Author: Serkadis

Published April 26, 2010
By Anusha Roy, KVEW TV
 
PASCO — It’s all about the sunshine for Pasco fifth graders today.

At a sustainability expo at Columbia Basin College students had a chance to explore alternative energies.

There were  solar and wind powered trailers and demonstrations by employees from the Franklin Public Utilities District. Some Pasco High School students also taught lessons about alternative energy. The expo wraps up tomorrow. Anywhere from 1,100 to 1,200 fifth graders will attend. Tomorrow Chiawana High School students will teach lessons. 

The expo was put on by a sustainable environmental network. It’s a group of citizens from organizations like Franklin PUD and the City of Richland.

Published April 22, 2010
By Josh Peterson, KVEW TV

Washington’s soon to be adopted budget is forcing Columbia Basin College to prepare for more cuts.

The college is waiting for final numbers from the state, but expects to lose at least $1.5 million.

CBC’s President says a bulk of the cuts will come from the college’s support services and administration.

He says he wants to keep as much of the cuts away from student learning as possible, but it won’t be easy.

“It’s just going to be a challenge for us to continue to meet the demand of a growing community. We’re gonna do our best. But we’re hoping that next time, we won’t take much of a cut, if at all” said Richard Cummins, CBC President.

The list of cuts are expected to be finalized next month.

They’ll go into effect in July.

NEWS RELEASE
April 27, 2010                                                         Contact:  Erica Jesberger, 544-4916

The documentary Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think will be shown tonight at 7 in the Gjerde Center on the Columbia Basin College Pasco campus.

After the film, a panel of Muslim professionals from the Tri-Cities will comment on the film and answer audience questions.

Focused on the issues of terrorism, democracy, and gender justice, the film challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course and instead highlights a shared relationship that is based on facts, not fear. The film asks questions on many Americans’ minds: Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists and how do Muslims feel about them? What do Muslims like and dislike about the West? What do Muslim women really want?
 
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think runs 55 minutes. This free public showing is sponsored by the CBC Reads committee, the Office of Diversity, and the Associated Students of CBC.

The PS3 already has a foothold in motion gaming there’s the PlayStation Eye, and let’s not forget that the PS3 controllers already come with some form of motion control. Sony is stepping it up further with

Join us October 15 & 16, 2010 for the 25th Annual IEA-ESP Conference at the Doubletree Hotel in Oak Brook, IL.  Download the brochure below.

Friday Evening:

• Registration will be held from 3:00-7:00 p.m. with a Dinner Buffet available from 5:15-7:45 p.m.
• The sessions will end on Friday evening at 9:00 p.m. In addition, the IEA will be providing a D.J. from
• 9:00-Midnight for those of you who want to kick up your heels.

Saturday:

• Registration will be available starting at 7:00 a.m.
• There will be a FULL BREAKFAST BUFFET from 6:30-7:45 a.m.
• The Program this year will be during breakfast and sessions will start at 9:10 a.m.
• There will be NO LUNCH PROGRAM. The Conference will end at 3:20 P.M.

Registration Fee:

There will be a registration fee of $50 per local registering. You may send as many members as you wish for this $50 fee.

Brochure:

ESP Fall 2010 Conference Brochure

Square Enix has a lot to be happy about. Their Cavia-developed action-RPG, Nier, has been selling like hotcakes in Japan, especially the PS3-exclusive version.

Great table here from the folks at Bespoke showing how various sectors of the market have fared since 2007.

What’s really impressive is the consumer discretionary — in third place, 12.5% below all time highs — but way better than what folks might have expected as recently as a few months ago, when talk of the “new frugality” was still all the rage.

See all the charts at Bespoke >

Join the conversation about this story »

The grandstanding of some Attorneys General never ceases — even when they created the “problem” they’re now grandstanding against. Case in point: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and his crusade against Craigslist. Two years ago, Blumenthal blamed Craigslist for prostitution ads that appear on the site. Blumenthal, as the state Attorney General should know about the law, right? He should know that he has no legal basis for this complaint, and that under Section 230 of the CDA, Craigslist is not liable for the actions of its users. In fact, legal attempts to pin the blame for such ads on Craigslist have been quickly dismissed on just those grounds. Even more importantly, from a common sense standpoint, Blumenthal should realize that when police work with Craigslist in partnership, they’re able to use it as an effective tool to track down lawbreakers who use the site.

