Archive for 2012

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Maxine Waters To Become Senior Democrat on Financial Services Committee. “This is really an extraordinary development. ‘Flabbergasting’ might be a more apt word. Leave aside the recent ethics investigation over whether she used her position on the committee to help a bank her husband was involved with (which ended with her chief of staff getting reprimanded). Maxine Waters reliably delivers the craziest questions and the most bizarre speeches on that committee, and tends to demonstrate a stunning lack of grasp of the committee’s core subject matter.”

READER BOOK PLUG: From Robert Sapp, Lunar Dance, the story of the first commercial Moon landing. Better hurry and read it while it’s still science fiction!

PROGRESS: Brain Pacemaker Tested On Alzheimer’s Patients. “Deep-brain stimulation is already used to treat patients with Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and researchers are exploring its use in other conditions, including obesity. In each case, electrodes are inserted into different regions of the brain depending on the intended therapy. In the Alzheimer’s trial, the device is placed into a region of the brain involved in learning and memory.”

BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS: More And More.

NETWORKED SMARTPHONES AS seismological warning systems. “The key enabler in smartphones for this type of work is in their accelerometers, that can detect and record movement and may monitor tremors. An app is being developed that will record the shaking during major events and then report the data back to a central server over the cell network. But what good is short notice when an earthquake is on its deadly way? Advance notice even in seconds is actually of value, as the BBC report noted, in not only giving people time to take cover but for trains to slow or planes to abort landings or for surgeons to manage their procedures knowing the event is on its way.”