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15 year old develops pancreatic cancer detector

2012-05-23T23:10:00.000-04:00

I considered myself a pretty smart kid. But geez. Even the runner ups scare me. From HuffPo: Another amazing teen scientist is making headlines for developing advances in cancer research in his after-school hours. Fifteen-year-old Jack Andraka from Maryland, winner of the world's largest high school science research competition, developed a test for pancreatic cancer that is not only 28 times...

Third Federal agency opens investigation into JPMorgan loss

2012-05-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

JPMorgan can thank Jamie Dimon for this. He owns this problem after going far beyond defending the bank in recent years. Had he not rubbed everyone's nose in how brilliant he thought he was the fallout would have been less. Even the widely disliked Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman knew when to stop talking and lay low. More on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation via the...

New poll shows Obama leads big with Latinos

2012-05-23T20:05:00.000-04:00

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll shows President Obama is enjoying a huge lead over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney among Latino voters, with 61 percent preferring the president over the self-deportation advocate. Obama won Latinos over the last Republican nominee John McCain in 2008, 67 to 31 percent. The poll also proves that Mitt's unlikability even transcends...

Montreal students protest 80% tuition increase

2012-05-23T17:59:00.000-04:00

Our neighbors to the north generally have a reputation for being friendly and polite. Maybe it's something they inherited from the English or maybe it's because they never had the overseas empire complex, but they're often among the friendliest people out there. Since the 1960's, Quebec has been a bit different for a lot of reasons. English domination, bigoted views and a knuckle-dragging...

Anti-stimulus economist Orszag now in favor of stimulus

2012-05-23T16:22:00.006-04:00

When it counted, Peter Orszag was on the wrong side of the argument, afraid of a "wacko lefty" stimulus. We can blame Orszag for scaling back the stimulus that could have helped more Americans have jobs and pay taxes. It didn't matter to him though, because he was soon gone to make millions on Wall Street. Tough luck for everyone else. It's more than revolting to see Orszag now come out in...

Mike Papantonio: What's really going on with the Edwards trial

2012-05-23T15:00:00.000-04:00

I find the John Edwards case fascinating. Thom Hartmann's intro in the clip below sets up the situation perfectly, and Mike Papantonio offers excellent commentary, as always. Papantonio's bottom line — "The judge in the case should have issued an acquittal before the trial even started." My take on the Edwards prosecution has always been straight-forward: His message of Two Americas was...

GOP upset that Obama is doing what Bush did on health care

2012-05-23T13:35:00.001-04:00

But remember kids, it's okay if you're a Republican. From ThinkProgress: Republicans are criticizing the Department of Health and Human Services for signing a $20 million contract with a public relations firm to educate Americans about the preventive health benefits included in the Affordable Care Act. The campaign — mandated by the law — “must describe the importance of prevention while...

China seeks to create their own Goldman Sachs

2012-05-23T13:05:00.000-04:00

Imagine how exciting it will be to have their own team of gamblers with even more government sponsorship and government money. The financial gambles and eventually losses will make Wall Street's losses look like a rounding error. The current regime in China has consistently proven themselves to be experts at cooking the books so there's no question this will lead to a spectacular crash at...

Millenials want income equality

2012-05-23T12:14:00.001-04:00

Considering the size of this group and their expected impact for generations, the Republicans may have their work cut out for them in the coming years. At the same time, the Democrats have plenty of work themselves to build ties with them. The Glass–Steagall Act repeal was a joint venture by Republicans and Democrats who celebrated the moment and thought it was going to be the start of a...

Catholic church threatens to turn away non-Catholics from emergency rooms

2012-05-23T11:08:00.011-04:00

Get these people out of the hospital business, now. The Catholic church is now making rumblings about turning away non-Catholics from the emergency rooms of Catholic hospitals. I shudder to make a Nazi analogy, so I won't. But what other analogy is there for a hospital to even dare start talking about picking and choosing who lives and who dies based on their religion? Welcome to the...

Cory Booker wants back on the bus

2012-05-23T09:15:00.000-04:00

If you live on the periphery of the news, as many of us do, you probably noticed the name Cory Booker coming up a lot. The problem is, not all the stories told the same tale. What's going on? So let's recap. Who is Cory Booker? If you look at the Matrix (and not behind it), Cory Booker is a candidate for the Next Barack Obama — charismatic, black, handsome, "progressive," electable —...

Under Obama federal spending rose at slowest pace since Ike

2012-05-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Fascinating analysis by Rex Nutting of MarketWatch. This is perhaps the most interesting part. Before Obama had even lifted a finger [on arriving in office], the CBO was already projecting that the federal deficit would rise to $1.2 trillion in fiscal 2009. The government actually spent less money in 2009 than it was projected to, but the deficit expanded to $1.4 trillion because revenue...

