This is possibly the best possible use that Michelle Obama can make of the bully pulpit afforded her.  Everyone acknowledges the issue itself and yet it is difficult to divert political attention directly to it.

The press of course jumps on the story line that food woes are the direct result of ‘industrial agriculture”.  This is complete hooey.  To the extent that a problem exists it is because of choices.  If you are stupid enough to supply children with food that lacks nutrition and promotes obesity, then who is at fault.

Why does it take a national regulation to avoid loading up kids with sugar and starch?  Would you allow your own diet to be so dominated?

It does take a national initiative to support parents in determining what is appropriate.

In my own experience we rarely brought classic junk food into the home for our children.  In fact, I never understood why parents ever stocked most of this stuff in their homes.  Our children then at least had to walk (or run) many blocks to make such a purchase.  I also quickly got the children to man paper routes to produce the coin needed to actually buy the stuff.

It is not difficult to provide inexpensive and nutritious school lunches if you use some imagination.  Legumes are invaluable to support a properly balanced diet and allow expensive meat products to be eased out of the budget.  Much of the problem in the present day regime is adherence to far too many theoretical goals when what is normally called for is a filling comfort food able to carry the child to suppertime when the parents take over.

Recall how the simple expedient of enriching corn meal for tortillas in Mexico largely eliminates a major source of malnutrition.

It is not a case of money but of making sure good sense rules.  This is something Michelle is in position to possibly deliver with a first lady’s children’s initiative or foundation if necessary.  Go for it!

Michelle Obama vows to “move the ball” on kids’ diets

19 JAN 2010 9:00 AM

BY TOM PHILPOTT

American manufacturer Chrysler, together with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), announced the recall of no less than 24,177 of the carmaker’s Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles.

The recall, as posted on the NHTSA website, states "Chrysler is recalling model year 2010 Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Avenger and Nitro, Jeep Liberty, Commander and Grand Cherokee and model year 2009-2010 Dodge Ram truck. These vehicles may have been built with an improperly formed or missin… (read more)

If UAVs starts running on the solar system, then it will save lots of expensive fossil fuel and the add-ons in the form of greenhouse effects. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology are working on a model of a solar-powered unmanned flight system for round-the-clock surveillance. They have christened their baby as the […]
Posted in: Inventions, Solar Power, Transportation

Yesterday, Mitsubishi confirmed the European-spec compact crossover model that will be showcased at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in March. Codenamed ASX, the new model will go on sale across Europe in spring this year, with other markets to receive it during the course of 2010.

Although in Europe the ASX will be offered with start-stop technology, the car won’t feature fuel-saving systems in Australia, a separate market likely to receive the model by year end.

"There are a few issues th… (read more)

A German attack in Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of scores of civilians. German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the European country’s role in the occupation of this central Asian nation.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

A tale of two armies

By John Catalinotto
Published Jan 17, 2010 8:32 PM

Despite the Pentagon’s unmatched high-tech weapons and firepower, the U.S. military is bogged down by glaring weaknesses rooted in the capitalist system it operates to defend. The resistance fighters, with far less firepower, have shown the ability to innovate and adapt their tactics to the needs of their war to liberate Afghanistan.

The Pentagon’s difficulties in creating a special program to carry out colonial interventions in Afghanistan and Pakistan have exposed its weakness.

Before Gen. Stanley McChrystal took charge of the Afghanistan occupation last year, he had chaired a special group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that came up with the “Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands Program.” In November the Pentagon announced the program, saying it would create three units of 304 people each, 912 in total, to form the new corps.

The program’s main innovation is that instead of the customary one-year rotation in the region, officers who volunteer or are assigned to it would expect to spend three to five years on duty there. They would start with 16-week training courses in Urdu, Pashtu or Dari, the three major languages in the region, and would become expert in the history and culture of the peoples living there.

The order was that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps appoint a proportional number of their “best people” to this program. These personnel would be involved as trainers, military planners and advisers to Afghan ministries. In other words, they would be the backbone of a colonial takeover of the countries and peoples.

