TampaYankee

Pi Day really isn't a day at all, it is an instant in a given day.

As imperfect as the Affordable Care Act is, this shows just how it is a vast improvement over the 'system' it is replacing. There will be some bumps in the road getting this up and running and then tuned. Don't let the naysayers use those initial bumps to paint armageddon as they seek to return to the status quo.

Not sure how excited his wife is. Must be a broad minded lady.

Bee Venom Kills HIV: Nanoparticles Carrying Toxin Shown To Destroy Human Immunodeficiency Virus The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski Posted: 03/09/2013 12:02 pm EST | Updated: 03/09/2013 12:08 pm EST A new study has shown that bee venom can kill the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated that a toxin called melittin found in bee venom can destroy HIV by poking holes in the envelope surrounding the virus, according to a news release sent out by Washington University. (Visit Washington University's website to read more about the study.) Nanoparticles smaller than HIV were infused with the bee venom toxin, explains U.S. News & World Report. A "protective bumper" was added to the nanoparticle's surface, allowing it to bounce off normal cells and leave them intact. Normal cells are larger than HIV, so the nanoparticles target HIV, which is so small it fits between the bumpers. “Melittin on the nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope,” said research instructor Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, via the news release. “The melittin forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope, stripping it off the virus.” Adding, “We are attacking an inherent physical property of HIV. Theoretically, there isn’t any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus.” This revelation can lead to the development of a vaginal gel to prevent the spread of HIV and, it seems, an intravenous treatment to help those already infected. “Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” said Hood. The bee venom HIV study was published on Thursday in the journal Antiviral Therapy, according to U.S. News & World Report. This study comes on the heels of news that a Mississippi baby with HIV has apparently been cured. The mother was diagnosed with HIV during labor and the baby received a three-drug treatment just 30 hours after birth, before tests confirmed the infant was infected. The child, now 2 years old, has been off medication for about a year and shows no sign of infection. More than 34 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, according to amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. Of these, 3.3 million are under the age of 15 years old. Each day, almost 7,000 people contract HIV around the globe. See the original article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/09/bee-venom-kills-hiv-cells_n_2843743.html

Oh! Much ado about nothing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2286330/Justin-Bieber-parties-6-30am-celebrates-19th-birthday-Ella-Paige-Roberts-Clarke-bevy-beauties.html Guess I'm looking past it? <shrug>

Reminds me of the IBM typewriter tech in the 50's when asked if he can fix the damned thing so it won't keep misspelling, he replied "change the nut on the other end".

Here is the latest Bieb pic. Looks like he's coming along fine, loosing that baby fat.

I do not believe that this can be answered until they solve their own internal problems and strife. That may take some time as the current order will be challenged and they will resist change.

I just checked it again as a matter getting to my email acct. Either they are tightening up the page or I may have overreacted to the blue. There is a shit load of it still, but it seems the news articles headlines aren't hiding so deeply in the blue bushes I as thought.

LOL

I think it sucks. I feel like I've been given a coloring book rather than a page full of information content. With so much colored wasted space you have to go on safari to fine the individual news items. And rather than being all crammed together so you can quickly scan where your interest lies, you now have to move around and jump over colored blocks to find a sliver of information here and a sliver there. Did I mention that it sucks? They also hid the logout command and other useful widgets and buttons. I think these guys ideas of fun is a fucking scavenger hunt. Did I mention that the new page sucks? If these clowns redesigned the Oxford Dictoinary it wouldn't fit in the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Kennedy. You recall, the one that housed the Saturn 5 moon rocket!

Regrets about the money? Absolutely not. I regret spending on an individual here or there that was disappointing but very few of those. And as part of the overall experience no regrets. It was a lot of money to me but it opened up a whole new life that I had fantasized about for a lifetime. How could anyone regret that? As I reflect on it, it was a bargain, as expensive at it was. I'd still be spending at or near that rate if I could afford it in retirement and my weary bones could withstand the buffeting. I can honestly say it was the best time of my life over such an extended period.

