Category: News

by Frank O’Donnell.

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room.

As federal authorities struggle to deal with the BP oil disaster in
the Gulf of Mexico, it is probably useful to remember that power
companies continue poisoning water bodies throughout the nation.  The
power industry’s successful campaign to sidestep toxic pollution
controls has left a legacy of poisoned
rivers and lakes.  As ugly as this legacy seems, the power industry
appears to be maneuvering once again for further delays, trying to use
pending Senate climate legislation as an escape hatch.

A draft version of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act would
create a new task force to examine pending EPA air pollution rules for
the power industry, and make recommendations about weakening or
eliminating public health safeguards in the name of electricity
generation reliability. The American Lung Association has warned that
this provision could undermine
EPA’s efforts to tackle toxic emissions from power plants. That
concern was echoed by NRDC, long a leader in the effort to clean
up toxic mercury:

Specifically, the draft bill establishes a highly
objectionable task force to examine utility industry calls for
exemptions from federal environmental laws and regulations that
utilities allege are impeding power plant retirements or transitions to
cleaner energy. The provision’s language is suffused with utility
industry complaints and rhetoric and pleas for payment, making clear the
design for a biased exercise. Polluter lobbyists deliver a
deregulatory wish list to Congress and federal agencies. The
agencies then are authorized by this bill to propose regulatory changes
to carry out those wishes.

A spokesman for the utility industry said it welcomed
the provision.

The language of the American Power Act is the latest in a long
history of compromises. When Congress passed sweeping and generally
positive revisions to the Clean Air Act in 1990, the legislation
compromised on toxic air pollution.  Frustrated with the generally slow
pace in cleaning up hazardous air emissions, Congress ordered the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to take action to clean up industrial
sources of mercury and other hazardous pollutants.  But, in one fateful
last minute compromise, Congress caved to pressure and gave a special
deal to the powerful electric power industry: EPA was told it could
not set toxic air pollution standards for electric power plants
until it had completed a special study of the industry.

Law makers in 1990 probably could not have imagined that two long
decades later, mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants
remain uncontrolled—even though the power industry is the biggest
domestic source of toxic mercury air pollution in the nation, which has
contaminated all 50 states.

This saga
of delay has several
low points worth recalling:

1995: EPA missed
its initial study deadline, but agreed in a legal settlement with
the Natural Resources Defense Council to complete work on the project.

2000: Despite massive lobbying by the coal-burning power industry,
EPA found that “mercury emissions from electric utility steam generating
units are considered a threat to
public health and the environment,”  and decided to require maximum
achievable controls at all power plants by 2008.  But industry
continued its lobbying campaign—both in Congress and at the EPA.  The
Bush administration’s Orwellian “Clear Skies Initiative” would have
eliminated the mercury control requirement and substituted a weaker
cap-and-trade control strategy.  This may have reduced mercury levels
but could have perpetuated mercury “hot spots.”

2005: After Congress rejected the “Clear Skies” plan, the Bush
administration attempted to rescind tough toxic air pollution control
requirements for the power industry and substitute a weak cap-and-trade
system that would not have required any mercury-specific pollution
controls before 2018.  Because of delays inherent in such a trading
system, the plan would have required approximately a 70 percent reduction in
mercury emissions—but not until the year 2026! A federal court threw
out the Bush plan as illegal, and ordered EPA to go back and follow
the law.

EPA is currently under a legal agreement to propose toxic pollution
requirements for the power industry by March 2011 and to set final
standards by November 2011.  These standards are critical. As the EPA
notes, “Coal-burning power plants are the largest human-caused source
of mercury emissions to the air in the United States, accounting for
over 50 percent of all domestic human-caused mercury emissions.”

As the Environmental Integrity Project recently reported, overall
mercury emissions from power plants were virtually
the same in 2008 as in 2000—and more than half of the dirtiest
power plants actually increased their mercury emissions from 2007 to
2008!

It’s a no-brainer that we need to reduce global warming from power
plants, and the American Power Act would be a step in that direction. 
But it’s critical to reduce mercury and other toxics as well.  Two
decades of delay is far too long.