In theory, such a corps might become a weapon against any resistance or liberation movement. But so far, the Armed Forces have only come up with 172 officers ready to take on the assignment. In addition, according to a Jan. 6 New York Times article, Joint Chiefs chair Adm. Mike Mullen chewed out the heads of the four armed services in mid-December for failing to pick the most suitable people among the too few they sent.

When a military force is serving the cause of building an empire, and the basic goal of the empire is to increase the profits of the banks and corporations, the military too adapts to these pressures. What is the major goal of the officers? It’s advancing their careers.

Since advancement has always come through a succession of one-year assignments, the officers preferred to avoid the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands Program.

In turn, the top brass in each service were also reluctant to send their “best people” to this special unit. That meant giving up their most capable subordinates, the ones who would help the careers of the top officers. This too became an obstacle.

In an attempt to redress this failure, Mullen criticized the top brass on the one hand and on the other hand promised that the careers of those in the special unit would advance. Whether this combination of stick-and-carrot will create the desired colonial corps is yet to be determined.

The resistance army

The resistance army can tell a completely different story. Resistance fighters already know the local languages and customs: They are part of the people. Even by the Pentagon’s reports they are growing in strength and influence, and the population sees them as the local fighters while it sees the U.S.-NATO forces as the invaders.

The resistance has also been flexible in adapting its tactics. Perhaps nothing showed that more than the bombing strike on the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman on Dec. 30, which killed seven CIA operatives, including some top officers, and a Jordanian officer along with the resistance agent. According to the latest version of the events, the resistance forces operating in Khost province decided it was necessary to strike back after unpiloted airplanes — drones — killed some of their leaders along with a lot of other people.

They took the decision to sacrifice a skilled double agent, himself a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, who was serving the resistance out of idealism and hatred of imperialism. He didn’t hesitate. His choice was the complete opposite of worrying about a career move.

There is no doubt the Pentagon can bring much destruction to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and its people. There is plenty of reason to doubt it can vanquish the resistance.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Blackwater, USA contractors attacked in Fallujah, Iraq during 2004
Originally uploaded by panafnewswire

U.S. mercenaries charged with long list of crimes

Published Jan 17, 2010 8:35 PM

The murderous mercenary outfit formerly known as Blackwater and now called Xe has been making headlines all January, with most stories showing how deeply committed the CIA and Pentagon are to outsourcing a portion of the task of re-conquering the former colonial world.

A U.S. court threw out murder charges against four Blackwater employees for a massacre of 17 unarmed civilians in Nisoor Square in Baghdad in September 2007 and wounding 20 more — but only because of “prosecutorial misconduct,” not because any evidence indicated they weren’t guilty. Even the Iraqi puppet regime complained when they were set free.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who has sponsored legislation that would prevent the government from outsourcing security to private military contractors, expressed her displeasure at the court’s decision. “A question I’ve been asking for a long time is, ‘Can these private military contractors actually get away with murder?’ This indicates that the answer is yes.” (Los Angeles Times, Jan. 8)

In a civil case involving the same massacre, families of some of the Iraqis killed and some wounded Iraqis agreed to accept payments. They were not necessarily satisfied with the settlement, but accepted it after they were warned it might be the last chance to get anything from the courts.

Two subcontracted Xe hirelings in Afghanistan were arrested there Jan. 7 and now face murder charges for gunning down two Afghan civilians and wounding a third last May in Kabul. In this case Xe terminated the mercenaries and dissociated itself from the case as much as possible. The two had been training the Afghan National Army.

Two of the seven CIA agents killed at Forward Base Chapman in Khost province on Dec. 30 turned out to be mercenaries working for Xe, one a former Navy Seal and another a former Army Special Forces troop.

That’s in the countries that the U.S. is occupying. In addition, January’s Vanity Fair reports that in 2004 the CIA apparently hired Xe contractors as hit men to carry out an assassination or assassinations in Germany.

“Among the team’s targets, according to a source familiar with the program, was Mamoun Darkazanli, an al Qaeda financier living in Hamburg who had been on the agency’s radar for years because of his ties to three of the 9/11 hijackers and to operatives convicted of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa,” writes Vanity Fair.

“The CIA team supposedly went in ‘dark,’ meaning they did not notify their own station — much less the German government — of their presence; they then followed Darkazanli for weeks and worked through the logistics of how and where they would take him down,” continues Vanity Fair. That report has been repeatedly cited in the German media. Sentiment is already strong in Germany against being dragged into the U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan.