Egyptians head to the polls

2012-05-23T06:33:00.001-04:00

When the protests started, few would have imagined what happened. To see Hosni Mubarak, dictator for decades, swept aside and sent to court was almost unbelievable. Having an election that does not include Mubarak or his son is a major development. Whether the new team will be much different from the old team may be asking for a lot, but again, few imagined this election. Al Jazeera:Fifty...

Robot "fish" to be used for water pollution monitoring

2012-05-23T01:15:00.000-04:00

If the end result is faster discovery of polluted waters, this could be a positive change. Use case scenarios include harbors, oil pipelines and any other underwater environments that need to be tracked for quality. The fish, which are 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and currently cost 20,000 pounds ($31,600) each, are designed to swim like real fish and are fitted with sensors to pick up pollutants...

Common farm chemical has impact for generations

2012-05-22T23:29:00.000-04:00

When I was traveling in Vietnam back in 2002, doctors said to be very cautious about eating root vegetables there, especially those grown in the Mekong Delta. The problem, they said, was that the chemicals sprayed by the US decades earlier still had an impact on food. Even at that time, it was not uncommon to see young kids with serious birth defects that were related to Agent Orange, even...

Over 70% of US military spare parts from China

2012-05-22T21:55:00.000-04:00

The only surprise is that the Senate wasn't sent hush money campaign contributions from the defense contractors to kill the report. Not only have the US defense contractors been fleecing Americans with the normally bloated defense contracts but they're also ripping off Americans and putting US military in danger by selling cheap ripoff products, probably at the same price as the real...

Video: Russian cat and dog slapping each other

2012-05-22T20:30:00.000-04:00

Gingrich businesses going bankrupt

2012-05-22T18:55:00.000-04:00

Much like George Bush, Newt Gingrich has the reverse Midas touch. Not only did his campaign finish millions in debt, but his previously profitable private businesses are falling apart as well. Quite the fiscal conservative, isn't he? When he entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in May 2011, Newt Gingrich was the prosperous head of a small empire commonly known as Newt...

Reagan's blood being auctioned off, now at $15,000

2012-05-22T17:30:00.020-04:00

It's for sale! On the bright side, it's red. The Reagan foundation is apparently very upset about Ronald Reagan's memory being used in such a "craven" manner. Right, because it's not like Reagan's memory hasn't already been milked dry by the Republicans these past few decades, forcing us to name DC's airport after him (it was named after George Washington, but Republicans aren't...

Infiltration, violence and media framing—an example for Occupy

2012-05-22T16:10:00.000-04:00

As if by magic comes this Rick Perlstein piece on cop infiltration. Occupy, take note. It touches three bases I touched on earlier — infiltration, violence and media framing. (This post also concludes my thoughts on Occupy and violence; it makes the rest of my case.) Perlstein's intro (my emphasis and the usual reparagraphing for our narrow columns): This past October, at an Occupy encampment...

The most dangerous place for a child in America is between a Palin and a TV camera

2012-05-22T14:55:00.006-04:00

Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, matters because the media refuses to stop printing what this emotional and intellectual child has to say. Then so be it. Let's have a look at a unvarnished look at this "rising star" of the GOP. Two weeks ago, Bristol weighed in about President Obama's support for marriage equality. She opined that the President was...

Video: Turning a jawbreaker into a small cup

2012-05-22T13:30:00.000-04:00

A very cool, albeit long, video.

Former top editor of cult paper Washington Times suspected of possible plagiarism

2012-05-22T12:20:00.000-04:00

Gosh, imagine a GOP propaganda organ cheating. On Jan. 3, a[n Arnaud] de Borchgrave column for UPI, headlined “Youth Bulge,” dealt with the emerging world of social networks. Here’s a paragraph from the report: “Facebook is the global 900-pound gorilla of social media networks. It reaches 55 percent of the world’s global audience, accounting for roughly 75 percent of time spent on social...

Health care costs rising five times the rate of inflation

2012-05-22T10:52:00.001-04:00

Rahm Emanuel must be happy since the health care industry continues to get their way with Americans. When you either have Wall Street pay, or are living with government-subsidized (dare I say "socialist"?) health care like members of Congress, why would you care about prices going up? We're really past due the point of forcing the political class to live with the same expensive health care as...

Occupy: This is how you know you have their attention

2012-05-22T09:15:00.000-04:00

You still have it, Occupy. They're still looking at you. A lot happened in Chicago over the weekend at events related to the demonstrations against NATO. Depending on where you go or who you ask, you get a different picture. It's a real kaleidoscope of images and viewing angles. I want to look at some of the kaleidoscope, then add things up. ■ First this image (click to big): as...