Related Links:

A chat with energy analyst Trevor Houser about how to assess climate legislation

Deforestation reductions could save U.S. farmers, ranchers, and foresters $220 Billion

Big energy vs. coal ash regulation

Respect for our protectors

“Keeping a promise to nation’s warriors” [Opinion, May 25] was encouraging, but fell short of confronting the issue.

We cannot do enough for our injured veterans and we are not doing enough. It starts with sending them only on missions of clear necessity and moral imperative, making their sacrifice worthy. It precludes recklessly sending them to be cannon fodder for corporate interests and American empire.

These brave, selfless souls want nothing more than to serve their nation and humanity, and what do we do to them?

There is a reason why, as Gen. Peter Chiarelli briefly mentions, mental disorder would be the “signature” of these wars —a reason why our troops return from the Persian Gulf conflicted to commit suicide at alarming rates. Dead civilians, including children, are hard to forget.

The general’s thesis is only about mitigating the resulting tragedy because he can’t, in uniform, question the cause itself: the mission. But we can. Our silence is more than consent; it is betrayal.

— Mark Lindstrom, Redmond

Paint marketers have it rough, as BrandFreak pointed out recently, because it’s difficult to show people just how vibrant or rich or textured their products are from within the confines of a TV commercial (even with the help of animated paint-chip animals). That’s where YouTube can be mighty handy. Dulux, for a European campaign, shot in-progress footage of its "Let’s Colour" project and posted it on the video site. There’s much more to come, like a documentary and other entertainment-based content. It helps, too, that this work, shown in time-lapse photography in the two-minute clip here, changed entire neighborhoods from dirty, drab and graffiti-pocked to bright, clean and tag-free. The community painting events happened over the last four months in the U.K., France, India and Brazil, with 500 volunteers using about 1,800 gallons of Dulux decorative paint. Ad agency Euro RSCG London handled the campaign, which includes a making-of film, Web site, Twitter, Facebook and Orkut. The company also gets points for the gritty ‘hood makeovers and for resisting the temptation to go with some sappy soundtrack like "Color My World" or "True Colors."

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Subsidies eliminate incentives for lower-cost technology

“Stimulus success at Windy Point” [Opinion, May 15] paints a favorable picture for Goldendale, but only tells part of the story.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, Cannon Power Group developed two “Windy Point II” projects and one “Windy Flats IIa” project in 2009. The smallest was 29.9 megawatts and received $19.4 million, probably representing 30 percent of the project cost. It is unclear how much of the remaining 232 MW developed received or would receive funding.

Federal subsidies are apparently necessary because these machines are too expensive relative to their electrical output to compete in the electricity market without them.

However, subsidizing existing technology eliminates incentives to develop and bring lower-cost technology into the market. Paradoxically, taxpayers would be the largest beneficiary of new technology if it eliminated the need for subsidies.

The turbines in the picture were made by Siemens, almost certainly in Europe, though maybe the towers or the blades were made in the United States.

A few months ago, Sen. Chuck Schumer went through the roof when a big project proposed for West Texas was to result in a check for $450 million to a Chinese turbine manufacturer. Only in the United States would this happen.

— Larry Miles, Bellevue

by Brad Johnson.

Cross-posted from Wonk Room.

Officials have finally admitted that the Deepwater Horizon blowout is the worst oil disaster in American history, exceeding the Exxon Valdez spill. After a month of insisting that the damaged well was only spewing 210,000 gallons (5000 barrels) of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, officials admitted this morning that was a gross underestimate. In a conference call, Dr. Marcia McNutt, U.S. Geological Survey Director and chair of the technical group convened to determine the flow rate, announced that the Deepwater Horizon disaster has now spewed between 15 and 40 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, greater than the estimated 11-million-gallon Exxon Valdez disaster.

McNutt explained that the flow rate group used multiple kinds of analysis: satellite imagery, mass balance analysis, and undersea video. McNutt expressed her greatest confidence in the mass balance analysis which estimated the flow rate over the first 27 days of the disaster at between 462,000 and 800,000 gallons (11,000 to 19,000 barrels) of oil a day. The video analysis team estimated an upper bound of one million gallons of oil a day.  When asked if this spill exceed the Exxon Valdez disaster, McNutt replied, “You can do the math.”

