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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402203.html?hpid=sec-health

Scientists have taken laboratory chemicals and produced synthetic DNA. This DNA should be sufficient to allow a bacteria to live, and reproduce. Shortly, these same scientists will denucleate a bacterium and insert their synthetic DNA and in essence create the first artificial life form. It is akin to cleaning out a computer’s hard-drive and putting in a new operating system.

The molecules are minuscule, but the questions loom large. To a creationist: can the created become creators? To the atheist: in a universe without a creator, can there be creators? Paradoxically, the answer to both would appear to be yes.

I’ve always held that science and religion were approaching the same territory from opposite angles. Today’s finding would appear to suggest that we’re approaching their final destination: meaning.

artificial life · chemicals · dna · Health · html · http · laboratory chemicals · life · operating system · philosophy · Religion

Update: There will be a History Channel special on this: “Quest for the Lost Ark” on March 2, 2008 at 8pm.

I was reading a recent article in Time magazine and had to double check that I was reading an article in the “Health & Science” section instead of a book review of the most recent Dan Brown novel. The article can be found here:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1715337,00.html

Since this generation suffers from a mass case of ADD, let me use bullets to demonstrate how Tudor Parfitt, a professor at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, reveals the Ark to be a multipurpose carry-all for religious relics which doubles conveniently in times of war for a cannon. Yes, you read correctly.

• A Southern African tribe called the Lemba claimed to be a lost tribe of Israel. (They practice circumcision and call meetings using a rams’ horn.) No one believed them until it was discovered that the Lemba priestly cast had the same frequency of a specific marker to the Jewish priestly cast (cohens).
• The Lemba also claim to be custodians of the Ark of the Covenant. Based on the now verified first claim, Parfitt began to investigate this second claim.
• The Lemba call Ark the ngoma lungundu.
  • “The ngoma,according to the Lemba, was near-divine, used to store ritual objects, and borne on poles inserted into rings. It was too holy to touch the ground or to be touched by non-priests, and it emitted a ‘Fire of God’ that killed enemies and, occasionally, Lemba. A Lemba elder told Parfitt, ‘[It] came from the temple in Jerusalem. We carried it down here through Africa.’”
• His search led him to the ancient city of Senna where Parfitt believes the Lemba and their ancestors may have converged where he uncovered several clues as to where the Ark may be today.
• His search ended at the Harare Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe where he found a drum like object, with remnants of the carrying rings and crossed reeds indicative of biblical origins.
• Neither Parfitt nor the Lemba contend that this object is the original Ark of the Covenant. The object was carbon dated to 1350 ad, which is some time after Moses. However, the Lemba folklore holds that the original ngoma destroyed itself and was rebuilt upon its own ruins by the temple priests.
• Parfitt contends that the Ark was in fact a drum which was a repository of relics and a cannon!

Don’t believe it? It’s hard to believe I admit, however, it is interesting to note that the Ark of the Covenant is brought into many Israelite battles at the head of the attacking force. Now do you put your relics at the head of an attacking force, or do you put your greatest weapon?

Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.” [Josh.2:24]

Still can’t believe it? I admit, I’m having similar trouble. Worshipping a weapon? I keep conjuring up images of “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”:

Africa · ale · ark of the covenant · Arkansas · Beneath the Planet of the Apes · Case · cent · circumcision · Dan Brown · God · Harare Museum of Human Science · head · Health · History Channel · html · http · Israel · Jerusalem · king · lemba · London · lost ark · MIT · ngoma · ngoma lungundu · professor · quote · RAM · Red · School of Oriental and African Studies · senna · Tudor Parfitt · Zimbabwe

My hope is that I’ll be able to post several eulogies, videos and pictures here.  Please send me anything you’d like posted.

Pictures:

Video:
VIDEO: Grandma Glass, Passover 2001
VIDEO (alternate format): Grandma Glass, Passover 2001

Obituary:

Original link here:

http://classifieds.hamiltonspectator.com/HOLCSApp/do/attribute_view_ad?adID=5360066&categoryName=ANNOUNCEMENTS&classId=3080

GLASS, Ida A beautiful woman passed away on April 23, 2009, just shy of her 97th birthday. Her name was Ida A. Glass and she will be reunited with her husband Walter P. Glass. Wishing you guys a good time up there. Ida Glass (nee Marcus) was an incredible daughter, wife, mother of Bernard and Reesa, grandmother and great-grandmother, sister and friend. Everyone who was lucky enough to have known her will remember her as a treasure. Funeral: Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 2 p.m. United Hebrew Memorial Chapel, 28 Ewen Rd. Donations to Shalom Village, Hamilton.

Eulogies:

Eulogy: Martin C. Winer (Grandson)  Ida A. Glass (1912 – 2009)

Grandma Glass brimmed with a bright and glowing personality which rose to fill a room much like her cakes and pastries.  Grandma was known to others as:  Ida Adele Glass.  Grandma herself added Adele to her moniker as though two names could not contain her character.  She was right.  Grandma was always on the go with one project or hobby or what have you.  Grandma attended bridge games, outing clubs, wrote book reviews for the local library, did knitting and needle point, collected antiques and of course there was the constant cooking and baking.

When Grandma arrived in Toronto for a holiday celebration, a ten minute procession of circular cookie tins lined with wax paper ensued.  One by one bearers would ferry in stacks of tins laden with banana muffins topped with walnuts, hand made strawberry jam strudel, coconut macaroons, mandel broit, and my favourite, blueberry cake.  Only after some time had passed and the procession had ended did Grandma and Grandpa make it to the door where they provided my brother and I with an eagerly anticipated Hot Wheel car or Lego set.  Visits from Grandma were a cornucopia of sweet delicacies and toys.  “Could anyone be cooler than this?” thought the 8 year old boy I was at the time.

Trips in the opposite direction, Toronto to Hamilton, were equally ‘cool’.  Grandma’s apartment was one of the first apartments we knew of to have a pool.  When we arrived we were greeted by the usual cakes and pastries and Tuna casserole.  Now Grandma new I was a fussy eater, not given to eating fish, and always had a supply of applesauce and Jello on hand.  Cakes, cookies, jello, a pool and toys.  My parents had told me that Hamilton was a city famous for making steel.  Well I didn’t see any steel here, I saw heaven.

