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, in order to determine that the increased remyelination was due to promotion of oligodendrocyte differentiation rather than to the anti-inflammatory effects of 9-cis retinoic acid.
The results indicate that RXR-gamma plays an important role in endogenous oligodendrocyte precursor cell differentiation and remyelination, and might be a pharmacological target for regenerative therapy in MS. The discovery that 9-cis-retinoic acid, a compound already in limited clinical use, can be used to stimulate myelin regeneration raises the possibility that within the next decade treatments that repair the neurological damage in MS will begin to enter clinical trials.
For people with MS these scientific and clinical advances are a great source of hope for a better future.
Paul Browne
1) Huang J.K. et al. "Retinoid X receptor gamma signalling accelerates CNS remyelination" Nature Neuroscience Published Online 05 December 2010 DOI: 10.1038/nn.2702
12:40:27 pm, by Tom, 321 words, 3110 views
Categories: Information
Bob Edwards wins 2010 Nobel Prize for developing IVF: Thank the mice, rabbits, hamsters...
Professor Robert G. Edwards of the University of Cambridge has long been recognized as one of the pioneers of reproductive medicine. His most famous accomplishment, along with surgeon Patrick Steptoe*, came in 1978 with the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first baby born through in-vitro fertilization. This achievement has now been recognized by the Nobel Assembly who awarded him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010 for "the development of in vitro fertilization".
As Dario discussed in an article for the Speaking of Research blog a few months ago the development of IVF by Bob Edwards depended on basic and applied research undertaken in rabbits and hamsters by pioneers including Gregory Pincus and Min Chueh Chang, who identified the essential conditions required for IVF.
In advanced information accompanying today's announcement the Nobel Assembly notes the importance of this research in laying the foundations for the development of human IVF by Bob Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, and also discusses how Bob Edwards' own extensive research on the reproductive biology of mice - and animal research he and his colleagues conducted in a variety of species while working on IVF - aided progress. In particular the Nobel Assembly highlights how his experience with mice in enabled Bob Edwards to solve a critical problem that was preventing successful IVF, by developing a way to harvest human egg cells at the optimal stage of their maturation prior to in vitro fertilization.
Without the decades of careful animal research undertaken by Bob Edwards, Gregory Pincus, Min Chueh Chang, and scores of their colleagues it is unlikely that IVF would ever have become a reality.
We heartily congratulate Professor Edwards on his Nobel Prize, an award that recognizes his outstanding contribution to a medical advance that has brought joy to hundreds of thousands of families around the world.
* Sadly Patrick Steptoe died in 1988 and therefore could not share the Nobel Prize with Robert Edwards.
Paul Browne
11:39:12 am, by Tom, 479 words, 4045 views
Categories: Information
Lasker awards highlight the contribution of animal research to medical progress
Each September the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation recognizes the contribution made by scientists and doctors to medicine by awarding prizes to those who have made outstanding contributions to our understanding of disease, and to its treatment and prevention. The list of past recipients of these awards reads as a veritable who's who of the greatest minds in medical research over the past 65 years, so it's not surprising that the Lasker prizes are often called the "American Nobels", indeed many Lasker prize winners have gone on to pay a visit to Stockholm not long afterwards.
As one might expect the Lasker prizes have often been awarded for discoveries and medical advances that relied on animal research, and this year is no exception.
The Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award went to Douglas Coleman and Jeffrey M. Friedman for their work on the hormone leptin, work that has led to a revolution in our understanding of the regulation of appetite and metabolism. The story of leptin is the story of how decades of careful research in mice led to an important discovery that is now helping to improve the lives of patients with rare genetic disorders, and more recently to help patients whose own leptin levels are too low as a result of HIV-related loss of fat tissue.