A week and a half ago, McNutt said, officials were able to directly measure the composition of the plumes coming from the leak points. They found that 75 percent of the plumes were in fact natural gas, and only 25 percent oil, which is why outside video analysis that did not use that figure was so much higher.

If the top-kill efforts are unsuccessful and the gusher continues for the two months before the relief wells are estimated to work, the ultimate amount of oil spilled could be greater than 100 million gallons.

Throughout the course of the disaster, BP and administration officials made false claims about the scope of the disaster and the importance of finding out the flow rate, despite far different estimates from outside experts. As late as this week, National Oceanic and Atmospheric administrator Jane Lubchenco continued to insist the laughably low-ball number used since April 28 was the “best estimate.”

Update: More explanation of the mass balance analysis:

A mass-balance team made its estimate based upon the volume of oil seen on the surface of the water, saying that it believed 130,000-270,000 bbl [5.5 million to 11.3 million gallons] of oil was on the surface on May 17. Using that estimate along with calculations of oil already burned, skimmed, dispersed, or evaporated, the team calculated a flow rate estimate of 12,000-19,000 b/d [500,000 to 800,000 gallons per day].

Update: Documents released by Global Warming Committee chair Ed Markey reveal the 5000-barrel estimate was made April 26, with a error range of 1000 to 14,000 barrels, based on both satellite imagery and undersea analysis, something BP later claimed was impossible.

 

Related Links:

The Climate Post: BP oil spill washes up on Potomac shores

The Climate Post: BP Oil Spill Washes up Potomac

Finally: Obama halts new offshore leases and stumps for climate bill

As my readers well know, I’ve long been a champion of mobile VoIP services, from Gizmo to Truphone to Nimbuz to Skype. I’ve used and at some point, liked them all, though lately I’m fixated on Skype, mostly because of how simply it works. I think it will be one of the winners of the mobile VoIP sweepstakes, a market expected to grow to 100 million users by 2012, according to Juniper Research.

According to a report released by the UK firm today titled “Mobile Voice Strategies: mVoIP Opportunities & Business Models,” a large portion of mobile VoIP traffic is going to run over Wi-Fi networks, thus diminishing the circuit switch market. It estimates that by 2015, VoIP traffic over Wi-Fi will account for about $5 billion in revenues.

As mobile VoIP continues to gain momentum, I expect to see phone companies — which have been fighting the mobile VoIP wave tooth and nail — start buying up startups in the space, many of which have built products that go beyond plain-vanilla calling plans. Nimbuzz, Truphone, iSkoot and others are all ripe for acquisition by the likes of major international mobile players. As to potential buyers, I think Vodafone, T-Mobile and AT&T will be among the first looking to cash in on the action.

---

[JURIST] A California judge on Wednesday consolidated more than 40 pending state court claims against Toyota [corporate website; JURIST news archive] relating to an alleged safety defect that caused cars to accelerate out of control. The claims include consumer-fraud class action and personal injury lawsuits. Judge Carl West of the Los Angeles County Superior Court [official website] recommended [Reuters report] that the state court lawsuits be heard by a judge in Orange County. The final decision on whether to consolidate the claims will be made by state Supreme Court [official website] Chief Justice Ronald George, who is expected to announce his decision in two to three weeks. Toyota is also facing more than 100 federal lawsuits, which were consolidated [JURIST report] last month. The state and federal claims will remain separate.

Last month, Toyota accepted a record civil penalty of $16.375 million [JURIST report] imposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) [official website] for a four-month delay in notifying the agency about a problem with “sticky” and “slow to return pedal” gas pedals in various car models. The fine, the largest ever assessed against a car maker, was based on a preliminary review of extensive corporate documents attained through an investigation [press release] launched by the NHTSA in February. Toyota has been under federal scrutiny since December 2009, and has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles.

Somewhere, Bill Clinton is smiling. One-time special prosecutor who uncovered the dirty details of the former President’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky has been engaged in some bad behavior of his own, according to the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission.

