Rice for nukes...

President Obama said he is committed to "a world without nuclear weapons". How about a world without nuclear power ? If there was no nuclear power generation or power plants, then there would be no parts or material to have materials to be weaponized. Nuclear power is a nice alternative, but where to put all the waste ? Actually, oil and electricity is best. We just need to make better fuel efficient and better built cars; and better designed and insulated homes.

The four horsemen, Kissenger, Schultz, Nunn, Perry - should visit Myanmar. Find out what was on that DPRK cargo boat. "Rice for nukes" program ? Myanmar is doing a good job of sending students abroad to get training and knowledge about advanced technologies. ( next story about all the regime kids and partners at executive MBA programs... have have H1B will travel... not to confused with H1B1 with which you cannot travel and will be quarantined )...

( these are best pics the JOspy plane and JOspy sub could get... )

Mr. Right... place and time...

Professor Edward Van Keuren Uses Optical Physics to Develop Nanoparticles for Cancer Diagnosis and Solar Cells. Edward Van Keuren, associate professor and chair of the physics department at Georgetown, has found himself in the middle of groundbreaking research in two vital areas: medicine and energy.“I guess I got to the right places at the right times,” Van Keuren says of his involvement in both of these important fields.Since coming to Georgetown in 1999, he has published more than 20 articles in science journals and amassed a body of work filled with physics and optical research. He is collaborating with the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center to develop nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis. And his work with a solar energy company will examine materials for developing organic solar cells.

Professor Van Keuren also spent time in Japan with a grant from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) He tells Speedy JOHO that "JSPS played a great role in getting me started on an international scientific career and still helps me keep in touch and collaborating withcolleagues in Japan and elsewhere"

read the whole article from Georgetown University's "Blue & Gray"

http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=42120

When pigs fly...H1N1 Airlines...

$90-million live attenuated vaccine contract has been proposed by Obama administration. The virus in a live attenuated vaccine works in vaccinated people without causing illness. It would be given in lower doses than a killed virus or an antigen subunit vaccine. Therefore it can increase existing vaccine supplies 30- to 100-fold. As part of the almost $1-billion contract, the US government has awarded Sanofi Pasteur $191 million, Novartis $150 million, CSL Biotherapies $180 million and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) $38 million to supply H1N1 vaccine antigen.

All this money flying around and no secretary of HHS yet ? Reminds me of the days of SARS, bird flu, and the Bush era when it was crucial to award these contracts. I guess all you need to award contracts is a new disease for a new administration. Just blame civits, chickens, and pigs... what's next capibaras ? pharma fat cats ? phat capibaras ?

Down with Gator Nation... up with Geek World !!!

Speedy just visited the University of Florida. Wow, impressed with the physics department and all the bikinis on campus. But seriously... Simply put, the University of Florida is the most successful major sports program in the country. Before the Gators did it, no school had ever held NCAA titles in football and men's basketball at the same time. That doesn't happen without the money, and thanks to the Gator Boosters, Florida has the money. In 2006 the school's athletic department took in $82.4 million in revenue - that's No.1 one in the SEC and No. 5 in the country.

The University of Florida's Athletic Corporation is separate from the University itself. It's there to make money and it makes money like a parasite. College sports needs big money. First, there's the war for talent. As athletic director Jeremy Foley says, "Coaches make it all happen in college athletics." He hired Urban Meyer three years ago for about $2 million a year. Now the coach makes over $ 2.5 million a year.Gator basketball coach Billy Donovan, who got a raise from $1.7 million to $3.5 million after he first agreed to and then walked away from an even more lucrative NBA job. Foley himself is the highest paid A.D. in the U.S. - up to $1.2 million a year including bonuses.

But the really mind-blowing dollars in college sports are going into a facilities-building boom. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, from 2002 to 2007 schools in the nation's six premier athletic conferences raised at least $3.9 billion for stadium expansions, new practice facilities, and such. Now Speedy says that big college sports are a cancer to university education. Universities themselves too should be to blame for not luring donors to support the building of solar panels, fuel cells, time machines, and flying cars. What's more important - running a 40 in 3.9 ? or creating nanotubes for micro processors ? ( enjoy the photo - that's Coach Meyer... down with Gator Nation... up with Geek World ! )

How many Polak's does it take to relieve poverty ?

International Development Enterprise - IDE’s Myanmar program was launched in 2004 and is fast becoming one of the leading international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Myanmar.In Myanmar, IDE focuses our efforts on rural small farm households earning less than $2/day living in the most densely populated areas in both lower and upper Myanmar. Seventy percent of Myanmar’s 36 million poor live in rural areas and earn their income from small-plot agriculture.

IDE views poverty alleviation as a business and holds as its guiding principle the belief that the poor, if given an opportunity, will invest their own limited resources to escape from poverty.

So, do you really still think that NGO's working in Burma are aiding the regime ? You don't have to do humanitarian work in secret. You can do it legit and don't be fooled by no one that don't show the receipts. IDE is legit. Help the Myanmar people to help themselves.

See Paul speak - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSEGN-EJJho

ghost town burning restless for 100 years... spooky...

In the state of Pennsylvania there is a town called Ashland. Follow local rout 61 northbound and then traffic is abruptly branched onto a short detour. Exactly what the detour is for is not immediately clear to travelers, and passers-by pay it little mind. Afterall, a detour is nothing unusual. But anyone who ignores the detour and ventures along the original route 61 highway will soon encounter a sudden and unexplained road closure. Beyond it lies a town filled with overgrown streets, smoldering earth, and ominous warning signs. It is the remains of the borough of Centralia. booohahahahha~~~~ read more: http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/pennsylvanias-burning-mines
and of course http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
and Google it by yourself too...
How about some of that Obama clean-up stimulus money for this place... don't give it all to Jersey.
(photo by Matt Redden)

Eat me... ITER...

What's up with ITER ? When is Fusion ever gonna become a reality ? I want my miniature sun now ! They got that CERN built already and Hollywood even stole some anti-matter from there to make a mini black hole to suck up the Vatican. When are we gonna get ITER done ? Seems like a lot of smart people are working on it, but it seems as Prof. Niek Lopes Cardozo, "Building ITER is like building the space station, but having to set up NASA and ESA in the process." Hmmm, that doesn't sound so good.

Norbert Holtkamp, ITER's principal deputy director-general says, "ITER is an abbreviation for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, and it also has a Latin meaning—iter means "the way" in Latin. ITER is the intent to build the largest fusion reactor experiment in the world. A much smaller version of it exists now. JET —the Joint European Torus—the largest nuclear fusion experimental reactor device yet built, began operating in 1983 near Culham, England. ITER is the next step toward constructing fusion power reactors to generate electricity."

Here in the U.S. we have PPPL. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a collaborative national center for plasma and fusion science. Its primary mission is to develop the scientific understanding and the key innovations which will lead to an attractive fusion energy source. Good luck with that. But hey, it's good science. C'mon Fusion !!!

photo by Mamiya Rinzoo at PPPL