Napoleone Ferrara won the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his discovery of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and its role in regulating the growth of blood vessels. The description of Dr. Ferrara's research on the Lasker website shows how Dr. Ferrara identified VEGF through research on cattle, and how his subsequent research using mice and rats ultimately resulted in the development of effective monoclonal antibody treatments for wet age related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
The third prize, the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science, was awarded to Sir David Weatherall, a pioneer in the field of human genetics who has made invaluable contributions to our understanding of inherited blood disorders including α-or β-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. His research laid the foundations for successful programs to reduce the incidence of these disorders, and of course to the development of treatments, some of which we discussed here just last week. Sir David may not have performed any animal research in his own career, but he recently chaired the committee which wrote an influential report on the role of primates in medical research. The report concluded that primate research has made an important contribution to medical progress, and is still needed in several important areas of medical research including neuroscience and vaccine development.
The message from this year's Lasker prizes is clear; for medicine to continue to advance many different approaches to research must be applied, and among the many techniques that are necessary to progress animal research has an honored place.
Paul Browne
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Survey finds teens know and care about online privacy
Contrary to popular mythology, a survey from the Pew Research Center and Harvard's Berkman Center found that "American teenagers ages 12 to 17 care about their privacy."
The study, Where Teens Seek Online Privacy Advice, involved a representative sample of 802 teens and 802 parents of teens as well as focus groups involving 156 teens.
About control
Even though young people do tend to share a lot online, "they also take steps to manage what can be seen and who can access it," according to the report. In other words, it's about control.
The study also found that 70% of teens have reached out for advice on how to manage their online privacy and, perhaps to the surprise of some adults, parents and peers are about equal when it comes to who they're likely to reach out to for help.
- 42% have asked a friend or peer for advice on managing their privacy online
- 41% have asked a parent
- 37% have asked a sibling or cousin
- 13% have gone to a website for advice1
- 9% have asked a teacher
- 3% have gone to some other person or resource
Yet, in focus groups, the researchers found that many teens "draw on their own wits, observations and knowledge to manage their privacy online and on social media." They figure out the settings on their own by looking through menus and settings on social networking services and apps.
Private Facebook profiles
Most teens not only know how to use Facebook privacy settings, but configure their profiles as either fully or partially private. Of those who have sought out advice on privacy, 61% post to friends only while 24% are "partially private." And even those who don't get privacy advice from others are mostly careful about what they share with the world with 56% sharing to friends only and 24% partially private.
Differences by age and gender
As one might hope and expect, younger teens (12-13) are more likely to seek privacy advice than older teens but the difference isn't dramatic with 77% of young teens having sought advice vs. 67% of older teens. And, again as you might expect, younger teens are more likely to seek advice from parents (58% vs. 33%) compared to older teens. Girls (77%) are slightly more likely to ask for advice than boys (66%).
The study's focus groups f0und that teens indicate a "high level of self-reliance" when it comes to managing their privacy settings. One 13 year old boy said "The [privacy settings] are straightforward. And I think they [Facebook] change them a lot. And they sort of reset or something. So you just have to constantly, you know, update them." As the co-author of A Parents Guide to Facebook, which we've revised several times over the last few years, I can testify that he is absolutely correct (and yes, our guide is a bit out of date)
And, whether it's true or not, some teens seem to feel that parents and teachers are a bit clueless when it comes to technology and the Internet. "Parents, they don't know how computers work, said one 16 year-old. " My dad does, but he doesn't know how the Internet works…. And teachers, not really. I remember in my old school… We'd had a couple classes about Internet safety, but that was about it. I haven't asked teachers specific questions about it."
What this all means
To me, the survey is partially reassuring because it shows that teens do perceive themselves to be in control when it comes to their own privacy. They feel that they understand how to set privacy controls and they have a sense that they know how to manage who gets access to their information.
Having said that, I think it's important to point out that there are aspects to privacy that teens may not be fully aware of that weren't addressed in this survey including third party tracking cookies and the role of advertising networks as well as how apps and social networks are collecting data from users including (in some cases) location data as well as friends and contacts.
Of course that's probably true of adults as well.
Disclosure: ConnectSafely.org receives financial support from Facebook and other Internet companies.


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On Sunday, June 27th, from 2-5pm, Sorauren Park will come alive with song, dance, stories and more.
Brought to you by the totsquad (and lots of volunteer moms and dads), totstock is a vibrant, noisy, whimsical celebration of family and community.
There will be live music, children's games and activities, story-telling & puppet shows, great food & a rollicking good time all in support of the Wabash Building Society in particular & the common good in general.