Perhaps the most blatant crime U.S. forces committed recently — it’s not known yet if these are U.S. troops or a special paramilitary unit consisting of soldiers of fortune — has not yet gotten the same publicity as the above cases within the U.S. It was reported in the Dec. 31 edition of the Times of London.

According to that report, U.S.-led troops were accused of dragging innocent children from their beds on Dec. 27 and shooting them during a night raid that left 10 people dead. Eight schoolchildren were killed, according to Afghan government investigators. People from the local area told Jerome Starkey, the Times reporter, that some of the children were wearing handcuffs when they were shot.

E-mail: [email protected]

Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

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This bit must be classed almost as high comedy.  The IPCC’s reputation is descending into the abyss as a direct result of the recent revelations.  This item merely adds fuel and has come to light because of the revelations of climate gate.  It appears that I have vastly more related qualifications than ‘the world’s top climate scientist’.  After all, economic theory attracts folks whose mathematical skills are at best minimal. 

Now it turns out that our genius has been collecting endorsements like a sportsman from those most benefiting from his regime.  This whole scene would shame a practiced con man, who I would expect to be far more subtle.

The trail of this reported finding is even more unbelievable. The New Scientist is certainly a reliable science magazine and typically does an excellent job of confirming sources.  Yet it is still journalism and is certainly able to get things wrong.  That is why I always note the source of a given story and try to maintain a strong element of skepticism.   Over time though, everyone can get caught.

The most famous gold salting scandal of all time caught out and destroyed men with solid careers and decades of experience checking for exactly the type of fraud pulled.  The weight of success eventually warded of all newcomers with the sheer weight of manufactured evidence and the weight of known authorities who had claimed to have reviewed the data and had.  In short, the snowball kept gathering mass until no one could stand against it.

In the end, you had to know it was fraud in order to see what was in front of you.

The same situation has occurred with IPCC.

THE NEW CLIMATE CHANGE SCANDAL

By Anil Dawar

We’ve harped about manufacturers constantly pushing nearly useless dynamic contrast numbers on us for so long that we half-expected this announcement to be about some phantom billion to one number. Well done Samsung, then, for focusing on the static (or real) contrast ratio of 3,000:1 on its sparkling new F2370H and F2380MX 23-inchers. These are certainly not the first panels to reach that plateau (check the Prad link below showing the Eizo EV2333 achieving 5,000:1 in testing), but let’s not argue over PR semantics. They do boast higher contrast than most and both come with 1920 x 1080 resolution and HDMI inputs, whereas the more professionally oriented 2380 model (see our hands-on here) also boasts height and swivel adjustments along with an extra DVI port. Priced at 397,000 KRW ($350) and 417,000 KRW ($370), the two new SyncMasters are coming to Korea soon and the rest of the world seems an inevitability as well.

Samsung unveils SyncMasters with the ‘world’s highest’ contrast ratio originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brain teaser time: Name the Bothell, WA-based biotech company that has never raised a nickel from local VCs, has scored a partnership with a Big Pharma company, operates on a cash-flow positive basis, and plans to more than double in size from 40 employees to about 100 this year.

Think it’s Alder Biopharmaceuticals? Guess again. It’s Acucela.

Acucela has the ambitious goal of fundamentally changing the way doctors treat the so-called “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration, which damages the eyesight of an estimated 29 million elderly people worldwide. The company was spun out of the University of Washington in 2002 by Ryo Kubota, an ophthalmologist on the faculty at the time. His dream is to create a once-daily oral pill that can slow down the progressive vision loss that comes with the dry form of macular degeneration, and ultimately to keep these aging patients from going blind.

The company got a big lift in September 2008 when it struck a partnership with Japan-based Otsuka Pharmaceutical to co-develop its lead drug candidate, and this month it took another big step by entering the first clinical trial that will assess what kind of effect its drug will have on the eyesight of between 50 to 100 elderly patients.

“We want to build a great company, and we want to build it to last. Our investors and our partner believes in it,” Kubota says.