Correction (~3:18pm): Apparently there are two famous Kenneth Starrs. The one charged is an investment advisor to the stars, but not the former special prosecutor. Apologies to Bill Clinton if we got his hopes up — and to the other Kenneth Starr.

Kenneth Starr, notable Hollywood investment advisor — not the former special prosecutor of the same name who detailed the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair — is being charged with running a $30 million Ponzi scheme. Complaints have been filed by both the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Financial Times Alphaville blog breaks the news. It explains that Starr provided investment and tax advisory services for a number of high profile clients. Many of those are big names in entertainment including Martin Scorsese, Annie Leibovitz, Sylvester Stallone, and Wesley Snipes. The DOJ claims (.pdf) that Starr defrauded his clients, one of which it even says is an actress. In particular, there are five charges:

• Wire Fraud
• Investment Advisor Fraud
• Money Laundering
• False Statements in an IRS Filing
• False Statements to a Federal Officer

A separate, but similar, SEC complaint against Starr Investment Advisors LLC and Starr & Company LLC explains some of the alleged activity:

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, Starr and his companies transferred $7 million from the accounts of three clients between April 13 and April 16, 2010, without any authorization. The transferred funds were ultimately used to purchase a $7.6 million apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan on April 16. When one of the clients detected the unauthorized transfer and demanded the money be returned, Starr reimbursed that client with money siphoned from the account of another client without authorization. The other two investors have not been reimbursed.

This sounds like pretty prototypical Ponzi scheme maneuvering. Take money from one client, channel it to another when necessary, and keep some for yourself. The DOJ complaint has similar sorts of allegations in even greater detail. It explains the tax scheme accusation, which involves former President of the New York City Council Andrew Stein, who Starr advised.

The SEC lawsuit also lists Starr’s wife Diane Passage as a defendant whose assets have been seized.

Update: Daily Beast reports that the actress mentioned above who was defrauded is Uma Thurman.

Bill Clinton – Manhattan – Monica Lewinsky – Sylvester Stallone – Upper East Side

We are big fans of Almondina cookies.  Trader Joe’s carries the original flavor of these thin, crisp cookie-biscuits and we almost always have it in our carts.  Wona and I don’t do a huge number of straight product reviews aside from things we use in recipes, but once in a while we’ll tell you about something we really love.  We contacted Almondina not too long ago and asked if they would please sponsor an Almondina giveaway to our readers.  We were thrilled for two reasons:  First of all, they said yes (woohoo! details below!).  Second, they told us that a new flavor was going to be hitting Trader Joe’s stores.  What!?  Yes, they said, (cue fanfare)…Chocolate Cherry.

Trader Joe’s has carried the Original Almondina flavor for a long time.  I would describe these cookies as a super-thin biscotti, light, very crunchy, and pretty addictive.  Every cross-section has almonds, raisins, and lots of dense crunch.  They’re not overly sweet, which I like, and there’s no added fat or salt, which is another plus.  They’re also free of artificial ingredients and preservatives, check! Occasionally, I’ll pack a couple as a dessert in the kids’ lunches, and I feel like it’s a nice and healthy cookie option.  My kids are highly anti-raisin and always have been, but they happily munch away on Almondinas.  If you have never tried them, they’re the kind of cookie-biscuit that goes great with a hot cup of tea of coffee.  If you want to get fancy, you can spread a little fresh goat cheese, cream cheese, or mascarpone cheese on them.  You can even top it off with a few thin slices of cucumber!  (Good appetizer idea…just don’t make them too far ahead of time or else they will get soggy)

I have to be honest and say that I never knew how many varieties of Almondina there are!  Most of my shopping is at Trader Joe’s (I figure you already know that) and I had never looked for Almondina at other grocers.  Taking a look at the Almondina website,  I’m pretty sure I counted 11 varieties, including Cinnaroma, Gingerspice, Choconut, and an Anniversary cookie that has a touch of anise.  The Sesame variety is great for savory toppings.