Anouk's Ark will be participating at this 2nd annual Totstock…a kid-friendly Woodstock inspired event.
For more information please click THIS LINK to learn all about it!


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MMAH Provincial Policy Statement Review on land use planning - OHRC submission
November 23, 2012 - The Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) is proposing amendments to the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) 2005 on land use planning issued under the Planning Act (Act). The Act requires the PPS be reviewed every five years. The Ministry began the review in March 2010. The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) is pleased to see proposed amendments that address some of the concerns and recommendations from its initial submission made in 2010 as well as other amendments that would further advance protection for human rights. The OHRC especially welcomes proposed additions that would recognize the interests of Aboriginal communities.


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[First published May 1, 2005] I have put on my commentary page a much longer version of this article. A full version (minus the last two paragraphs) is also published at Catallarchy.net as a May Day Remembrance (turn off your block pop-ups option). What follows are its major points and statistics.
The bubonic plague that in 1347-1353 depopulated Europe has horrified historians and surely all those who have read about it. Death. Death everywhere. Cities and towns devastated. Whole families of several generations gone. About 25,000,000 people perished, at least.
Yet, we have had a different kind of plague in the last century, one over four times more deadly, and historians shy away from writing about it. Indeed, most contemporaries did not even know it was occurring, for the media and politicians that were not effected by it, tended to ignore it. It was a Red Plague. A plague of democide by communist governments.
The table below lists all communist governments that have committed any form of democide and gives their estimated low, mid-estimate (what I call the prudent estimate), and estimated high. It also shows the total for communist guerrillas, including quasi-governments, as of the Mao soviets in China prior to the communist victory in 1949.
As you can see, the total mid-estimate is about 110,286,000, an incredible total. It is around 65 percent of all democide over the same period, and is about three times greater than all the international and domestic war deaths, including the two world wars, Vietnam, Korea, and the Iran-Iraq War, to mention the bloodiest. This is the Red Plague driven by ideological fervor. The Black Plague, only carried by fleas from rats and not by ideology, killed a quarter of the number the communists murdered.
There is much to dwell on in the table, if your stomach is up to it, and I will only note the most incredible estimates. The Soviet Union appears the greatest megamurderer of all time, apparently killing near 61,000,000 people. Stalin himself is responsible for almost 43,000,000 of these (I know you've read the toll as 20,000,000, but it was only for the 1930s and has been mistaken applied to Stalins full and bloody reign 1928-1953). Most of the Soviet deaths, perhaps around 39,000,000 are due to lethal forced labor in gulag and transit thereto.
Communist China up to 1987, but mainly from 1949 through the Cultural Revolution, which alone may have seen over 1,000,000 murdered, is the second worst megamurderer (I excluded the great famine of 1959 to about 1961 as nondemocidal – it alone cost about 27,000,000 lives). Then there are the lesser megamurderers, such as North Korea and Tito's Yugoslavia.
Obviously, the population that is available to kill will make a big difference in the total democide, and thus the annual percentage rate of democide is revealing. By far, the most deadly of all communist countries and, indeed, in this century by far, has been Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot and his henchmen likely killed some 2,000,000 Cambodians from April 1975 through December 1978 out of a population of around 7,000,000. This is an annual rate of over 8 percent of the population murdered, or odds of an average Cambodian surviving Pol Pot's rule of slightly over 2 to 1.
Communism has been the greatest social engineering experiment of all time. It failed utterly and in doing so it probably killed the number of men, women, and children, totaled in Table 1, not to mention the near 30,000,000 of its subjects that died in its often aggressive wars and the rebellions it provoked. But there is a larger lesson to be learned from this horrendous sacrifice to one ideology. That is that no one can be trusted with power. The more power the center has to impose the beliefs of an ideological or religious elite or impose the whims of a dictator, the more likely human lives are to be sacrificed. This is but one reason, but perhaps the most important one, for fostering democratic freedom and assuring a democratic peace.