Grandma’s apartment was adorned with antiques and the walls plastered with her needle point work.  The knick knacks were ever changing.  As a child I imagined that Grandma had a warehouse of knick knacks which she constantly exchanged to keep the place looking fresh.  It didn’t take me too many more visits to realize that Grandma actually gave away all her knick knacks only to create more to replace them.  The cost of owning anything in Grandma’s house was mentioning you liked it.  Visitors to Grandma’s place always left laden with baked goods, Grandma’s craft items and antiques.

Grandma lit up when her grandchildren were in the room.  She relished stories of what we had done and what we were interested in doing.  Her faith in us inspired greatness – not wanting to disappoint such an avid fan.  Grandma bought me my first doctor’s play kit from the IGA we were visiting to foster my interest in medicine.  Later on she, along with my Grandfather and Uncle, got me my first Merck Manual – a doctor’s handbook.  My interest in Science eventually led me to Computer Science rather than Medical Science, but I’m sure she’d be equally supportive of my choice.

Towards the latter years, with her health starting to fail, we saw a distillation of Grandma’s character with the key components still shining through.  In one of her early stays in the hospital I remember noting that Grandma had gone to the trouble of putting on a broach and was still well put together.  Grandma was always prim and proper.  In the convalescent home, her love for reading persisted to the very end, even beyond her ability to speak.  One small event sticks with me in that it perfectly captures Grandma’s love for all of us.

In one of the last Passovers she attended in Toronto, at the end of the usual procession of cookie tins, Grandma needed to sit down; she wasn’t feeling well.  She asked me repeatedly to fetch some icing sugar to ice the cake with.  I remember wondering: “what difference did it make, it was only family anyways?”  But there was no such distinction for Grandma.  Her family was royalty.  So when I realized the importance to her, I sprinkled the cake with icing sugar and she looked relieved.  I remember thinking that love can be uniquely expressed by a bunt cake.  It was her display of caring and affection to all that shared in it.  It was a culinary work of art made lovingly just for us from the kitchen of Ida Adele Glass.

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Ida Adele Glass
Chayyalah bat Ya’acov v’Rivkah
April 26, 2009
Rabbi Jordan Cohen

There is some controversy around the Ayshet Hayyil nowadays, the passage from Proverb 31 which describes a woman of valour. In a post-feminist age, measuring the worth of a woman by how she satisfies the needs of her husband and children seems to be little anachronistic and ignores the essential essence of who a woman is as an individual. But for woman of a certain generation, these qualities of trustworthiness and integrity, of service to family and community, of dignity, kindness and strength, represent not only the most essential values of life, but ideals to be striven towards each and every day without exception. Ida Glass was, indeed, a woman of that generation, and, indeed, she represented all that our tradition revered in the Ayshet Hayyil .

Ida Marcus was born here in Hamilton in June 1912 to Jacob and Rebecca Marcus. She was the youngest of four daughters, all of whom pre-deceased her: Eva, Esther, and Millie, who passed away only recently. Throughout her life Ida maintained the qualities that would describe her right to the end of her days: she was a vibrant woman, endlessly optimistic and positive. She was elegant, with fine taste. She was an exceptional hostess, knowing all about protocol, and eager to mentor younger women to be hostesses as well. She was fiercely loyal to her family, beginning with her parents and sisters and continuing all the way to her great-grandchildren. Family was family, and that was all that mattered. She was regarded as a highly gifted woman. Although her education extended only to the end of high school, she always seemed to have solutions to problems that evaded even professionals. Many came to her for her wise counsel. This probably extended from her incredible passion for reading. She was always reading books, bringing home new books from the library and even start to write book reports, which she would share with her family, which were then published in the local library newsletter.

Ida worked for many years, in clothing and linens, and those she worked for quickly came to rely on her for natural talents at business and organization. But work and family were never enough, and Ida maintained a whirlwind of volunteer activity, taking leadership roles with the Temple Anshe Sholom and the Temple’s Devora Sisterhood, the National Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah. And, as if this was not enough, there were the social activities: bridge games, outing clubs, the Saturday nighters, knitting and needle point, collecting antiques and the seemingly never-ending time in the kitchen cooking and baking.

Ida was in her early 20s when she met her beloved Walter and the married when she was 23, in 1935. Soon Bernard and Reesa came along, and Ida had her own family, which she longed for. Bernard remembers their childhood as being ideal, which their mother always there for them, constantly caring and providing guidance and wisdom. Reesa recalls their home having what seemed like a revolving door. The house was always full of people, the coffee pot always on and the delicious homemade goodies that were always available to go with the coffee. No matter how busy, Ida always had time for family and friends. Always available, always the consummate hostess, always willing to help. She was always doing something, hardly ever resting, and when she did lie down, she would do so for exactly 15 minutes and then resume her activities, totally refreshed.

The last couple of years were difficult for Ida and her family, and, beginning around the time of Walter’s passing in 2000, her health began to decline. She eventually moved into Shalom Village, becoming known there as the “Queen of Shalom” for her hospitable, caring and loving nature. She was a real lady, a true Ayshet Huyyal right to the very end.

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Eulogy: Ida Glass by Reesa Winer (Daughter)

My mother’s house had a revolving front door.  Her home and kitchen were always full of people, the coffee pot was always on and delicious homemade goodies went with the coffee.  She was a extremely sociable woman who always had time for her friends.

She was actively involved in the community taking leadership roles.  Temple Anshe Shalom, The National Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah.

She assisted several family members in their businesses, acting as a sales person.  She was always doing something, hardly ever resting and when she did she would lie down for exactly 15 mins. and then resume her duties, totally refreshed.

