Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Countdown to Zero - BOOM !!!


OK, nuclear energy is all that - a kilogram of uranium can produce three million times more energy than a kilogram of coal ( in terms of joules ). The Kingdom of Jordan is finally starting construction of its first nuclear facilty with the help of South Korea. Jordan and South Korea have signed a $70 million loan agreement to finance the kingdom's first nuclear research reactor. The state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute and Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. are expected to start building a 5-megawatt reactor Nov. 1 at the Jordan University for Science and Technology near the northern city of Irbid. Fine, King Abdullah wants Jordan to be independent of foreign resources ( and even told Israel to mind its own business on the matter ), but where we gonna put all the radioactive waste ? Voila - the Monju reactor in Japan. Monju is a "breeder" reactor. This prototype reactor - whose name is Japanese for wisdom - uses plutonium fuel instead of conventional uranium and is configured to produced fissile matter that can be reused as fuel, hence the term 'breeder'. So no worries on the waste... oh, but wait - plutonium - that can be weaponized. Some folks say no to all things nuclear and here's the movie to make that point - Countdown to Zero - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQG4oA66uzI

"There are many reactors in the world and a lot more coming, so [the Israelis must] go mind their own business”-King Abdullah

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Yieeeeehaw ! Unilateral Sanctions !!!

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) applauded the Finance Committee’s vote to renew import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 for one more year. He along with 22 other senators applauded the act and all agreed it was easier to do nothing about Burma than to do something - thus, renew the act and get on with other business like selling more beef and poultry to the world.
The only dissenting vote was by Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming who just doesn't believe in unilateral sanctions. Good for him. But not good for the ordinary people of Burma who are suffering under economic sanctions... yeah, yeah, blame the regime... but what of it ? It don't make the rain rain... cos rain makes the corn grow, corn makes whisky, whisky makes my girl a little bit frisky~~~
here's the original - old school - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjaf2-32t18

Harold Varmus new director of NCI...

Cancer sucks. Now cancer research at the National Cancer Institute has a new director - Dr. Harold Varmus.Varmus was director of NIH from 1993 until the end of 1999. Varmus was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for studies of the genetic basis of cancer. He most recently served as president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. At his swearing in, Dr. Varmus said, "Suddenly we have an incredible specificity about markers and damaged genes in cancer cells. We have better information technology. We understand the biochemistry of the cell more profoundly. We have a portrait emerging of what is happening, one cancer at a time." Guess he's looking for that multidisciplinary funding that Congressman Dan Lipinski of the the Research and Science Education Subcommittee is talking about - that "New Biology"... exit stage left - http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2865

Nobel Laureate melts in 116 F heat in Myanmar...

Dr. Peter Agre, 2003 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry; and director of the Malaria Research Institute, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s state-of-the-art malaria research facility; and member of the National Academy of Sciences; and member the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and and and... he recently headed a "science diplomacy" mission by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and US Collection, Humanitarian and Research Corps to Myanmar.
The delegation met with the Myanmar ministries of Forestry; Science & Technology; Health; Foreign Affairs, and with Yangon University. They exchanged ideas and discussed future collaborations between Myanmar and the U.S. Cooperation between the United States and Myanmar in science, education, and health care will serve to help break through political barriers and negative perceptions.