I agree that they definitely have distinct flavors.

IMO gerrymandering is done for one of two reasons, to change the balance of political power or to cement it. Redistricting ought to be done by apolitical courts or commissions overseen by courts. Political entities ought not to be in charge of redistricting geopolitical subdivisions. Sadly, you are correct that the Constitution obscures one-man one-vote, as it failed to declare that all men are created equal. The Constitution was a balancing act that satisfied differing interests at the birth of the Nation. That was clarified and superseded by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Sometimes we need to look at our other founding documents to provide context within the Constitution. The SOTUS does that all the time in citing the Federalist Papers as well as other documents regarding the intent of our founding fathers. IMO, the Declaration of Independence and the Fourteenth Amendment should be enough to establish one-man, one vote. While the Constitution is the Law of the Land, the Declaration is the foundation of the governing principles we laid out in the Constitution. Put simply, it justified the Rebellion and it justified the creation of our Constitution. It established the premise that ' all men are created equal' and the 14 Amendment established that everyone should be treated equally under the law, thus by the law. If law says that my vote is not equal to another's vote then the law is giving me unequal treatment. Thus the Declaration of Independence and the 14th Amendment say all that needs to be said about one-man one-vote being the Law of the Land. I know others will not agree.

Some years back I counted up somewhere around fifty distinct escorts give or take. That doesn't take into account multiple engagements. I saw a couple of guys as much as a dozen times or more. All of that occurred over four or five years before I retired from my six figure income. The majority of that probably happened over a three year period. In the latter couple of years I moved on to favoring the Montreal club scene and boys sprinkled with escorts here and there, usually Canadian. Once I hired an escort and his boyfriend -- both Aussies. The main hire was an overnight and the BF joined us for an hour. Lots of fun. My only multiple hire. Sorry to say that I missed out on the street scene and Stella's-type venues. I was just getting comfortable with Stella's when they closed her down.

BTW, thanks for taking the time to share your views and engage my pent-up frustrations which I spill too frequently on these pages. We often differ, although not always, and not too drastically for the most part. At least I do not find your views to be extreme in any fashion but a well grounded 'conservative with a small c' perspective which I find missing all too much from present day discussion and long for from the Conservative opposition. It is nice to know that some of you are left.

I suspect this will separate me from most others but... I've always found a little creepy the idea of dying while surrounded by family. I find it a very solitary act as no one else is going (with me) or has gone through the experience. No one will know what it is like or have pointers about exiting. They will either be exuding ponderously heavy sadness, or morbid curiosity or conceivably making a mental accounting sheet of the estate. I find none of that comforting. Call me weird, I guess.

I think it safe to say that Hitchens had a somewhat acerbic manner. You always knew where he stood. I agreed with him much of the time although on occasion he did get a little too far out there for me. He was fascinating to listen to and a withering debater not for the faint-of-heart opponent.