She loved nature, always commenting on the beauty of trees, flowers and the world around her. ————————————————————————————————-

Eulogy:  Ida Glass by Jeremy Glass (Grandson)

There are so many gifts of heritage and identity that a grandmother imparts  to her family along the way.  If there are core family values passed down through many generations, Grandma and Grandpa you instilled in us and others  integrity, honesty, pride, industriousness, grit and determination.  I will always remember you as so very well put together, so strong on your own two feet, smart as a tack, so giving to us on our visits; one must mention how stylish and polished you and grandpa were as a couple, and of course you were the best baker on this side of the continent.  The pride and loyalty you showed towards our father and Auntie Reesa have modeled to us what we should expect from our elders and what the young people around us should expect from us.

The Glass family has lost its beauteous matriarch.  Grandma Glass, I send you our love, and I send my sympathy to the rest of our family as we celebrate the heritage and pride you have modeled and instilled in us.

ale · apple · Bernard · cent · Coming · Hamilton · Health · http · Ida A. Glass · Ida Glass · Jeremy Glass (Grandson) · king · life · Martin C. Winer · Merck · National Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah · nature · OJ · Rabbi · Red · Reesa · steel · toronto · United Hebrew Memorial Chapel · video · Walter P. Glass · web

Some have accused the Toronto Sun of sensationalism regarding their request of the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner, Brian Beamish, to release Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) suicide statistics for coverage by the media.  The very accusation of sensationalism reveals a double standard in the way that media outlets deal with issues of mental health.  This past February of 2009 no one accused any media outlet of sensationalism when they carried the story of a TTC fare collector who nabbed a disturbed individual who had pushed several youths on to the tracks. (http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090216/090216_ttc_collector/20090216/?hub=CP24Home)  There was no fear of copy cat pushing incidents in their coverage nor was their any need to appeal to the Freedom of Information act to secure information.  If you have the misfortune of being pushed on to the tracks, you can at least derive some solace in the fact that your city and your local news outlets will deem the story newsworthy.

If on the other hand you have the misfortune of being thrown on to the tracks by your own hand, rest assured that when you rest in peace, the story will be buried with you.  Officials of all stripes will claim that, for the good of the community, reports of suicides need to be silenced lest you invite copy cat attempts.  The TTC in its press release cites a Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention Media Guide (http://casp-acps.ca/Publications/MEDIA%20GUIDELINES.doc) which suggests that in order to: "discourage imitative or copycat suicides, it is important to avoid or minimize: Reporting specific details of the method".

Beamish, after having reviewed reams of clinical research, concluded that

"The evidence provided … establishes that news coverage which provides details of methods used, uses the word “suicide” in headlines, romanticizes suicide, or provides prominence to a particular death or attempt could reasonably be expected to result in harm. This is in contrast to the simple publication of suicide statistics which do not focus on the details of a particular death." 

(http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Findings/MO-2466.pdf)

He went on to cite a Center For Disease Control report which found, conversely, that the

"reporting of suicide can have several direct benefits. Specifically, community efforts to address this problem can be strengthened by news coverage that describes the help and support available in a community, explains how to identify persons at high risk for suicide, or presents information about risk factors for suicide."

(http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Findings/MO-2466.pdf)

-*-*-*-*-

On August 26th, while driving on the DVP, listening to the traffic news, trying to navigate the infernal Toronto traffic, I heard of an attempted suicide off the Millwood Ave overpass.  Later reporting of that same event would only discuss a ‘police investigation’. (http://cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090826/090826_don_mills/20090826/?hub=CP24Home)  When the reporting changed to a ‘police investigation’ I knew that the attempted suicide was successful and that the media had changed its tune for our protection.  However, it didn’t take a PhD in psychology to know that ‘police investigation’ meant suicide so I wondered who the media were protecting?  The vulnerable?  If so, they only succeeded in protecting the most naive of them. 

Still, you won’t hear of any ‘police investigations’ regarding the Bloor St. Viaduct because a suicide barrier was put in place there in 2003.  As the result of some official sounding reports and official sounding thinking, some City Hall bigwigs decided that suicide was a ’spur of the moment’ type of thing and their spurious research suggested that barriers would be an effective countermeasure.  Suicide is in its final moment, perhaps, a rash moment, but that ignores the often months and years of prodrome before a person takes their life. 

In the wake of this recent TTC report, there is again discussion of the erection of barriers.  Barriers take a Not In My Backyard-Bridge approach to suicide; simply shunting the problem elsewhere.  The Toronto Sun has acted courageously in their coverage of this taboo topic.  I hope that other media outlets to follow suit with panel discussions of social measures that can help troubled individuals deal with their issues in a respectful and dignified manner.

Bloor St. viaduct · Brian Beamish · Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention Media Guide · cent · Center For Disease Control · City Hall · collector · head · Health · http · ILS · king · life · media outlet · media outlets · MIT · Ontario · pdf · Privacy Commissioner · quote · Red · Rome · servlet · the Toronto Sun · toronto · Toronto Sun · Toronto Transit Commission

Many discuss, argue and berate the contents of the big three religious texts: the Quran, The Old Testament and The New Testament.  Discussions have been going on for millenia about what is contained therein.  I’ve been more interested, indeed dismayed, by what is missing.  These books are held to be the writ word of God by the adherents of their respective faiths.  Now, if God be the author of these texts, I wonder how it was possible to omit some critical information.

Slavery:  All the aforementioned texts allow slavery.  Sure, they may put limits on it.  They may even dictate humane ways to treat your slaves, but slaves be they just the same.  It was humans, noble humans at least, that put a stop to the practice only not so long ago.  All of humanity has been enriched by the emancipation.  Wouldn’t God know that?

Environment:  “Be fruitful and multiply” the Lord of the Old and New Testament declares boldly.  But what of population control?  What of greenhouse gasses?  The Old Testament contains passages urging the ancient Israelites to bury their excrement outside of the camp to keep the place clean.  But what of the future generations?  Religious texts are supposed to be written for all generations.  Otherwise why should we at a later generation be compelled to abide by them?  So true, at the time of their writing, there was no concern for population control or emission of greenhouse gasses, but there would be for future generations.  Wouldn’t God know that?