But that doesn’t get headlines.

Instead, Blumenthal, based on no legal basis whatsoever, used his soapbox (along with some other attorneys general) to get Craigslist to changing its policies on “adult” advertisements. Whereas, previously, those ads had been free, Craigslist now required that anyone putting up such ads pay for them with a valid credit card, eliminating many of the ads and making it much, much easier to track down whoever placed them in the first place. You would think that would make the AGs happy. Six months later, however, the AGs were still upset, and got Craigslist to change again, boosting the fee on such ads from $5 to $10 and reviewing more of the ads.

Almost all of these moves came in response to public posturing and baseless legal threats from Blumenthal. So what’s he doing now?

He’s apparently doing more public posturing and issuing more baseless legal threats, because Craigslist stands to make an awful lot of money from these ads — the very same ads that Craigslist only started charging for because of Blumenthal’s pressure:

“I believe Craigslist acted irresponsibly when it unilaterally decided to keep the profits from these posts,” Mr. Blumenthal wrote in the letter…

Yes, and I believe Blumenthal acted irresponsibly when he put bogus grandstanding pressure on Craigslist to put in place the tollbooth in the first place. At what point does he recognize that Craigslist isn’t the target here. It’s the people using Cragslist to break the law — and that Craigslist is more than willing to help law enforcement track down those law breakers?

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To help prevent Hepatitis C from destroying their new liver, researchers from Japan devised a way to improve immune response in people with Hepatitis C who undergo a liver transplant.

by Nicole Cutler, L.Ac.

Receiving a liver transplant may be the last chance at survival for someone whose Hepatitis C has progressed to end-stage liver disease. By removing a severely diseased liver with a healthy one, liver transplants appear to be an opportunity for someone with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) to live a virus-free life.

However, nearly all liver transplant recipients become re-infected with Hepatitis C almost immediately following their surgery. In an attempt to prevent HCV from infecting their new liver, clinicians have been scrambling for solutions to this re-infection problem. By stepping outside the box of traditional HCV treatment, researchers from Japan have devised a novel, promising strategy to prevent Hepatitis C from inundating newly transplanted livers.

The number one cause of liver transplants in America, HCV has emerged as a premier health problem. Experts estimate that around 200 million people are infected with Hepatitis C worldwide. Usually progressing to a chronic illness, approximately 50 percent of those with HCV can be cured with the current standard of therapy, pegylated interferon and ribavirin.

Unfortunately, those who have had this virus for decades and do not respond to HCV therapy are vulnerable to progressive liver damage. If HCV wrecks enough havoc on the liver, liver failure and liver cancer are two potentially devastating outcomes. These are the people whose last resort might be a successful liver transplant.

A major challenge facing liver transplant recipients and their physicians is the recurrence of HCV infection. Within the first few days after transplant surgery, it is common for Hepatitis C viral loads to climb back up to the levels before the transplant. In fact, the viral load often exceeds pre-transplantation levels. Experts believe this is due to the suppression of the immune system that results from the immunosuppressive drugs used to prevent rejection of the transplanted liver.

Keeping this deficit of the immune response in mind, researchers from Hiroshima University in Japan conducted a trial to test the HCV suppression ability of transplanted immune cells. As published in the November 2009 edition of Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers performed the following sequence of events. They:

· Extracted immune cells known as lymphocytes from the donor livers before the transplant

· Activated the lymphocytes in vitro

· Injected the activated lymphocytes into the patients three days after they had received their liver transplants

The researchers found that this ingenious method worked, by keeping HCV levels low in most of the HCV-infected patients who received a liver transplant.

Numbering about one trillion in each individual, lymphocytes are small white blood cells that conduct most of the immune system’s actions. There are two main categories of lymphocytes: B cells and T cells.