Since Acucela doesn’t usually make a lot of news, some background is certainly in order. Acucela is vying to develop the first effective therapy for the dry form of age-related macular degeneration. It’s caused by yellowish buildups and a loss of pigment in the retina as people age. There is no approved treatment for this disease, unlike the “wet” form of age-related macular degeneration, which can be treated with Roche’s bevacizumab (Avastin) and ranibizumab (Lucentis), which cut off blood flow to leaky vessels behind the eye. The dry form of the disease is generally milder, but the market opportunity is thought to be huge, because as populations around the world age, it is expected to double in incidence over the next two decades.

Acucela’s idea comes in the form of a once-daily pill it calls ACU-4429. The drug is designed to block an enzyme called isomerase. By blocking that enzyme, Acucela hopes to slow down the visual cycle in which Vitamin A is constantly replenished. While people need a constant source of Vitamin A to see, a fast visual cycle can also contribute to the buildup of toxic Vitamin A byproducts in the eye, particularly one called A2E.

Back in May, Acucela presented the first evidence from a clinical trial that said its drug was on track. The initial trial enrolled 36 healthy volunteers at an escalating series of doses, and basically concluded that the drug was safe and well-tolerated.

This month, Acucela is attempting to pass a tougher test. The company started enrolling elderly people with severe cases of the dry form of macular degeneration. The trial, called Envision, will randomly assign patients to get the drug, or a placebo, at a variety of once-daily doses. Patients will be followed up for three months, and researchers will look at how well they can read letters on the eye chart, and a secondary goal that will assess whether the drug is working as intended, by reducing the amount of toxic byproduct buildup in the eye. It’s possible that the trial, as long as it appears safe at escalating doses, could enroll as many as 100 patients, Kubota says. It’s expected to take about one year to complete enrollment, and results should be available by mid-2011, he says.

Although Acucela is entering uncharted territory with a new way of treating this disease, it has competition from Tampa, FL-based Sirion Therapeutics. The competing drug is an oral pill like Acucela’s, made to circulate through the bloodstream, although it is designed to hit a different target than Acucela’s, Kubota says.

While Acucela awaits results from its mid-stage clinical trial, it is working to build up a lot of organizational strength this year, Kubota says. People with expertise in clinical development, preclinical development, and regulatory affairs are being recruited this year. By the end of 2010, Acucela expects to have hired about 60 new people, bringing its staff to about 100, he says. The company hopes to have that organizational horsepower in place by the time it expects to enter the final phase of clinical trials with ACU-4429, for an even more rigorous study that will assess patients’ vision for 18 to 24 months, Kubota says.

Although it’s rare among biotech companies without marketed products, Acucela has been able to operate on a cash-flow positive basis of late, Kubota says. That’s because Otsuka is paying for the company’s R&D expenses, while Acucela has received undisclosed milestone payments for getting this far in development, Kubota says.

“We’re going to be running big clinical trials,” Kubota says. “We think we can change the disease paradigm. Our goal is to cure blindness. It’s a huge ambition.”

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In a press release that never actually uses the word delay, Sony announced that they’ve delayed the launch of their PlayStation 3 Motion Controller from its original spring release to fall of this year.

Although a specific reason for the delay wasn’t explicitly given, it looks like it probably amounted to Sony needing more time to launch the device with a strong line-up of compatible games. “We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users,” explained SCE president and group CEO Kaz Hirai. “We will continue to work to have a comprehensive portfolio of attractive and innovative games for the Motion Controller, not only from SCE Worldwide Studios but also from the third party developers and publishers, whom we have been working closely with.”

And in a separate but related PS3 motion controller rumor floating around the net, VG247 reports that an official name for the device has been chosen: According to an anonymous but “concrete source,” the name is Arc. Yes, Arc. No explanation for this supposed name was given (all weird controller names need an equally weird and strained explanation, don’t they?), but Sony gave VG247 a standard “we don’t comment on rumor or speculation” response.

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Motus Motorcycles, which are intensively working on developing the first V4-powered American sport touring motorcycle, partnered with Katech Engines to complete the world’s first direct-injected V4 engine. Dubbed KMV4, the engine is destined to be used in Motus MST motorcycles, including the MST-01 and MST-R machines.