Democracy:  Democracy isn’t the perfect solution; far from it.  Just the same it’s far better than any other system that’s come along so far.  Moreover democracies are largely peaceful compared to their predecessors.  So why then is there no mention of it in any of the religious texts?  Why is it a Hellenic invention?  Centuries of warfare might have been averted had democracy taken an earlier hold which it certainly would have if it were sanctioned by the big three religious texts.  Wouldn’t God know that?

Health:  The big three religious texts go to excruciating details into what can and cannot be eaten.  Restrictions of shellfish, rules for butchering methods and the like go on and on for pages and pages.  Yet on those pages we find narry a mention of things which are currently obvious.  How about a few words about high fat, high cholesterol diets?  How about a few words about not smoking?  Now this knowledge may not have been accessible to the people of the day but wouldn’t God know that?

Finance:  All religions have prohibitions against usury.  However, readers must be careful in that when they read these prohibitions they must realize that these prohibitions apply to lending with interest to someone of the same faith.  Lending to others, outside the faith is allowed.  So then what about financial disasters we’ve faced?  They were caused by manipulation of currency and powerful bankers taking control of our financial system.  How about some laws defining a fair monetary system?  How about laws preventing partial reserve banking ( a current system where banks lend money they don’t actually have on reserve )?  How about laws prohibiting the artificial contraction and expansion of the money supply which caused the Great Depression, the Great Inflation of the 70’s and now plays a major part in the current recession of 2008?  Now the people of the day may not have understood these concepts but wouldn’t God know that?

ancient israel · author · bank · banker · banking · cent · democracy · Environment · finance · God · great depression · Health · http · ILS · inflation · Israel · israelites · king · MIT · new testament · old testament · partial reserve banking · quran · Red · Religion · reserve banking · slavery · Torah · writing

Canadian Bill C51 purportedly proposes sweeping changes to the herbal supplement and naturopathic/homeopathic remedies market.  The following excerpted from an anti Bill C51 website, although not independently confirmed, suggests that the bill would (amongst other things):

1) Fasttrack pharmaceutical drug approval and
2) Make over 70% percent of current herbal drugs illegal.

Now, this was taken from an opposing website so all claims must then be taken with a grain of all natural sea salt.  The Government claims that your access to Vitamin C and Echinacea is safe. 

“Under Bill C-51, Canadians will continue to have access to natural health products that are safe, effective and of high quality. The Bill will not limit access to natural health products nor does it call for a change in their regulatory status (from over-the-counter to prescription)” says Health Canada spokesperson Paul Duchesne.

Source :: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080509/C51_protests_080509/20080510?hub=TopStories

From that simple quote we are forced to ask the question, who and how will products be determined to be ’safe, effective and of high quality’?  The contention seems to be over semantics and the definition of exactly which products will and will not be regulated.  Putting semantic issues aside, it looks as though the combatants are missing the more global issue and that is in addressing the manner in which the allopathic (mainstream) and alternative medicine operate.  The issue is probably more complex than first fathomed.  Both paradigms operate under different modi operandorum. 

Big pharma operates under the model of providing drugs and therapies with validated claims.  The drug’s claims and safety are established by clinical drug trials.  The benefits here should be obvious but the weaknesses of this system may not be.  The first failure of the big pharma model is that drug trials can be flawed either intentionally or just by simple lack of scope or experimental design.  Take for example the drug VIOXX which did pass clinical trials and FDA approval which was later associated with heart disease and voluntarily withdrawn by its manufacturer Merck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rofecoxib#Withdrawal  The second failing of the big pharma model is even more subtle in that  only patentable therapies need apply.  Take for example the research Dr. Evangelos Michelak out of the university of Alberta who has come up with a cancer treatment using the chemical DCA. http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/  This treatment has been conclusively shown to remove or eradicate all manner of cancers in test animals.  It is a hugely promising therapy with suprisingly few side effects.  One would expect this drug to be in human trial by now.  However, since DCA is not patentable, (almost as common as table salt) the drug companies have no interest.  DCA will go to human trial nonetheless, but only after Dr. Evangelos Michelak is able to scrape together enough money from other philanthropic investors.

Now let’s examine the world of home or natural remedies.  You can pick up a bottle of an herbal remedy which can make all manner of claims.  These claims need not be validated and, indeed, the only validation you’ll receive is either from the smiling face of the salesperson at your natural foods store or the recommendation of a friend or naturopatic practitioner.  However, you probably won’t be able to rely on any study and you’ll have to adopt a ‘take it and try it’ approach.  The failings of this system are two fold.  First, hearkening back to the days of the snake oil salesmen, there is the potential for you to waste your time and money on ineffective remedies.  Second, in wasting your time on these remedies, you may delay seeking appropriate medical treatment for a potentially serious condition.  The first failure – the lack of study based findings — is compelling.  The natural health product industry needs to provide better support for their claims and adhere to some standard as for quality of composition. The second failure is not as compelling as people typically resort to natural health products only after the failure or reticence of allopathic medicine.

Looking at both paradigms, there is a measure which could marry their strengths and divorce ourselves of their weaknesses.  The summary of bill C51 reads as follows:

This enactment amends the Food and Drugs Act to modernize the regulatory system for foods and therapeutic products, to strengthen the oversight of the benefits and risks of therapeutic products throughout their life cycle, to support effective compliance and enforcement actions and to enable a greater transparency and openness of the regulatory system.

Source :: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3398126&File=19

If this is indeed the goal of the Federal Government, then wouldn’t their time and efforts be better spent in implementing a system of subsidized and facilitated human trials?  A subsidized and facilitated human trials system would raise the bar for natural health food products to better support their claims.  Since the studies would be subsidized and facilitated we wouldn’t deny ourselves access to any reasonable therapy but as consumers, claims of product effectiveness and quality of composition could be properly backed by more than a friendly smile.  All therapies, herbal and pharmaceutical would be subject to the same level of testing.  This testing would be reasonably affordable for any given company.  This would satisfy the allopathic community’s demands for rigorous proof and testing while at the same time allow the allopathic community to consider previously unprofitable yet promising treatments such as DCA.

There is a petition circulating to stop bill C51.  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/StopC51  I would be willing to sign it if it could be proved it would make 70% of current natural health care products illegal.  Would I sign a petition to have the Federal Government fund and facilitate human trials of all health care products?  In a heartbeat.