· B cells – produce specific antibodies to infectious microorganisms.

· T cells – kill infectious microorganisms by destroying the body cells that are infected. In addition, T cells release chemicals called cytokines that initiate the immune response.

More research is required to investigate the clinical applicability of injecting lymphocytes to suppress Hepatitis C. However, the authors of this study believe they have developed a novel paradigm for the inhibition of viral replication in HCV-infected liver transplantation recipients.

References:

http://thyroid.about.com/library/immune/blimm06.htm, Understanding the Immune
System, Mary J. Shomon, Retrieved January 7, 2010, about.com, 2010.

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/news/newsRev/2010/NewsRev-342.html#_Keeping_Hepatitis_C, Keeping Hepatitis C Virus at Bay after a Liver Transplant, Retrieved January 5, 2010, Hepatitis C Support Project, 2010.

http://www.jci.org/articles/view/38374, Adoptive immunotherapy with liver allograft-derived lymphocytes induces anti-HCV activity after liver transplantation in humans and humanized mice, Masahiro Ohira, et al, Retrieved January 5, 2010, Journal of Clinical Investigation, November 2009.

http://www.medsci.org/v03p0079.htm, Management of HCV Infection and Liver Transplantation,Thomas D. Schiano, Paul Martin, Retrieved January 7, 2010, International Journal of Medical Sciences, April 2006.

In his daily note, Gluskin-Sheff economist David Rosenberg makes an important observation about the frequency of recessions.

Namely: The gap between them is getting shorter and shorter.

Nobody would ever dispute that the U.S. economy has managed to see its
government spend its way into some sort of statistical recovery — though it is
more evident in the output and sales data than in the income data.  Look at the
largesse — a 0% policy rate, a $2.3 trillion Fed balance sheet loaded up with
mortgages, a $1.4 trillion fiscal deficit loaded with bailouts and freebies and
accounting changes that have allowed the banks to mark-to-model their way
back towards earnings heaven.  If the economy was not recovering without
Uncle Sam’s generosity, then that would truly be a big story.  

But Mr. Market at some point will have to confront the future.  The time gap
between recessions is shortening now — we went 10 years from 1990 to 2000,
then 5 years from 2002 to 2007 and the next recession, following this pattern,
is likely going to occur within the next 2-3 years.  And, unlike the start of the last
recession when the government had so many arrows in its quiver, there are
none today to help lift the economy again.  

Going into the 2007 downturn, the budget deficit was $160 billion.  There was
ample room for fiscal stimulus.  The funds rate was 5.5% and could be cut
550bps — now it is at 0%.  The Fed’s balance sheet could be allowed to triple
without reviving inflation expectations — good luck the next time around. 

He seems to be throwing in the towel on this recession, and its potential to be “the big one.”

Perhaps the downturn that really shakes the foundation (the equity culture, the
view that we can spend more than we make to perpetuity, etc) is the next one
because the policy response, by definition, will just not be there to turn things
around.  Not something to worry about today, but the day of reckoning is coming.   
What we see in the crystal ball is not only the limited response the government
will have on hand to deal with the next downturn, but that it will likely start with
the economy never getting back to full employment.  Recall that for the first time
ever, the U.S. economy in 2007 slipped into recession without having first swung
into excess demand terrain (when inflation pressures are burgeoning), which is
why it didn’t take long for deflation risks to come to the forefront.  Imagine how
intense the deflation pressures will be in the next go-around as the recession
begins with a much higher unemployment rate, a much lower capacity utilization
rate, and a more constrained government response.  

We can understand that this is far beyond a market mindset that is fixated on
next month’s nonfarm payroll release and the coming quarter’s earnings reports
— but the primary trend, which is deflationary, is hardly going to be broken by
current reflationary policies than was the case from 2002 to 2007 when credit
growth and asset prices surged.  It was a great five years for the beta trade, but
it ended in tears.  So will this whippy rally, even if not currently recognized by the
majority of market pundits who will get you into safety as quickly heading into
the next turndown as they so successfully did in late 2007.   