"To create the ultimate sport tourer, we had to either work around the shortcomings of available engines or develop a purpose built engine for our application," Brian … (read more)

Europe’s second biggest carmaker, PSA Peugeot Citroen, has cut 5,700 French Jobs, surpassing the 3,500 voluntary departure target set in 2009, Bloomberg wrote.

One thousand seven hundred people no longer work in Peugeot’s factory in Rennes, France, for which the carmaker targeted 850 buyouts as it shut down an assembly line last year, company spokesman Pierre-Olivier Salmon told the aforementioned source.

Peugeot is reducing costs as it is trying to obtain a similar profit margin to that … (read more)

The two women that caught the eyes of all racing enthusiasts in the North American IndyCar Series – one way or the other, with more or less success – Danica Patrick and Milka Duno are set to conquer the world of stock racing also. And, since there has to be a start for everything, both have announced racing debuts in the upcoming few weeks.

If the reports about Patrick’s debut in the Nationwide Series somewhere this season have already surfaced in the media in recent weeks, her Venezuelan riv… (read more)

Only a day after MINI posted on its Youtube channel the first teaser video hinting to the new Countryman, the first official images showing the Beachcomber concept in its production guise. The Cuntryman will be a MINI unlike any other, as it will ride on a different platform than the rest of the MINI family.

The need for adopting a new platform is explained by the fact that the new vehicle will use an all-wheel drive system, as well as a higer ride height. According to Leftlanenews, the Coun… (read more)

MoonBean's Coffee occupied the kiosk next to Green Library until last year, when Stanford Libraries awarded Coupa Cafe a new lease on the space. Coupa's opening has been delayed months due to permitting issues. Renovating the space is expected to cost $177,000. (Stanford Daily file photo)

The coveted kiosk outside Green Library that used to house MoonBean’s Coffee was, until this year, a center of intellectual vitality on campus. The outdoor cafe was a guaranteed location for an awkward run-in with your IHUM T.F. and a hub of academic discussion outside the classroom.

For the past six months, however, the kiosk has been empty as preparations are made for MoonBean’s replacement — the second on-campus Coupa Café, which is projected to cost Stanford Library $177,000.

According to Kelly Rohlfs, a project manager for the Stanford Department of Project Management, if final construction permits from Santa Clara County come through this week, Coupa could be ready for occupancy by March 3.

The hope comes after months of broken promises. The kiosk was first set to open by the start of the 2009-2010 school year and has continually been pushed back due to permit delays.

With some permits in place, such as the electrical permit, construction workers are finally on-site for the renovation process. But plumbing and mechanical permits are still needed, and even if renovations are complete by March 3, it may be longer before the cafe is fully operational.

Still, Coupa Café owner Jean Paul Coupal ’07 — listed in the Stanford directory as affiliated with the vice provost and dean of research — hopes to begin service soon after the end of construction.

“We’ve already begun training staff two months ago,” Coupal said. “The idea is to be ready to operate basically at 100 percent.”

Months of Delays

Andrew Herkovic, director of communications and development for Stanford University Library and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR), said the Library, which own the kiosk, did not expect the renovation process to take as long as it has.

“We had no reason to believe it would be this ridiculous of a delay,” he said.

According to Rohlfs, however, the permitting process normally takes months, so this time frame is not unusual.

Another reason for the delay is that the original plans for the new cafe only included minor renovations. The need for extensive renovations was not discovered until late in the summer.

“Originally the plan was to do a light renovation and open in September,” Coupal said. “But I had never gone into the building until after the bidding process, and we’d never done a study of what was there until after MoonBean’s left.” Coupal said he had to wait to see the interior until after MoonBean’s had moved.

MoonBean’s operated under a provisional permit because the kiosk was not built in accordance with county health standards. Now that the kiosk will be changing tenants, the building is required to be updated to meet these county regulations.

“We were surprised by the conditions of the building,” Coupal said. “It had been there for 12 years with no updating.”

The kiosk will now be undergoing an extensive interior renovation to bring the kitchen up to health code regulations and allow for more on-site food preparation.

Included in this $177,000 remodel will be a new exhaust hood, sinks and flooring, as well as plumbing and electrical updates.