Alberta · ale · alternative medicine · bill c51 · c51 · Canada · cancer · cancer treatment · cancers · cent · China · dca · Dr. Evangelos Michelak · drugs · Evangelos Michelak · fda · fed · federal government · Federal Government fund · food · Health · Health Canada · health care products · health products · heart disease · herbal medicine · homeopathic · http · king · life · Merck · MIT · natural health care products · natural health food products · natural remedies · naturopatic · oil · Paul Duchesne · pharmaceutical · pharmaceutical drug approval · quote · servlet · snake oil salesmen · spokesperson · the fed · therapeutic products · University of Alberta · vioxx · web

There has been a spate of activity in the nanotech realm lately. Over the past few months I’ve tracked several new developments. Here they are in no particular order: spine, ram, solar cell, ca

1) Solar Power: The problem with solar technology is the high cost of the solar cells. The current level of technology in solar is in silicon wafer solar cells. They have low relative effeciency and a high relative cost. This makes them unfeasible as a replacement. Many companies, amont them Nanosolar of California, have developed a technology using nanoparticles which can absorb light more efficiently, but more importantly, more economically. Nanosolar is targetting a rate of $1/watt which would make solar power a viable alternative over nuclear or fossil fuels.

More amazing is the fact that the solar films can be mass produced and printed on to any building or surface. More details can be found here: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10989479
http://www.nanosolar.com/

2) Cancer Treatments:This story warms my heart on so many levels. John Kanzius was himself diagnosed with Leukemia. He underwent several bouts of painful chemotherapy. Not a physician but instead a retired radio and television engineer, he had a brainwave one night while sleeping. He came up with the idea of using radio waves to selectively target cancer cells while leaving the remaining healthy cells unscathed. Chemotherapy is based on the differential survivability of cancerous cells versus healthy cells. That is to say the chemicals used are toxic to both healthy and cancer cells, and the hope is that the cancer cells die out faster than the healthy ones: not a promising prospect.

Kanzius’ idea is remarkably different. He plans to send nanoparticles of gold into the tumor. He plans to use a targeting molecule attached to the gold nanoparticle to saturate the tumor with particles. Then he directs a highly concentrated radio beam towards the tumor. The gold heats up under influence of this beam and essentially the tumor is cooked.

3) RAM-Memory: Hard discs have had a good run. They’ve given us a terabyte of storage at nominal cost and with reasonable access time. The technology of the future however will but much smaller, with no operating parts to wear out. The technology is called ‘Racetrack’ and is being developed in the Almaden Research Center in San Jose California. At the heart of the technology electron spin is used to code information. This information races along a nanowire at blazing speeds with very low power consumption. Future incarnations of this technology promise replace hard discs an allow for near instantaneous start up and uncompromising reliability.

4) Spinal Repair: We all recall fondly the heroic efforts of Christopher Reeve to bring about an awareness of spinal injury and the tragic effects it can have on the sufferers and their families. The problem with spinal injury, indeed most nerve injury, is that the injured site (referred to as a transection) forms a scar at either end of the cut bundle. Nerves do have the ability to regrow however, they lack the ability to bridge this scar. John Kessler, M.D., Davee Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has come up with a gel of self assembling nanostructures which is injected at the injury site. Once inside, they go to work assembling a scaffolding which allows neural stem cells to bridge the gap. Mice with spinal injuries were injected with the compound and showed significant improvement including the ability to walk again.

almaden research center · california · cancer · cancer treatment · cent · chemicals · Chemotherapy · christopher reeve · economist · flu · gold · head · Health · html · http · ibm · ILS · injury · injury site · Internet · John Kanzius · john kessler · Kanzius Machine · Leukemia · levis · nanoparticles · nanosolar · nanotechnology · nanotubule · nerve injury · Northwestern University · Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine · physician · professor · Professor of Stem Cell Biology · racetrack memory · radio · radio and television engineer · RAM · Red · scar · solar · solar power · solar technology · spinal chord · spinal injuries · spinal injury · stem cell · stem cells · technology electron spin · technology promise · technology using nanoparticles · transection · tumor · USD

The State of The Union – As Seen on TV
Martin C. Winer

But first a word about how this article was written:  This article was the result of a ‘cluster’ or a free-word association.  This is an exercise which is meant to use the ‘right brain’ to spur creativity and generate writing topics.  You can create your own clusters or bubbles here: http://www.bubbl.us/ but it’s best to do them with pen and paper since one tends to self edit when typing.  Each word you see italicized below is from the cluster.  Usually, the idea is to take one theme from the cluster and write about it.  I thought it would be a challenge to include ALL the words and still have the article tell a cohesive story.   Read the article, taking note of the italicized words.  Then see the cluster below.

I have been worried about the state of the world as of late.  Being recently unemployed with no meaningful job on the horizon, I was wondering when I’d be returning to the 9-5 lifestyle.  It’s not that I ravish 9-5, as Dolly Parton’s famous song correctly puts it, 9-5 is all “takin and no giving” but it beats aimlessly strolling on sidewalks waiting for a direction to unfold.  Up until recently I was a member of the over 30 and unmarried class.  Fortune changes quickly and I now find myself suddenly being married with children.  The responsibilities are understandably far different.  Curious as to what direction my life would take over the next months and years, I turned on the familiar glowing oracle fitted in every living room, the television.

While I waited for my big screen TV, a vestige of my former employed self, to come to life, I recalled that a comic had mentioned that Dolly Parton had insured her breasts.  I wondered if the comic was putting us on, as he was apt to do.  Would an insurance company take premiums for such a ridiculous item?  What was the counterparty risk?  Were her breasts in good hands with Allstate (TM)?  The TV came to life with the evening news reporting of another hemorrhage on Wall Street of 213 ethereal points, with AIG requesting more bailout money.  Evidently, indeed, insurance companies would take premiums on just about anything and the only boobs in the interaction were the policy holders who actually thought the policy was worth something.  Bored with the evening news I changed the channel.