And of course, now there’s Chocolate Cherry!  My kids and I did a taste testing of these and they are just as good as they sound.  The cocoa-y flavor is a perfect complement to the sweet tang of cherries, a classic combination that really comes together in this crunchy treat.  If you haven’t already spotted it on the shelves at Trader Joe’s, it should be arriving any day.  OR, maybe you’ll get lucky and win the sampler pack in our giveaway – comment below to enter!

Giveaway: One lucky random winner will get a 12-pack sampler case of Almondina cookies.  The rest of us will be so jealous! Enter by commenting below on this thread.  That’s it!  Tell us if you’re an Almondina fan, if you’ve tried them, how you enjoy them, or if you’ve explored any of the other flavors.  If you’ve never tried Almondina, comment and maybe you’ll get lucky and hit big!  One entry per person and US residents only please!

Deadline: Enter by Midnight PST Friday June 4th, 2010

A report from University College London is pointing towards a near term eruption of Iceland’s giant volcano, Katla, according to MSNBC.com (heard through Zero Hedge).

The President of Iceland has also cautioned against an imminent eruption saying that Europe, its governments, and its airline industry needs to prepare.

Katla happens to be one of the largest, southernmost volcanoes in Iceland, potentially causing an even graver threat to Europe than Eyjafjallajökull.

Map from Arctic Portal:

Join the conversation about this story »

Article Tags: Alan Siddons, Headline Story, John O'Sullivan, NASA

NASA covered up for forty years proof that the greenhouse gas theory was bogus. But even worse, did the U.S. space agency fudge its numbers on Earth’s energy budget to cover up the facts?

As per my article this week, forty years ago the space agency, NASA, proved there was no such thing as a greenhouse gas effect because the ‘blackbody’ numbers supporting the theory didn’t add up in a 3-dimensional universe:

“During lunar day, the lunar regolith absorbs the radiation from the sun and transports it inward and is stored in a layer approximately 50cm thick….in contrast with a precipitous drop in temperature if it was a simple black body, the regolith then proceeds to transport the stored heat back onto the surface, thus warming it up significantly over the black body approximation…“

Thus, the ‘blackbody approximations’ were proven to be as useful as a chocolate space helmet; the guesswork of using the Stefan-Boltzmann equations underpinning the man-made global warming theory was long ago debunked. If NASA had made known that Stefan-Boltzmann’s numbers were an irrelevant red-herring then the taxpayers of the world would have been spared the $50 billion wasted on global warming research; because it would have removed the only credible scientific basis to support the theory that human emissions of carbon dioxide changed Earth’s climate.

But, until May 24, 2010 these facts remained swept under the carpet. For the Apollo missions NASA had successfully devised new calculations to safely put astronauts on the Moon-based on actual measured temperatures of the lunar surface. But no one appears to have told government climatologists who, to this day, insist their junk science is ‘settled’ based on their bogus ‘blackbody’ guesswork.

Read in full with comments »   

Wind industry manufacturer Alstom today joined officials of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation to begin construction of its 115,000 square foot wind turbine assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas.

The facility, which is scheduled to be operational in 2011, is expected to create 275 full time engineering, production, and technical support jobs when the plant is at full capacity. The project was announced earlier this week in Dallas at the American Wind Energy Association’s WINDPOWER 2010 conference.

“The North American wind power market—already one of the strongest in the world—is projected to continue to grow as legislators, regulators, NGOs, and the public seek the benefits that clean, renewable wind power is perfectly suited to deliver,” Alfonso Faubel, Alstom Wind Vice President, said in a statement. “Amarillo is the ideal location for Alstom’s wind power manufacturing hub in North America because it is centrally located in an area that is expected to create a substantial number of new wind power projects over the next several years.

“In addition, Amarillo has invested in the infrastructure needed to transport the sizeable equipment to potential sites all across North America and the resources needed to train its work force to be as productive as possible.”

Workers at the Amarillo facility will assemble the “nacelles” — i.e., the generator, gearbox, and control systems — that make up a wind turbine. The nacelles will be transported to sites where they will be combined with blades and a tower to create the complete wind turbine generator.