“Everything is being brought up to health code regulations,” Coupal said. “It will be non-viewable to the public, in the kitchen area.”

Coupal said that he also plans to make changes to the furniture in the outdoor seating area. Jennie Reynolds, the former owner of MoonBean’s, wrote in an e-mail to The Daily that she had been asking Stanford to change this same seating area for years.

Bidding War

MoonBean’s had been the tenant of the Library kiosk for 10 years. When its lease expired last spring, SULAIR solicited bids for the kiosk space.

According to Herkovic, the Library received four bids for the space, including one from MoonBean’s.

“We chose based on a combination of hours, services, quality, variety, business terms and stability,” Herkovic said. “Overall, Coupal clearly came out ahead.”

Reynolds said she was surprised by the outcome of the bidding process.

“I was fairly certain we would get the contract,” Reynolds said. “I knew the building needed improvements and that we may have to close for a short period to do that, but I didn’t think we would lose the spot. The Library had never expressed any dissatisfaction with us.”

Mark Frykman ’11, a former MoonBean’s employee, believed library staff had had qualms with certain aspects of the MoonBean’s culture. “We were trying to keep on the library’s good side,” he said.

Reynolds added that the Library had asked to increase her rent — an extra cost she could not afford without trade-offs for her employees.

“There was a point in the bidding process when Stanford asked for more money,” Reynolds said. “The difference in yearly payment would have been more than $40,000. Lots of my employees had been hoping for a raise, and health insurance was through the ceiling. I just couldn’t justify it, especially with the additional output of money to remodel. I don’t know if the decision would have been different if we had agreed to that.”

Herkovic said SULAIR chose Coupa because its proposal offered the best overall plan. “Coupa’s proposal showed an interest in more and better food service,” he said.

What’s Next

The new Coupa Café will be offering both coffee beverages and hot food.

Herkovic acknowledged concerns about increased congestion and waiting time associated with hot food preparation, although Coupal has plans to assure adequate speed of customer service.

“The idea is that the kitchen will be a powerhouse,” Coupal said. “And we’ll have at least two registers to start.

“I’m guessing the lines are going to be pretty long, though,” he added.

Despite promises of longer hours of operation and a more extensive menu, many students have expressed dissatisfaction with the way the transition was handled. In particular, some students wonder why SULAIR had not looked into the permit process before evicting MoonBean’s.

“The charitable way to understand this would be to say that the Library is not in the habit of building kitchens,” said Justin Brooke ’10, a student member of the Board of Trustees Committee on Land and Buildings, who said he was not speaking on behalf of the board or the committee and looked into the issue as a matter of personal interest.

“However, I think that when the stakes are as high as they are, the Library should have been more careful and cognizant about what was involved with the construction — they should have gone in with all the facts,” Brooke said.

“Because the Library didn’t know what it was doing, the Stanford community has lost a very important cafe for the summer, autumn and winter quarters,” he added. “The kiosk, whether it’s MoonBean’s or Coupa, is an integral part of the Stanford lifestyle for so many people. To have that disappear for such a long time is an enormous failure.”

As coffee-lovers await Coupa's opening, set for March 3 at the earliest, the cafe has installed an espresso machine inside Meyer Library. The opening was originally set for fall. (GARNER KROPP\The Stanford Daily)

To provide a substitute for the now-vacant cafe, Coupa Café has installed a permanent coffee and espresso vending machine in Meyer Library. The machine will remain in place after Coupa opens to allow for 24-hour coffee service in the library area.

Coupal hopes that this vending machine and his new café will serve the undergraduate community in particular. “I want to contribute to Stanford student life as we have in Y2E2,” he said. “If we can offer that on the opposite side of campus, it’s only a benefit for everyone.”

For Reynolds, who had closed her other Bay Area cafés to focus on the Stanford MoonBean’s, finding out that the well-loved coffee shop would not be given another lease was a shock.

“It’s one thing to lose your job, but entirely another to lose the company you ran since you were 23 years old,” she said. “It was life-changing, for sure.”

Despite the state of the economy, most former MoonBean’s employees have found new jobs. Frykman said he was fortunate in that he was not financially dependent on his job at MoonBean’s.