Join the conversation about this story »

Early results from a Phase II study demonstrate that Bristol-Myers Squibb’s experimental drug has unrivaled potency against the Hepatitis C virus.

Bristol compound potent against hepatitis C

(Reuters) – An experimental Bristol-Myers Squibb compound called BMS-790052 is proving to be the most potent yet at treating hepatitis C, an infection poorly treated with existing drugs, company researchers said on Wednesday.

An early, phase I safety study of the compound found it was highly effective at blocking the protein NS5A, a new target that might provide one more weapon against a virus that can quickly develop resistance.

Continue reading this entire article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K5QB20100421

Back in November, Denise Kaigler left her seat (qjnet/nintendo-ds/corporate-affairs-vp-denise-kaigler-leaves-nintendo.html) as the corporate affairs VP of Nintendo of America. Citing family reasons as the reason for her depature, she also believed that it wasn’t game over for

Ok, we lied. There’s one more risk beyond the Fed meeting that you need to be wary of. It’s tax hikes.

Well… talk of tax hikes. Headline risk.

How come?

Because the President’s working group on deficit reduction is getting into full swing, and it’s a sure thing that the team will propose tax hikes as part of the equation to solve the deficit problem. Now, that doesn’t mean Congress is actually going to the tax hikes.

The path of least resistance — deficit spending — seems like the way forward for now. But there’s going to be a ton of talk about a VAT and other measures to gain revenue.

OMB chief Peter Orszag wrote the following today to kick off the organization’s work:

The President formed the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform because he believes that the path to fiscal stability begins with bi-partisan cooperation. Today, the Commission met with the President and held its first meeting, where I joined them to discuss the Nation’s unsustainable fiscal trajectory and the importance of the task before them.

Recognizing the fiscal future that we face, the Administration has taken major steps to restore fiscal responsibility. The President’s Budget includes more deficit reduction than proposed by a President in any budget in over a decade; by 2015, it would cut the deficit from 5 percent of GDP to 4 percent of GDP.  Furthermore, the comprehensive health insurance reform we have just enacted represents an unprecedented effort to address the forces underlying rising health care costs, and is projected to lower future deficits by more than $100 billion in the first decade and by more than $1 trillion in the next.

More must be done, however. The Commission is charged with recommending measures to reduce the deficit to about 3 percent of GDP by 2015. This result is projected to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio at an acceptable level once the economy recovers — a key measure of fiscal sustainability. The Commission is also tasked with proposing policies to meaningfully improve the long-run fiscal outlook.

Here’s the kicker:

The options to further reduce the deficit may not be popular, but they are necessary. Success will require a commitment from both parties to engage in constructive and honest dialogue, and I look forward to working with the Commission in the weeks and months ahead.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Bernanke: Path To Fiscal Salvation Requires Slash And Burn On Entitlements And Higher Taxes
• CHART OF THE DAY: Your Parents Would Be Stunned At The Taxes You’re Paying
• US Fiscal Policy: Unless We Raise Taxes Or Cut Spending, We’re Screwed

While lots of attention was paid to the claims that the confiscation of Gizmodo reporter Jason Chen’s computer’s would “settle” whether bloggers are considered journalists, the details in that case suggest otherwise. However, a much more important case on that particular question was decided late last week. It’s the case of Shellee Hale, which we’ve covered in the past. Basically, Hale posted some information claiming a security breach at another company. She revealed this information as a comment on another site — and when she was sued, the company demanded she reveal where she got that information from. She claimed that her sources were protected, as she was a journalist.

The court ruled against her, saying that because she had “no connection to any legitimate news publication,” her own investigations weren’t journalism. That’s troubling for a variety of reasons, especially given the wide latitude in determining what constitutes a “legitimate news publication.” Hale appealed, and unfortunately, the ruling last week from the appeals court upheld the lower court’s ruling:

“Simply put, new media should not be confused with news media,” wrote Superior Court Appellate Judge Anthony J. Parrillo.