Alstom Wind, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, has thus far installed or is installing over 1850 wind turbines in more than 100 wind farms, corresponding to a total capacity of over 2200 megawatts.

Green job facts

Project: Wind turbine assembly facility
Location: Amarillo, Texas
Total jobs: 275 full-time
Specialties: Engineering, production, and technical support

Related video from Alstom

Accident leaves no second thoughts for bike lane

This is a response to “W. Nickerson St. will get bike lane” [NWWednesday, May 12].

I had a serious bike accident on West Nickerson Street when commuting to work. I was knocked unconscious, broke my collarbone and was dizzy for six months.

Nickerson Street is dangerous for bikes, and cars. The lanes are too narrow for the current high speeds and curves. Changing to a single wider lane, plus a bike lane is safer for everyone. I drive it, too, and a single lane is plenty for the traffic. The city has been planning this for years; it is the smart choice.

— Tim Hesterberg, Seattle

Craigslist has launched Craigslist TV, a new weekly web series that highlights the sites and the frequent posters who love it.

Considering that the majority of Craigslist users are pussy peddlers auctioning their catbags to the highest bidders, this new podcast could easily turn into a modern-day revival of Hookers at the Point!

(Grabbing popcorn and tuning in anticipation….)

The San Francisco-based classified ads site, offers listings for housing, jobs, platonic friendships, and massages (Hint, Hint) in some of the nation’s largest cities.

Now people can get a view of the users who posts on the site frequently. Take spunky Californian Charity for instance. Charity is fed up with the dating scene and has turned to Craigslist with an Open Casting Call for a new husband!

The first season of Craigslist TV will feature 14 episodes uploaded every Tuesday.

Seems like a bit more compatible than once thought. At least for the western power grid.

From the link:

More than a third of the electricity in the western United States could come from wind and solar power without installing significant amounts of backup power. And most of this expansion of renewable energy could be done without installing new interstate transmission lines, according to a new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO. But the study says increasing the amount of renewables on the grid will require smart planning and cooperation between utilities.

The NREL findings provide a strong counterargument to the idea that the existing power grid is insufficient to handle increasing amounts of renewable power. As California and other states require utilities to use renewable sources for significant fractions of their electricity, some experts have warned that measures to account for the variability of wind and solar power could be costly. At the extreme, they speculated, every megawatt of wind installed could require a megawatt of readily available conventional power in case the wind stopped blowing. But the NREL findings, like other recent studies, suggest that the costs could be minimal, especially in the West.

“The studies are showing the costs are a lot lower than what people thought they were going to be,” says Daniel Brooks, project manager for power delivery and utilization at the Electric Power Research Institute. Even if wind farms had to pay for the necessary grid upgrades and backup power themselves, they could still sell electricity at competitive rates, he says.

Toxins for the Fourth

Editor, The Times:

After reading “Puget Sound’s slow oil spill” [Opinion, May 20], I thought how the Northwest has one of the most concerned and environmentally devoted populations in the country, except on the Fourth of July.

Has anyone noticed how the awareness our actions take a vacation every July? How many thousands of tons of toxic byproducts do we send into our local waters in the form of incendiary fireworks? Residents all along the waterfront spend hours doing this with abandon.

What percentage of the yearly toxins that we send into our waters occurs on our nation’s birthday? Think about that.

— Steven Short, Mercer Island

The Lancet has just published a large prospective study demonstrating the protective effect of HIV treatment on the risk of viral transmission:

3381 couples were eligible for analysis … Only one of 103 genetically-linked HIV-1 transmissions was from an infected participant who had started ART, corresponding to transmission rates of 0·37 (95% CI 0·09—2·04) per 100 person-years in those who had initiated treatment and 2·24 (1·84—2·72) per 100 person-years in those who had not—a 92% reduction (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0·08, 95% CI 0·00—0·57, p=0·004).

A similar observation was made in an earlier study presented at CROI 2009, not yet published.  (Both that study and the Lancet paper were covered in AIDS Clinical Care when originally presented; see here and here).  Would the rate actually be zero if limited only to those with undetectable viral loads on treatment?  Perhaps.