“I was doing it to make spending cash,” he said. “But for a lot of others, it was their only job, and they were doing it to pay their rent.”

Since losing her business, Reynolds has kept busy with fiction writing and a band she has just started. At this point, she does not plan on reopening a MoonBean’s café in the area.

“I do really miss Stanford, though,” she admitted. “I’m still making everybody’s drinks in my head.”

In a race that was thought to be non-competitive until just weeks ago, Republican Scott Brown secured a massive upset victory over Democrat Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, winning Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by liberal lion Ted Kennedy.

The outcome, which eliminates the Democratic caucus’ super-majority in the Senate, poses a significant risk to pending health care reform legislation.

Brown won by about 120,000 votes, or a 52 to 47 percent margin. According to polls, Coakley led by 31 points in November and by 17 at the beginning of January. But in the past week, Brown led in nearly every survey taken, and his five-point margin of victory was actually on the lower end of recent numbers.

His recent surge sparked national interest in the race, as President Barack Obama and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani went to Massachusetts to campaign for Coakley and Brown, respectively. On election day, despite inclement weather, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin estimated that turnout may have been 50 percent.

Brown, a state senator, takes over a seat that has been held by the Kennedy family, except for a two-year interruption, since 1953; Ted Kennedy died in August after holding the seat for 47 years. Brown is the first Republican elected to the Senate from Massachusetts since Edward Burke in 1972.

“Tonight, the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Brown said after he was proclaimed the winner. “This Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one political party.”

He did express his admiration for Kennedy, an iconic figure in Massachusetts polics.

“Senator Ted Kennedy was a tireless and big-hearted public servant, and for most of my lifetime was a force like no other in this state,” Brown said. “There’s no replacing a man like that, but tonight I honor his memory, and I pledge my very best to be a worthy successor.”

Coakley, the attorney state general, did not take the loss lightly. “I am heartbroken at the result,” she said, conceding Tuesday night. She lost despite Obama’s 26-point victory just over a year ago and a gigantic gulf in voter registration in the state — Republicans account for only 12 percent of voters.

Coakley was labeled as an elitist and did little to dispel that notion. As the election wound down, she scoffed at the idea that she should shake hands with people, claiming that she was too busy and would instead rely on the support of local mayors and school boards.

One of her most widely publicized comments — that Boston Red Sox legend Curt Schilling, a Republican advocate, was a fan of the archrival New York Yankees — further enforced the idea that she was out of touch with her constituents. And in perhaps her biggest gaffe, Coakley, running a campaign with a heavy focus on law enforcement and security, claimed that Afghanistan was free of terrorists.

Brown, by contrast, played up an everyman image by driving his truck around the state, meeting with voters 66 times; Coakley made just 19 campaign stops. Coakley was not only unable to shake the superiority tag, but she was also unable to color Brown negatively. As a result, his working class persona prospered, and it was cemented by the time Coakley released a slew of desperate advertisements that tried, at the end, to craft the public’s view of Brown.

“There will be plenty of Wednesday-morning quarterbacking about what happened, what went right, what went wrong,” Coakley said. “We will be honest about the assessment of this race, and although I was very disappointed, I always respect the voters’ choice.”

The stunning outcome not only affects Massachusetts, but has significant national implications. Congress was expected to reconcile both the House and Senate versions of health care reform legislation early this year, with the Democrats’ 60-vote, filibuster-proof advantage acting as a restraint against any major changes from the bills passed in late 2009.

Ted Kennedy, a champion of reform throughout his career, refused to retire in August, despite brain cancer, because it would end the Democratic supermajority.

Brown, who is vocally opposed to the health care bill, will now break that stranglehold and put the entire process in doubt. Democratic leaders will now have to choose from a host of unpalatable options in proceeding: convincing their House majority to pass the Senate bill without changes, returning to deadlocked negotiations with Republican senators or bringing the bill to a vote it may not survive.

“One thing is clear: voters do not want the trillion-dollar health care bill that is being forced on the American people,” Brown said. “I will work in the Senate with Democrats and Republicans to reform health care in an open and honest way.”

Brown will take over for Paul Kirk, who holds the seat on an interim basis. Brown will have to run for reelection in 2012. He is expected to take his seat within the next couple of weeks.