The court also claimed that her activities were not journalism because they “exhibited none of the recognized qualities or characteristics traditionally associated with the news process, nor has she demonstrated an established connection or affiliation with any news entity.”

Again, this is problematic. In an age of participatory journalism, people who do journalism don’t need “an established connection or affiliation with any news entity.” They can easily establish one with various sites, or they can simply set themselves up as a “news organization” on their own. Furthermore, as technology has changed the whole process of journalism, there’s an awful lot about journalism today that “exhibits none of the recognized qualities or characteristics traditionally associated with the news process.” That’s because the news process is constantly changing — such as its expansion into participatory efforts these days. This ruling is troubling in that it looks backwards, not forward. It’s also a reminder that rather than various broken state laws that shield journalists, it really is time for a federal shield law to protect journalists.

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We know you’re focused on Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Goldman Sachs (GS) right now, but at some point today you should take a few moments to note that the Fed is meeting, and will thus induce a whole new round of nervousness into this market.

Mike O’Rourke at BTIG spells out the key things you need to think about:

The FOMC’s latest policy meeting occurs today and tomorrow.  For nearly a year, FOMC meetings have been either uneventful or unimportant, or both.  The most notable excitement was last November’s meeting when expectations rose that the FOMC might amend or drop the “exceptional and extended” (E&E) language.  It was in that statement that the FOMC essentially locked in the E&E language by  providing an explanation for it.  The FOMC announced the interest rate decision by explaining that, “The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and continues to anticipate that economic conditions, including low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations, are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.”  The bold portion was qualifier language added at that meeting and has remained in subsequent statements to date.  As the recovery now broadens beyond a Financial markets recovery to a real economy recovery, investors need to be prepared  for the FOMC to take monetary policy off the auto pilot mode that it has been on for some time.  As such, FOMC meetings and Fed speeches should garner heightened attention. 

So, what would actually prompt the Fed to change its language and prepare markets for the tightening process?

There are a few key economic indicators heading to the red zone.

Here’s one noticeable “v” which suggests inflation in the offing.

Low capacity utilization has been central to the argument that inflation is basically impossible.

Beyond that, the Fed is watching:

• Unemployment (still very elevated).
• The CPI
• The employment cost index (which is ticking up again)
• Inflation expectations (still calm)
• Commodity index (ticking up again).

Right now, none of the indicators would require the Fed to move towards a more hawkish stance.

But! And here’s the kicker:

Retrospectively, all of the qualifiers the FOMC identified appear tame.  Excess Reserves remain tethered to the Fed despite the exceptionally low interest rates.  M2 is barely growing year over year.  One other aspect we should note is the currently stalled Financial Regulatory Reform Bill, which moderates the Fed’s 13-3 emergency powers.  Essentially, once the Fed begins a permanent unwind of its balance sheet, it may not have the flexibility to bring it back up should the need arise.  The combination of these factors reinforces the current dovish stance the FOMC has taken and the slow unwind as described by Sack.  The conversation does not end there, because the Fed must also look prospectively.

In the March meeting minutes released earlier this month, the FOMC removed the 6 month calendar expectation from E&E that FOMC members previously indicated.  One could argue, that a indicate a shift in language has commenced.  The simple fact is that the data warrants some type of language adjustment.  The two key areas of weakness the FOMC members have highlighted during this recovery have been housing and employment.  The most recent data on both fronts has shown early signs of light.  One month‘s data certainly does not make a trend, but revisions in both cases have been upwards and forward estimates are also in the positive direction.  With economic data ramping up, the Fed can afford the luxury of shifting gear with words, especially since they do not have to follow through with action anytime soon.  Since the Chairman has been so adamantly dovish recently, we cannot say that we know E&E will be altered or gone tomorrow (although it should be), but, at a minimum, we expect a baby step towards tighter language.