Why should any burden be placed on voters other than registration and proof of citizenship in some reasonable form, reasonable being defined in accordance with the circumstance. For example, an 88 yo may not have a birth certificate on file but many other methods for verifying citizenship have been used in the past including testimonials from neighbors, postmen, town clerks etc. These methods have been used to establish qualification for millions of people on social security over the decades. Sure, they are not the best methods but sometime they are the only methods. Our country was not always set up to efficiently enumerate our citizens. For that one has to look to the Germans where every cockroach was accounted for. If states want to fairly require heightened standards of identity for elections then they should do so without placing burdens on the electorate, particularly when one sector is overly burdened relative to others be they the elderly, the poor, the rural. The government has us all on a myriad of databases. Birth, Death, Social Security, Drivers, Voters, Postal... you name it, they have it. They should integrate the databases for citizenship purposes for voting, work ID, proof of age, etc. Some initial form of this should have been proposed with the Voter ID initiatives rather than requiring some onerous burdens that accompanied some of the original Voter Laws. Several of those laws were delayed because they placed onerous burdens that could not be met in the time frame of the last election. Yeah, it was all just a simple attempt to rid our election system of all that rampant voter fraud that has plagued us every year over the years as chronicled hundreds of articles about our stolen elections. True, the South has made progress, some in fits and starts, much grudgingly because of the Voter Rights Act. And yes, much of the younger generations have come to accept even handed practices as right and a matter of course. But clearly there are forces at work who do not, whether for racial reasons or for political reasons that fall along racial lines. It doesn't matter what the reason if it serves to disenfranchise a particular segment of the electorate. If you deny this then just check the gerrymandering of the districts in the South. This has not been done in the name of fairness. Yes, gerrymandering is done everywhere, and it is just as wrong everywhere too. IMO, one man, one vote is essential to democracy. It is bad enough that it be done along political lines but when those political lines have the despicable effect of disenfranchising a minority then it has far wider social consequences. It takes us right back to the Jim Crow South wherever it happens. As for the idea that a long-time voter has to meet the government half-way to prove that his right to vote should not be taken away, I think that is absurd. The burden should fall on the government to prove that an established voter of record who is a long time member of the community should have his voting rights rescinded. That is not to say that there is not a government interest to tighten up the voter rolls and establish a right-to-work basis for individuals. (The latter is essential to ever forestall illegal immigration and it is coming if Immigration Reform is to happen.) But there is a way to do this while minimizing the burden to the public and phasing in the methods over time recognizing that our system was not always set up with preferred records for establishing citizenship. Some of the recent laws went out of the way to disallow alternative proofs in those circumstances leading one to wonder what the real purpose of those laws were. Wait, oh yes, the PA Speaker of the House did explain the purpose. He said paraphrasing: Voter ID will allow Romney to carry PA. It is on record. The PA Courts delayed implementation of the PA Voter ID pending a more practical schedule for implementing it. The rest is history. Not to be thwarted, the PA House and Governor are flirting with awarding Presidential Electoral Votes by gerrymandered district vote instead of statewide vote, thus allowing a losing candidate to claim a majority of Electoral Votes. Can their election motivations be any clearer?

Count me in on the steaks and burgers. Bloody Marys too on the rarest of occasions when I have one -- maybe a dozen times in my life. I know Lea & Perrins is the 'standard of excellence' but I find it a bit too sweet. I got programmed on French's when I was young and cannot shake it.

Does 'they never will' mean we must then give in to their intransigence. I'm positive they got the message too. It's what they do with it that counts. When it comes to voting rights abuse I do not see things getting better only different. The have not relented in their targeting of minorities only in there tactics to disenfranchise them. They did not rush to make voting accessible to all. They have had to toe the line because of Federal Jurisdiction. Now they do seem to rush when it comes to invoking new requirements that disproportionately target minorities under the guise of voter integrity. If this was their only objective all such legislation would have mandated readily available easily obtainable no cost ID's to go with stepped up security up front, not as an afterthought and only then in a manner that does not adversely affect the electorate. It's like when a company wants to get rid of older employees but knows to avoid age discrimination charges they must arbitrarily fire a number of younger employees, their performance and performance reivews notwithstanding. Sacrifices must be made for the company good as they determine that good. There are many ways to observe the law while circumventing its purpose.

Being a rocker is a very hard life... that is, very on hard them in life. Of course, that is a choice these guys make in how they abuse their bodies and minds. They burn the candle at both ends, on high setting, and end up years later looking like a prune and some sharing the mental acuity of one. It's like Mother Nature fills your account with only so much life energy. How one withdraws it is personal choice. Best to leave something for the retirement years.

LOL... so true.

You never know how good a season will be until it gets underway. I have been underwhelmed before with line-ups only to be pleasantly surprised with the actual season. On the other hand, this is no guarantee. I tuned out the last season with the return of so many also rans for rerun of their efforts. Truth is with so many options for me now: On Demand, assorted series and movies on Blu Ray discs, Amazon Prime, Vudu, etc. I seldom watch TV networks on their schedule anymore. I use On Demand to catch up on what I wish to see. I pick and choose according to most interest and when I want.