Oh, yes, our academic and intellectual Marxists today are getting a free ride. They get a certain respect because of their words about improving the lot of the worker and the poor, their utopian pretensions. But when empowered, Marxism has failed utterly, as has fascism. Instead of with respect and tolerance, Marxists should be treated as though they wished a return of the Red Plague, which they do, passionately, blindly, innocently, or not, it would make no difference to the hundreds of millions that would be killed.
The next time you come across or are lectured by one of our indigenous Marxists, or almost the equivalent, leftist zealots, ask them how he can justify the murder of over a hundred million their absolutist faith has brought about, and the misery created for many hundreds of millions more.


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James Hoefler-Xoomrooms Modular Wall System
At Design Interviews
Interview with James Hoefler : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. James Hoefler : The main principle is simple, that we all should be able to quickly, easily, and creatively reshape our living spaces to best suit our needs at the time. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. James Hoefler : Something simple to use, nice to look at, functional in practice, and reusable in a variety of different configurations, with the user creativity as the driving force. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. James Hoefler : There is still much to do in order to bring this product to a mass market audience. My work in the coming months will be finding the right way to do that. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. James Hoefler : I have been working on this idea for about two and a half years. .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. James Hoefler : I designed the product to help my daughters sublet a portion of their apartment. It is a common problem in large cities where individuals find rent to much to afford on one or two salaries. I wanted to give my daughters afford rent in a nice part of the city close to public transportation, and XoomRooms was able to do just that. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. James Hoefler : My hope is to see the intellectual property, or to license its use, or to partner with someone who has the skills, connections, drive, and capital to help me bring this idea to market. .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. James Hoefler : There are several features of the XoomRooms design that help make it work. First, it can be set up in an infinite variety of arrangements. Second, anyone can do it. Third, it is easy to take up, take down, and store when not in use. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. James Hoefler : I have to say I can not identify particular designers, but the design aesthetic in much of the product line at IKEA is pretty inspirational to me. I almost never go into and IKEA without being inspired about one thing or another. .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. James Hoefler : The typical IKEA customer is my target. Someone who likes the clean lines and the sensible design. The customer should also be someone who does not mind, and maybe even likes putting things together. .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. James Hoefler : The only things that vaguely resemble XoomRooms are portable trifold screens which are not at all sturdy or durable, and offer very little in the way of real privacy. At the other end of the spectrum are temporary pressurized walls, which are sturdy, but complicated and expensive to erect and illegal in may places. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. James Hoefler : I brainstormed with friends on literally dozens of different names, but XoomRooms struck a chord. The product is about rooms, and the XOOM, pronounced ZOOM, suggests speed, and captures the idea of quick setup and take down. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. James Hoefler : I mostly used prototypes. I love to draw, but I never put much stock in anything until I actually build a prototype. .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. James Hoefler : ANYONE can put this together and take it down. It is quite substantial and can completely change the character of someone's living space. But it costs very little to buy, and takes not special expertise to assemble. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. James Hoefler : I work mostly by myself, but took all the good feedback I go from a variety of places, including Don O'Hora at Northway Industries, very much to heart. .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. James Hoefler : XoomRooms is very low on the technology scale. It is mostly nuts and bolts, literally. .Frank Scott: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?. James Hoefler : Most opt the research I did was searching the internet and visiting trade shows. Attending Interzum in Cologne (as a guest of my good friends at Hafele America) in the spring of 2013 was really quite inspirational and key to helping me get to where I am today. .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. James Hoefler : There were no end of the challenges, but key was to make something that was sturdy and looked good, was easy to assemble, and could withstand may assembly disassembly cycles without failing. .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. James Hoefler : I was searching for ways to get my idea out there into the public realm so that it would be easier to sell and find partners. .Frank Scott: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?. James Hoefler : I learned patience and the importance of listening closely to and seeking our critical feedback. I also learned how important it is to prototype ones ideas. You do not really know anything about how things will work until you actually build it. .Frank Scott: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?. James Hoefler : I just wanted to acknowledge the help and support that I got from folks at Northway Industries (Middleburg, PA), Hafele American (Archdale, NC), Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA), and the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (Copenhagen, DK). Without out their help, advice, support, and encouragement, I would not be where I am today. .
James Hoefler-Xoomrooms Modular Wall System Images:
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