The ASSU Undergraduate Senate on Tuesday passed a widely-debated bill to reduce growth in special fees spending, resulting in an extensive dispute over the nature of the vote that took place, which many senators claimed was riddled with problems and parliamentary misconduct. Concerns were also raised about student group input into the bill.

Also last night, leaders expressed a need to drastically increase the undergraduate fundraising campaign for Haiti earthquake relief. According to ASSU Vice President Andy Parker ’11, although about $30,000 has been raised, only five to 10 percent of the undergraduate population has donated, putting Stanford $40,000 behind Dartmouth, who was initially encouraged by Stanford student government leaders to start fundraising.

Special Fees Bill ‘Approved’

Senator Alex Katz ‘12, who authored a bill that would make it more difficult for student groups to receive funding increases in each spring’s special fees election, said it “will make groups think a lot harder about what they really need to make their groups successful.”

The goal, he said, was to reduce growth in special fees funding; he cited the Stanford Film Society’s budget increasing last year by more than $50,000 as an example. Two reasons for such increases are the petitioning period being extended last year, allowing more time for the groups to obtain money, and the recurring problem, as Katz sees it, of students approving too many increased budgets.

“The fact that no one says ‘no’ is also a part of the problem,” Katz said. “I can’t promise that this bill is going to save the system, but this is a step in the right direction.”

He pointed out that the bill would give the student body an additional level of control. If special fees groups really need more money, he said, they would have to go to the student body and ask for it.

“At some point, the student body deserves the power to look over these budgets and determine if this increase is justified,” Katz said.

Some senators, including Adam Creasman ’11 and Zachary Warma ’11, noted that the tendency of the student body to approve budgets posed a significant problem for the special fees process that the bill did not address.

“The undergraduate body has not voted down a single budget we give them,” said Warma, also columns editor for The Daily.

Both noted, however, that the issue was not necessarily a reason not to support the bill.

No student group representatives spoke during the meeting’s public comment period. A round of approximately 1,600 e-mails to student group leaders informing them of the proposed change garnered about 20 positive responses, said Senator Anton Zietsman ‘12.

Deputy Chair Kelsei Wharton ’12 and other senators raised concerns, both before and after the vote, about the level of input student groups had into the bill, as well as their awareness of the fact that the bill had — at the time they received Zietsman’s e-mail — not yet been passed.

“First, 30 [responses] is not half-bad. Second, not a lot of people responding is a good sign,” Katz said. “We’ve given people multiple chances to come in and say, ‘This would really hurt us.’”

“The fact that people aren’t screeching down our throats is pretty darn good,” added Warma.

When the bill was finally called to question, the result was nine votes in favor, four opposed and two abstentions. Although the vote had technically passed, widespread confusion and dispute erupted when several senators realized that they had misunderstood the voting process.

One senator did not realize that abstaining his vote meant that it would not be counted in the senate quorum, therefore potentially altering the number of votes needed to pass.

For his part, Senate Chair Varun Sivaram ’11 did not realize that he could table the bill prior to voting, which would postpone calling it to a vote and allowing for more time for discussion.

“No disrespect — you’ve done your work, but I feel uneasy [about voting],” Sivaram said to Katz, who conducted an unofficial straw poll, determining that seven senators desired seeing concrete numbers about funding trends.

Sivaram conducted the straw poll after voting for the bill.

Senators voiced the need for a vote to “re-vote” on the bill next meeting once more data had been shared, allowing for a more educated vote. Although this sentiment was widely expressed, the bill was technically still passed.

“I’d just like to say that a vote was taken; a vote was passed,” Warma said. “If there had been — at the beginning of this, when we knew there was going to be a…vote — a motion to table should have been provided before the question was called.”

Other Business

Two subsequent funding bills for Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford and Los Saleros de Stanford were unanimously passed.

Parker also introduced Alisha Blackford, a graduate student in education, as a candidate for the position of Executive Director of the Student Service Division, a position that oversees the ASSU Shuttle, Wellness Room and Green Store. Parker currently serves in that role. Her appointment is set to come up for approval by the Senate and Graduate Student Council next week.