Dick Cheney was on “State of the Union” with John King on CNN.  Cheney, a bastion of the old guard was set to be ‘grilled’ by King as to the sins of his administration.  I flipped right past the interview because I knew it could not yield the satisfaction I was seeking.  Waterboarding and assassination squads would be second nature to a man like Cheney who shot his hunting partner in the face.  Waterboarding I imagined was just his technique for cleaning his felled game, human or otherwise.  I wasn’t interested in the past, I was curious to know what my future held.

There was an infomercial on with 90 year old Jack Lalanne sporting his leisure suit and his juicer.  I am a late night TV watcher and infomercials plague the airwaves from dusk ‘til dawn.  Jack Lalanne was born in 1914 and looked to be in better health than myself all thanks to his 1/2 horsepower juicer.  In went an orange, apple, and every other healthy fruit your mother tried to get you to eat as a child.  Out poured a fountain of youth which had purportedly kept Lalanne in such great shape over these many years, yet somehow, it hadn’t managed to save his fashion sense.  The leisure suit was last popular when the juice on everyone’s lips was Juice Newton, “Grease” was the new movie and disco was still in style.  I was intrigued with the notion of extended life and wondered if indeed Lalanne’s juicer could provide it.  Even if it could, what would my life be like, aged 90+ years drinking fruit and vegetables all day?  Would my life be fulfilling?  I changed the channel seeking an answer from the glowing oracle of TV.

The next infomercial was for Extenz tablets; an all natural ‘Male Enhancement’.  Well this held some promise now didn’t it?  At least my latter years could be herbally augmented with extra length and girth.  But just what were these pills I thought to myself?  “An all natural male enhancement?” I wondered to myself.  Didn’t we already have such a thing in Dolly Parton?  What were these herbs and how were they discovered?  Did someone eat a salad with wild herbs one night with shocking results in the bedroom?  How did they then suspect the salad and not anything else?  My mind was awash with questions and I wasn’t much in the thinking mood.  I wanted answers, not questions.  Come on oracle of television, what would my life be like?  The only effort I was willing to exert was in flipping channels.

Yet as I flipped there were a plethora of Viagra and its new copy Cialis ads.  Was the television intimating that my future would need these?  A Viagra ad promised that at age 50 I could trade in my sedan for a Harley Davidson and with one pill have the vigor of a 20 year old.  A Cialis ad promised 36 hour or daily dosing options to make sure I would be able to respond when the mood was right.  If I was as old as Jack Lalanne, would my wife still be ready for me?  I’d be worried about breaking bones at that age.  Another flip would quell that fear.

Once a month Boniva would rebuild my wife’s bones without the need to remember a weekly pill.  There would be no need to take those chalky calcium pills once a day.  Of course memory at that age will be compromised so the once a month dosing is ideal.  Side effects could include liver and kidney disease but at least you would only have to endure them once a month.  God bless Big Pharma.  I could have a once a day boner and my wife could have healthy bones all month.  I was comforted that the future would be bright.  My comfort was not long lasting, at least not as long lasting as 36 hour Cialis promised to be, when it occurred to me that Big Pharma was suffering from a horrible case of misplaced priorities.  With all of their attention focused on bones and boners, they had dropped the two big balls of cancer and heart disease.  I curiously imagined a big Pharma strategizing kick off meeting with people brainstorming on new drug targets and somehow bones and boners getting to the top of the list over cancer and heart disease.  I only hoped that Jack Lalanne’s fountain of youth Juice could get my wife and I past those two roadblocks.

I calmed myself thinking that my 90th year was well off, I being only 35 now.  Big Pharma had time to readjust their priorities.  I continued my flipping to discover yet another Big Pharma commercial for Requip, a medication for Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).  My legs were perfectly atrophied into their TV watching position.  I didn’t believe that such a condition could occur.  “My doctor said ‘Requip’” said the announcer as a television doctor mouthed “Requip”.  I imagined that the doctor mouthed “bullsh*t” in response to the patients complaint.  [0u92R90U R ‘ jixz-]0039;ffaS980059-09ATRE MT3.  Oops, I’m ever so sorry about that previous mess, you see my arms tend to spontaneously move uncontrollably every so often…  Oh my, could it be I have Restless Arms Syndrome (RAS)?  Well at least I know that Big Pharma is on the case.  Perhaps if I ingest Requip while standing on my head, the medication will settle in the appropriate appendages?  Parenthetically I wonder if all Requip contains is a bottle of gel caps filled with Brandy?  All it seemed Big Pharma could do for me in my latter years was give calm legs and arms and a rock hard erection.  The Viagra commercial warned that any erection lasting over 4 hours constituted a medical risk and thus I knew my fulfillment from Big Pharma would leave me with 20 remaining hours in the day to fill with what?  What would I do?  I looked to the financial stations to see if I had any prospect of finding a job.

CNBC was heralding the success of the latest Apple Computer quarterly results.  The IPhone and the IPod were unrelenting successes.  The host discussed the failing health of Steve Jobs as a concern for the future of the company and since we now know all that Big Pharma is good for, the concern is justified.  I myself am not a gadget freak.  I often mockingly eye people walking down the street sweaty palmed typing at lunatic speeds on their Palm, Blackberry or blueberry or whatever the latest berry is.  I have no need to be so totally connected, but evidently there is a huge market for these devices.  Just the same I was delighted to see the success of Apple whose Macintosh computer was, in my mind, the superior computer in 1985.  Bill Gates was the smarter CEO, not the better innovator.  Steve Jobs didn’t allow clones of Macintosh’s while Gates allowed clones of the PC.  As a result Apple’s market share fell like Newton’s apple under newly discovered gravity.  With all the discussion of executive compensation these days, I think Steve Jobs deserves the lion’s share of the reward when it comes to innovation.  The IPod is simple to use media device which takes advantage of the recent wave of music piracy and MP3’s that puts the tale of the Maersk Alabama to shame.  Now don’t get me wrong, copyright infringement was not created by Jobs, he only capitalized on it.  The IPhone is the next logical extension of a handheld computing device incorporating maps, navigation and a whole host of other useful features we come to expect from Apple.  The Macintosh, the IMac as it’s now called, is gaining market share in leaps and bounds.  I guessed that I had attained some inspiration from the glowing oracle;  perseverance, like that of Steve Jobs in the face of constant opposition and I too could one day go on to innovate a pile of handheld devices – or something like that.  Of course this special was being aired on CNBC the so called financial news network that managed to complete miss any predictions of the financial collapse which had claimed my job.  I wasn’t about to take any advice from them.  No, the Corruption National Broadcasting System as I had renamed them would have to find another mark. I dismissed them with a flip of the channel.