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Article Tags: Philip Stott

Click source to read FULL report from Philip Stott

Source: web.me.com/sinfonia1/Clamour_Of_The_Times

Read in full with comments »   

A lot of Sengoku Basara fans missed out when the previous titles weren’t released in the US, but thankfully, that changes with Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, a.k.a. Sengoku Basara 3 in Japan. Looking to see more of

Ligers, tigons and grolar bears, oh my! Take a look at some of these otherworldly hybrid animals and you’ll realize the possibilities are endless. 

Though they rarely occur in nature, individuals from different but closely related species do occasionally mate, and the result is a biological hybrid — an offspring that shares traits from both parent species. You may have heard of the mysterious sheep-pig creature, but it turns
out that one isn’t a true hybrid.

Here are six bizarre, but truly unique half-breeds.

 

(Photo: Wiki Commons / GNU)

Zebroids

A zebroid is the
offspring of a cross between a zebra and any other equine, usually a
horse or a donkey. There are zorses, zonkeys, zonies, and a host of other
combinations.

Zebroids are an interesting example of hybrids bred from
species that have a radically different number of chromosomes. For
instance, horses have 64 chromosomes and zebra have between 32 and 44
(depending on species). Even so, nature finds a way.

 

 

(Photo: Jason Douglas / Wiki Commons / public domain)

Savannah cats

Savannah cats

are the name given to the offspring of a domestic cat and a serval — a
medium-sized, large-eared wild African cat. The
unusual cross became popular among breeders at the end of the 20th
century, and in 2001 the International Cat Association accepted it as a
new registered breed.

Interestingly, savannahs are much more social than
typical domestic cats, and they are often compared to dogs in their
loyalty. They can be trained to walk on a leash and even taught to play
fetch.

 

 

(Photo: aliwest44 / Flickr)

Ligers

Ligers are the cross of a male lion and
a female tiger, and they are the largest of all living cats and
felines. Their massive size may be a result of imprinted genes which are
not fully expressed in their parents, but are left unchecked when the
two different species mate. Some female ligers can grow to 10 feet in
length and weigh more than 700 pounds.

Ligers are distinct from tigons,
which come from a female lion and male tiger. Various other big cat
hybrids have been created too, including leopons (a leopard and a lion
mix), jaguleps (a jaguar and leopard mix), and even lijaguleps (a lion
and jagulep mix).

 

 

(Photo: Mark Interrante (aka pinhole) / Flickr)

Wholphins

A cross between a false killer whale
and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, wholphins are hybrids
that have been reported to exist in the wild. There are currently two in
captivity, both at Sea Life Park in Hawaii.

The wholphin’s size, color, and shape are intermediate between the parent
species. Even their number of teeth is mixed; a bottlenose has 88
teeth, a false killer whale has 44 teeth, and a wholphin has 66.

 

 

(Photo: via Inhabitots.com)

Grolar bears

The offspring of a grizzly bear and a
polar bear, a
grolar bear is one beast you don’t want to meet in the woods.
Interestingly, unlike many hybrid animals on this list, grolar bears are
known to occur naturally in the wild.

Some experts predict that polar
bears may be driven to breed
with grizzly bears at an increased frequency due to global warming,
and the fact that polar bears are being forced from their natural
habitats on the polar ice.

 

 

(Photo: via readthesmiths.com)

Beefalo

Beefalo are the fertile
offspring of domestic cattle and American bison. Crosses also exist
between domestic cattle and European bison (zubrons) and yaks (yakows).
The name given to beefalo might be the most suggestive, since the breed
was purposely created to combine the best characteristics of both
animals with an eye towards beef production.

A USDA study showed that beefalo
meat, like bison meat, tends to be lower
in fat and cholesterol. They are also thought to produce less damage
to range-land than cattle.

Bryan Nelson is a regular contributor to Mother Nature Network, where a
version of this post
originally appeared.

More from Mother Nature Network

• 13 extinct animals found alive
• 15 cute animals that could kill you
• 10 animals that are bad for the environment
• 11 animals that mate for life
• Top nine lonely animals

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You’ve played the game, now buy the music! That’s probably what Sidhe’s thinking. They’ve just announced that Shatter’s soundtrack is coming to the PlayStation Store.