08.17.04
Posted in General
at 10 pm
According to this, report on a nanotechnology application via the Harrow Report, it looks like a pretty good cancer killer is being developed. As I was recently diagnosed with a small patch of skin cancer (very benign) this interests me more today than it would have 6 months ago.
Quote:::::::::::::::::::::::
As published in pages 171 – 176 of Issue 2 of the June 25 Cancer Letters (an abstract is freely available while the full text requires a subscription), and summarized in a June 21, 2004 Rice University press release, the researchers created silica spheres 20-times smaller than a blood cell and then added a surface layer of gold. One characteristic of these spheres is that, depending on their size and the ratio of silica to gold, they can be “tuned” to respond to particular wavelengths of light. In this case they’re sensitive to near-infrared light, which passes through normal tissue without hindrance and without causing damage.
Once injected into the veins of test mice that all had significant cancer tumors, the researchers waited six hours for the nanospheres to circulate through the body. Because of a characteristic of cancer tumors, that their internal blood vessels are poorly formed and tend to leak fluid into the surrounding tissue (the tumor), the gold nanospheres tended to collect within the tumors. Then, the researchers applied a near-infrared laser to the skin over the tumor areas. Although the healthy tissue was not affected, the nanospheres became quite hot as they absorbed the near-infrared light, raising the temperature in the tumor tissue by “around 50-degrees C”. And the tumors were destroyed. (When the laser was applied to areas that did not have nanosphere-holding tumors below them, there was virtually no temperature change.)
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Permalink
08.15.04
Posted in General
at 8 pm
Christian Reconstructionism – The Foundation of Modern Conservativism from kuro5hin.org
[…] There are five principles of Christian Reconstructionism, summarized here:
First, Reconstructionists believe that God should be at the center of every activity, not just spiritual ones. Faith should be applied to art, education, and politics “no less than to church, prayer, evangelism, and Bible study.”
Second, Reconstructionists are theonomists (theonomy: “God’s Law”), meaning that laws are only righteous and just when they follow what the Bible — primarily the Old Testament — says. Law should serve three purposes: 1) To make other people Christian, 2) To provide a standard set of rules for all Christians, and 3) to maintain civil order. […]
Third, Reconstructionists do not try and rationally come to a conclusion about whether the Bible is true or not. They believe in its infallibility regardless of evidence or reason. The Bible, being (they believe) the word of God, is above questioning. […]
Fourth, Reconstructionists believe in the imminent return of Christ and a kingdom in his name will be established. The Left Behind series of books by Daniel LaHaye are a good summation of this belief. […]
Finally, Reconstructionists are Dominionists. In the context of modern America, this means “[t]hat every area dominated by sin must be ‘reconstructed’ in terms of the Bible. This includes, first, the individual; second, the family; third, the church; and fourth, the wider society, including the state. The Christian Reconstructionist therefore believes fervently in Christian civilization” […]
Christian Reconstructionism – The Foundation of Modern Conservativism from kuro5hin.org
Permalink
08.14.04
Posted in General
at 10 pm
You did see this: HNS – Securing Mac OS X noted on apple.slashdot.org, right?
It’s a very good, if short PDF and intro into working with OS X’s security. the stuff with ipfw is going to take me a while to digest.
Permalink
08.12.04
Posted in General
at 2 pm
depeche mode dot com – Remixes 81-04
The limited edition bonus CD features remixes of “A Question of Lust” by Flood and “World In My Eyes” by Daniel Miller plus a William Orbit mix of “Walking In My Shoes” and a Danny Tenaglia mix of the hypnotic and seductive “I Feel Loved”. Also included are brand new mixes by Goldfrapp, Ulrich Schnauss, Colder and Rex the Dog.
There are maybe 50 people in the world who know or care why I would be excited about these tracks:
* Master And Servant, (“An ON-Usound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic”) Adrian Sherwood (1984)
* A Question of Lust, Flood Mix (1986)
* World In My Eyes, (“Daniel Miller Mix”) Daniel Miller (1990)
* It’s No Good, (“Club 69”) Club 69 (1997)
It’s not that I don’t have them, it’s just that I don’t have them on officially released CDs.
Permalink
08.11.04
Posted in General
at 2 pm
“This introduces speculation about a possible Monica Lewinsky-Peter Saville (of New Order) connection that I find, in truth, too unnerving to contemplate at this time.”
Design Observer: The Bodoni Conspiracy
Permalink
08.10.04
Posted in General
at 10 pm
“Apparently there are groups out there who buy copies of the voter registration rolls, then send in new registrations for registered voters giving them a new address. It’s really a more sophisticated version of the whole thing with the felony lists in Florida in the last election – however, people aren’t being REMOVED from the voting rolls, and hence there’s no red flag being raised. After all, people DO move and send in change of address, so there’s no reason for them to suspect voter fraud. And there’s really no way to trace this, so there’s really no way to detect this. But in effect what it means is voters are removed from the rolls – after all, if you’re unknowingly registered in another precinct, how can you vote at yours? I was lucky…I have the job flexibility and transportation to go down to the election board and find out the problems, but I’m betting a lot of the other people with the same problems don’t. And there are a lot – at my precinct, during the period we were at the polls, which was pretty slow, there were only about five or six people in and out, including us. And of those, me and one other guy found ourselves off the rolls, and one woman said she’d had the same thing happen to her during the 2000 presidential election and had to spend the entire day down at the election board.”
From yoshitsune: No voice unheard
It might be a good idea to contact your voter registration office and just confirm… Oregon’s Vote By Mail system makes this even more important.
Permalink
08.09.04
Posted in General
at 4 pm
Amazing Aerial Photographs
Look at them all. They’re just… Breathtaking
Permalink
08.07.04
Posted in General
at 10 am
I realize that I don’t have a lot of geek friends that I have the chance to talk shop with in real time. So it is to my Journal that I note Pinkerton’s entry: Camino 0.8.1 Soon which makes me happykeen, as I figured we’d get an update sometime in Dec, not so quickly after 0.8 release.
It’s still frustrating that WordPress’ admin interface doesn’t work well in Camino, and I have not the energy to try and track it down myself. I’m hoping that the newer improvements in WordPress will increase it’s standardized HTML code.
In the mean time, many of my reader will note that the increase of entries is in direct proportion to the ease of posting in the first place, but also in the ability to have draft posts that I can pre-load and work on later and publish even later on.
Permalink
08.06.04
Posted in General
at 4 pm
Bo pointed me to the free downloads of Convention speeches that you can grab from the iTunes Music Store. Again, listen to Bill Clinton’s speech. It’s a great one. Regardless of the content, he seemingly innate ability to speak with clarity and eloquence is refreshing after the past 4 years.
Thanks Bo!
Permalink
08.04.04
Posted in General
at 11 pm
From Wired News, on an event held here in Portland:
Flight of the Bumblers
Creativity is far easier for most teams to achieve than flight. A mullet “hairplane,” an A-Team van from the old television show, a giant Scottie dog piloted by a team of kilt-clad pilots (“If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap!,” noted Scotland the Brave pilot Bill Macfarlane), fur-ball alien Alf, the one-eyed Willies from the cult movie hit The Goonies, and the Five Flying Elvi also did a free fall into the river on Saturday.
Art Alexakis, lead singer of Everclear and Oregon Democratic delegate, judged the event. He confessed he had no idea what he was signing up for when he agreed to participate in Flugtag Portland.
“I thought Flugtag was some kind of political event. Now that I’m here, I can’t believe the magnitude of it all. It’s wild! This was really fun to be a part of,” Alexakis said.
Be sure to check out the pictures!
Permalink