The Cheney Interview was over on CNN and now Anderson Cooper on A.C. 360 was sporting a pie chart showing the distributions of the American reinvestment Plan.  There were huge allotments for infrastructure building projects.  A clip revealed workers building bridges all over the country.  Wasn’t it another Democratic president who wanted to build a bridge to the 21st century?  Now are we building bridges out of Chapter 11?  There was discussion of incentives to homeowners to renovate and rejuvenate their properties.  I thought of stopping in at Home Depot but immediately balked because the 27 minute hand waving discussion with 17 year old ‘Skippy’ who works there never seems to get me the results I want.  For all the talk of hope and economic plans CNN was pushing out, I knew that the recession was receding faster than Dick Cheney’s hairline.

Rembrant - Raising of Lazarus

Then they aired a clip of the master of hope: President Obama.  “America has been great and shall rise to be great again” he prophesized.  I thought this had a familiar tone.  I quickly switched to the Catholic Television Service and the pastor proudly boomed “and the phoenix shall rise out of the ashes just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.”  The pastor went on to solicit donations for a new building project.  This also had familiar overtones and I flipped back quickly to CNN.  “It will take considerable investment from us all but we shall rebuild and come back stronger” proudly acclaimed Obama.  It then occurred to me that Obama was more than just a President, he was our primary minister.  He then intimated at his plan to remove toxic assets from the books of the banks without providing the necessary details I was looking for; undoubtedly he would turn water into wine.  The rhetoric of hope was overflowing my ears and I needed a counter position to ground myself again.  Luckily there was the FOX network who was lambasting Obama as the bane of humanity whose short stint in office had already thrown the economy into apocalypse from which only a miracle could now save us.

Putin and other former Soviet interviewees were quoted as saying that the end of capitalism has finally come.  A commentator remarked: “the American dream of picket fences has been replaced by picket lines” as the video showed protesting auto workers.  Am auto worker protested: “The companies are trying to divide and conquer us, taking advantage of this downturn to cut our benefits and pay.  I say enough taxing the middle class!”  Cheers and hurrahs followed.  My brain was like a pair of Levi’s jeans iconically being pulled by these two polarized stations in opposite directions, at the risk of ripping.  There had to be some truth on the glowing oracle of television.  PBS I thought to myself quickly.  That will save me.

Jim Lehrer

(Ed. Note: Actually it’s IOWA that is ok with Gay Rights, not Oklahoma.  In my cluster, I confused the two, but I went with it because the challenge was to write an article using all the clustered words.  I was only off by a 10 hour drive anyways.    )

Public Broadcasting, publicly funded and publicly ignored in favour of watching MTV to hear if Britney Spears of Lindsay Lohan were wearing underwear today.  Today Jim Lehrer was discussing the state of Gay Rights.  Evidently in Ahnold’s (sic) California the rights of gays have been ‘terminated’.   Ironically, Oklahoma seems “Ok” with gay marriage.  Is that what the song “Oklahoma, OK” is about from the musical Oklahoma?  The world seemed upside down.  Had I inverted myself such that Requip went to my arms and forgot about it?  Oklahoma was a place where I expected politicians to spout the bible about ‘being Fruitful and multiplying’ and how homosexuality was unnatural.  In liberal California, I expect them to say anything goes, from Gay Rights to cloning dolly the sheep.  After all doesn’t Hotel California by the Eagles promise “Plenty of room at the Hotel California / Any time of year, you can find it here”?  I couldn’t make sense of my world.  I was about as comfortable as a man swimming in itchy wool trunks.  I needed to flip the channel quickly.

Kim Kardashian

Chicks Who Love Guns

Up next was a documentary “American Justice” revisiting the O.J. Simpson trial.  It brought back names like Mezza Luna, Nicole Brown, Robert Kardashian, Kim Kardashian… whoops my mind wandered.  Robert Kardashian had helped set a murderer free but brought us Kim Kardashian.  Now they say justice should be blind, but have you seen Kim Kardashian?  He was off the hook in my books but the rest of the characters who let O.J. go were open to attack in my imagination.  I recast the events of that fateful night as a Quentin Tarantino movie.  I’d have my justice, if only in my imagination.  Nicole Brown would now be Jackie Brown.  She would seductively seduce O.J. by dancing for him like Salma Hayek in Tarantino’s “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn”.  She’d then immediately turn into a vampire and eat him alive.  Next, Travolta and Samuel Jackson from Pulp Fiction would show up and after quoting Ezekiel 25:17 would lace into the O.J. lawyers.  Finally the women from “Chicks who love Guns” as seen in Jackie Brown, armed with the AK-47 and they would deal with every “mother [t]ucker” in the jury room.  Returning from my daydream I realized that 10 years had passed and there was no justice to be spoken of.  The only thing I had learned from the episode was that justice is a function of wealth and that O.J. stood for Orenthall James, not Orange Juice.  I’m not admitting I was that stupid however, I’m about to write another article: “If I was that stupid, here’s how I’d admit it.”

I knew how the O.J. saga ended so I flipped again to see what else was on the glowing oracle.  John Sebastian crooned “Welcome Back, to the same old place where you started from…”  It was a rerun of Welcome Back Kotter.  Truly, I was basically back where I had started from, only an hour of flipping elapsed.  I knew nothing more of the future than when I started.  Sure I knew that my bones and boners would be safe, boobs could be insured, and that if I worked very hard, I might find a job.  But I was looking for important answers to important questions like, what would justice be like in the future?  What would the economy be like?  I was sure that Kotter’s Vinni Barbarino wasn’t going to be able to answer my questions.  With that, I turned off the glowing oracle for the night.