Nonetheless, here’s the bottom line:  HIV treatment dramatically, hugely, ginormously reduces the risk of HIV transmission. 

(My daughter several years ago predicted that ginormous would become a word.  She was right.)

Yes, we can quibble with some of the details — the 2009 study did not include viral load measurements, this one in the Lancet was actually part of a study of HSV treatment hence the results are observational, protection is not 100% – but is there any doubt that HIV treatment is currently our most effective way of preventing the spread of HIV?

Some will say that the definitive study on this issue is HPTN 052, which randomizes the HIV-infected member of a couple to go on treatment or to wait until the CD4 cell count drops below 250.  Primary endpoint is rate of infection to the seronegative partners.

But that study is likely to exclude those most likely to transmit HIV, since it’s limited to people with HIV who have no symptoms, a relatively high CD4 cell count, and hence on average a lower viral burden.

Seems a no-brainer to me.  Treatment is prevention.

Only days after the Center for Science in the Public Interest ruined everyone’s dinner plans with their list of the worst meals available at U.S. restaurants, the muscle-bound dudes over at Men’s Health Magazine have released their own list of the worst drinks in America.

Topping the list is the PB&C shake from Cold Stone Creamery, which in the 24 oz. (aka “gotta have it”) size contains 2,010 calories, 131 g fat (68 g saturated) and 153 g sugars. The Men’s Health people put it in perspective, equating one shake to 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies and claiming it has as much saturated fat as 68 strips of bacon.

Also on the Men’s Health Worst Drink list:

* Smoothie King Peanut Power Plus Grape (large, 40 fl oz):
1,498 calories; 44 g fat (8 g saturated); 214 g sugars

* McDonald’s Triple Thick Chocolate Shake (large, 32 fl oz):
1,160 calories; 27 g fat (16 g saturated, 2 g trans); 168 g sugars

* Krispy Kreme Lemon Sherbet Chiller (20 fl oz):
980 calories; 40 g fat (36 g saturated); 115 g sugars

* Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Soda (vanilla ice cream and cola) (large, 28.6 fl oz):
960 calories; 40 g fat (25 g saturated, 1.5 g trans); 136 g sugars

To see all 20 belly-busting beverages on the list, head over to Men’s Health.

20 Worst Drinks in America 2010 [Menshealth.com]

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association today announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University’s 359th Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers follow:

Cheryl Dorsey (New York City) is the president of Echoing Green, a global venture fund that supports emerging innovators seeking to bring about positive social change. She is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B.’85), Harvard Medical School (M.D. ’92), and the Kennedy School of Government (M.P.P. ’92).

Walter Isaacson (Washington, D.C.), former editor of Time magazine and past chairman of CNN, is the CEO of the Aspen Institute and the author of several books, including biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. After graduating from Harvard College in 1974, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (M.A ’76).

Nicholas D. Kristof (New York City), a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist and former international correspondent for The New York Times. He graduated from Harvard College in 1981 and studied law at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (M.A. ’88).

Karen Nelson Moore (Cleveland, OH) is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She previously served on the faculty of Case Western Reserve Law School. She received two degrees from Harvard, an A.B. in 1970 and J.D. in 1973, and is a past vice president of the Harvard Alumni Association.

Diana Nelson (San Francisco, Calif.), an advocate for education reform and a trustee of the World Childhood Foundation, is director of the Carlson Companies, which operates hotel, travel, and restaurant enterprises. She is a former chair of the Harvard College Fund. She holds degrees from Harvard (A.B. ’84) and Northwestern (M.B.A. ’89).

The five new Overseers were each elected for six-year terms. They were chosen from a slate of eight candidates, who were nominated by a Harvard Alumni Association committee according to the election rules. Harvard degree holders cast 31,945 ballots in the election.

The primary function of the Board of Overseers is to encourage the University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning. Drawing on the diverse experience and expertise of its members, the board exerts broad influence over the University’s strategic directions, provides essential counsel to the University’s leadership on priorities and plans, has the power of consent to certain actions such as the election of Corporation members, and directs the visitation process by which a broad array of Harvard Schools and departments are periodically reviewed.