Month: January 2014

Simple Amoeba Can Help Fight Alzheimer – Research

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RT  January 26 2014

amoeba
Dictyostelium Fruiting Bodies (Image from wiki.org)

Scientists have discovered a way to study the causes of Alzheimer disease using a simple single-celled amoeba, which leads to a better understanding of how human proteins mutate. It circumvents the need for animal testing.

British scientists point to the possibility of amoeba use in biomedical studies of the presenilin protein that plays a part in causing Alzheimer disease, widespread among the elderly. A press release about the study by researchers from the Royal Holloway University of London and the Institute of Psychiatry of King’s College, London, was published in the Journal of Cell Science on Friday.

It reveals that the so-called ‘social’ amoeba has become an essential source in the understanding of how human proteins function, whose mutations are associated with the development of dementia. It could lead to the creation of a new generation of treatments for this incurable disease.

Professor Robin Williams, a scientist from Royal Holloway, University of London elaborates on the idea of using amoeba in medical research of epilepsy, saying, “This discovery allows us to examine the role for the human presenilin 1 protein, without the use of animal testing. It is amazing that so simple an organism lends itself to the study of such a complex disease”.

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In Government Contracting Nothing Succeeds So Well As Failure

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jonathanturley  January 27 2014

Bloomberg Made Last Minute Contract With Discredited Obamacare Company

BloombergI previously ran a column on how it seems that no waste or loss of government money seems enough to force accountability in some areas. That column came to mind with the recent disclosure that, in the waning hours of the Administration of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, Montreal-based CGI was awarded a $10-million-plus contract to update the city’s non-emergency call system. That is the same company that was partially responsible for the massive failure of the Obamacare rollout and later denied renewal of its multimillion dollar contract.The company was paid roughly $100 million for the failed contract. That was just part of the $678 million spent on the Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov which is now the subject of additional contracts to fix the earlier contracts.

Movement is Life [Video]

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USAWatchdog.com  January 27 2014

Investment advisor Catherine Austin Fitts knows the economy is bad, but not all bad. She says, “There are many aspects of the economy where the fundamentals are dreadful, and there are certainly parts of the economy collapsing in an evolving implosion.”

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SpNziDyKuic&w=500]

Fitts contends capital has shifted out of the old system and into a new system that is high tech and rapidly evolving. Fitts explains, “One of the things that is keeping the slow burn going is that money flowing into the new system is being reinvested, and those parts of the economy are not only growing but growing strongly. . . . . You need to see the fact that we have a global 2.0, which is essentially bankrupt; and we have a global 3.0, which is rich with resources and growing dramatically. . . . The reinvestment in global 3.0 is now accelerating at rapid speeds, and I think it is going surprise everybody of how dramatic the changes are going to be.”

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Destroying The Myth That Military Power Equals Freedom

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FreemansPerspective.com  January 22 2014

As I was finishing up my liberty entertainment article a few weeks ago, I checked lists that other people had made, just to see if I had forgotten something. As I did, I was dismayed to find that in most of these lists, pro-liberty really meant pro-military.

So I think it’s time to take a quick look at the myth that military power gives us liberty.

The Fantasy of the Foreign Oppressor

There is a plot that lies behind this “military power equals freedom” belief. It says that the enemy of liberty is a foreign invader. So, if the outsider is afraid to approach, we are free.

It implies that “local rule equals freedom.”

This is simply a lie. But it’s a lie that works very well in fiction.

Back in the real world, the hometown of an oppressor – whether it be near or far – makes him no better or worse.

Are we free because the people who rule us reside within local borders? Does that remain true even when it’s the “inside our lines” people who oppress us?

May only foreigners be oppressors?

Consider these recent cases: Continue reading →

Richard (RJ) Eskow ~ A Congress Of The Wealthy, By The Wealthy, And For The Wealthy

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NationOfChange  January 26 2014

Richard Eskow
Richard Eskow

When the President of the United States delivers his State of the Union message next week, he’ll be speaking to the wealthiest Congress in history. What does it mean for a representative democracy when most of its representatives are insulated from the real-world economic experiences of its citizens?

A new report from Open Secrets shows that, for the first time, the average member of Congress is worth more than $1 million. It’s hard to say how much more, because the House has adopted the Senate’s less stringent financial reporting requirements, but most representatives are, as they used to say back home, “pretty well fixed.” More than half of them are worth more than $1 million, according to Open Secrets.

Some members of Congress aren’t wealthy, of course. But if the President sticks with his recent theme of inequality next week, he’ll be doing it in front of an audience that has disproportionately benefited from the very phenomenon he’ll be describing. Some reports say that the president may ask for an extension of unemployment benefits, too. If so, he’ll be proposing it to a room full of people who are unlikely to ever feel unemployment’s anguish and terror themselves.

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