‘Apple’ cluster which generated the article.

This is the free word association (or cluster, or bubble) which generated the article.  Again, each italicized above came from the cluster below.

9 to 5 · 9/11 · AID · aig · AK-47 · ale · allstate · America · american justic · Announcer · apple · arnold schwarzenegger · auto workers · bailout · bank · bankruptcy · bible · bill gates · blog · boniva · bubble · california · cancer · capitalism · Case · cent · chapter 11 · chicks who love guns · cialis · cluster · dca · dick cheney · dolly parton · eagles · Economy · Executive · extenze · Ezekiel 25:17 · free word association · gay rights · God · grease · head · Health · heart disease · home depot · homosexuality · hotel california · http · ibm · ILS · insurance · Internet · iphone · ipod · jack lalanne · Jackie Brown · jim lehrer · John Sebastian · John Travolta · juice newton · kim kardashian · king · lawyer · lazarus · levis · life · logic · maersk · maersk alabama · marriage · Martin C. Winer · MIT · mp3 · Music · nature · O. J. Simpson · obama · OJ · oklahoma · palm blackberry · piracy · pirates · President · Pulp Fiction · quentin tarantino · quote · Red · requip · rls · Robert Kardashian · Rome · Salma Hayek · sex · steve jobs · Tarantino · viagra · video · Vinni Barbarino · waterboarding · wealth · Welcome Back Kotter · writing

Some may say that the debate between Capitalism and Socialism has long been concluded with the fall of the Former Soviet Union. While it is true that large scale Communism will likely never be tried again, the debate continues in smaller forums. Michael Moore’s recent film ‘Sicko’ reignites this debate as it pertains to healthcare.

In so doing, the global pros and cons of either system need to be considered when applied to healthcare. The nutshell ‘con’ of Socialism is that it fails to motivate people and deliver supplies and resources efficiently. In turn, the nutshell ‘con’ of Capitalism is that it can be very cold and tunnel visioned, in that it is only profit seeking, which may go against the true desires of its citizens.

When we apply Capitalism or Socialism to healthcare we see the inherent strengths and weaknesses of either system manifest themselves. Specifically, we find Capitalism style healthcare too cold and non-inclusive. However, Socialized healthcare again has problems of motivation of healthcare providers and delivery of cutting edge technologies and services in a timely manner. We’ll work a few examples to flesh this out.

Suppose you are in your doctor’s office and, heaven forbid, you are given the most feared diagnosis in medicine: Cancer. You may or may not want to live in a country with Socialized medicine. This author lives in Canada which is far from the masterpiece of healthcare that Moore seems to paint in his film. I may remind Moore that another man’s grass is always greener and another man’s bill of health is always cleaner.

Canada has a long history of socialized institutions from gas, phone service, electric utilities, etc. to healthcare. But long gone are the halcyon days of government institutions. In recent years there has been a spate of privatization with private health clinics and tiered systems for healthcare already on the table. Having said all that, Canada still maintains a socialized healthcare system, at least for the moment.

Returning to our dreaded Cancer diagnosis, the word on the street in Canada is that our doctors are often not aggressive enough in treating Cancer. Many hugely expensive, yet promising, courses of treatments are avoided due to long wait times or simple unavailability. It is a common practice of Canadians to drive into Buffalo for example for a faster MRI. Having said all that, suppose you are low on funds and are recommended a course of chemotherapy. In this case, ignoring the wait times, you’d want to live in Canada where this is covered. Make no mistake about it, socialized medicine is something that I’m quite proud of as a Canadian, however, it is necessary to make sure we don’t exalt it as a panacea when in fact, it is not. In the final estimation it suffers from the same inherent problems of Socialism, lack of motivation and problems with resource delivery.

Turning our attention to Capitalism as it pertains to healthcare, we again will use Cancer as an example and this time we’ll examine the Pharmaceutical industry. Imagine for a second that I told you there was a new substance which, in mice, was able to shrink lung, breast and brain cancers. This substance was able to target Cancer cells specifically eliminating most, if not all, of the side effects of conventional cancer treatments. You’d think the pharmaceutical companies would be beating a path to the researcher’s door but they’re not. The reason? The compound the researcher works with is about as common as table salt. DCA (Dichloroacetic acid) is a common laboratory compound already available from any chemical supplier. Most importantly, it’s not patentable. As a result, drug companies have no way of recouping any money they pour into its research in human trials. As a result the researcher (Dr. Evangelos Michelakis out of the University of Alberta) is left to ‘pass the hat’ to try to collect the necessary funds to conduct the human trials. Here we see the tunnel vision of Capitalist style healthcare, overly focused on profit, while failing to accomplish the task it was assigned: providing health care.

Thus we see that neither Capitalism nor Socialism make the perfect pill for solving the problem of healthcare. What then do we turn to? We need only parse out ‘healthcare’ into its two parts, health and care. The key to the problem is in the caring. We can try for as long as we want, and as hard as we want to apply different methodologies, but in the end they will all fail if we try to remove ‘care’ from healthcare. In a socialized healthcare system, we still need doctors who care and are motivated and we need politicians to care enough to manage to keep up with the frenetic pace of healthcare developments. In a Capitalist style healthcare system, we need the system to care enough to occasionally ignore profits and look at the more global picture to avoid having the system tunnel visioned and not inclusive. In any case, the key metric for any healthcare system should be measured in units of caring.

AID · Alberta · ale · author · brain cancers · breast cancers · Buffalo · Canada · cancer · cancer treatment · cancers · capitalism · Case · cent · chemical supplier · Chemotherapy · cialis · cold · Communism · conventional cancer · dca · Dr. Evangelos Michelak · dreaded Cancer · electric utilities · Evangelos Michelak · Evangelos Michelakis · Former Soviet Union · Health · healthcare · healthcare developments · healthcare providers · healthcare system · hmo · http · ILS · king · lung cancers · Michael Moore · MRI · pharmaceutical · Red · researcher · resources · Sicko · socialized healthcare system · socialized medicine · style healthcare · style healthcare system · University of Alberta