"In The News" Thread

Just as its name suggests this place will be where we put news articles, etc. just to keep things cleaner around here. Post away!...yeah right...

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/miracle-drug-discovered-that-cures-any-viral-infection

Imagine a world without viral infections of any kind. The common cold, influenza, dengue fever, even ebola — all of them, wiped out forever. Even more unfathomable, imagine that the cures for each of them was a single drug.

In what might be the greatest medical discovery since antibiotics, scientists working at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory have designed exactly that: a broad-spectrum miracle drug that could one day make viral infections a thing of the past, reports MedicalXPress.com about a paper published in PLosOne.



Most of the world's infectious diseases are caused by either bacteria or viruses. The discovery and initial development of antibiotics in the early part of the 20th century offered a solution to most bacterial infections, but diseases caused by viruses have largely continued to threaten lives and human health around the world. While there are a handful of vaccines and antiviral drugs that combat specific viruses, a broad-spectrum drug that is capable of curing a wide variety of viruses has, until now, remained elusive.

"If you detect a pathogenic bacterium in the environment, there is probably an antibiotic that could be used to treat someone exposed to that, but I realized there are very few treatments out there for viruses," said Todd Rider, one of the scientists credited with discovering the new drug.

The MIT team's drug, called DRACO (Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizers) for short, is most notable for its ability to cure just about any type of virus. So far researchers have tested DRACO against 15 viruses — including rhinoviruses at the root of the common cold, H1N1, a stomach virus, a polio virus, and dengue fever — and found it was equally effective against all of them.

"In theory, it should work against all viruses," said Rider.

The drug works by utilizing a protein that targets a type of double-stranded RNA produced only in cells that have been infected by viruses. This protein is then combined with another protein that induces cells to undergo apoptosis (or programmed cell suicide). Because the RNA signatures of cells infected with viruses are so unique, DRACO kills only infected cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.

The way that DRACO works is also remarkable in its ability to ward off drug resistance.

"Viruses are pretty good at developing resistance to things we try against them, but in this case, it's hard to think of a simple pathway to drug resistance," said Karla Kirkegaard, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.

In other words, DRACO avoids one of the pitfalls of most antibiotics, which can become less effective over time due to the evolution of drug-resistant superbacteria.

So far the only live animals to be tested with DRACO have been mice, but the results of those trials were extremely encouraging. Mice infected with the H1N1 influenza virus were cured by the drug without any toxic side effects. Rider says he hopes to license the technology for trials in larger animals soon, with the end goal being human clinical trials.

DRACO, like Malfoy? LOL!!!!!!! Looks like they have a potential blockbuster drug on their hands. If this is true, it might be worth investing a few dollars in the company while the market is down..... seems like a better bet than the roulette tables in Vegas!

Good point on the stocks.

Check out this sick, twisted bitch:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2026964/Susanne-Emans-bid-worlds-fattest-woman-52st-mother-2-supersizing.html

Even the dog looks embarrassed and disgusted with this...the sister ain't half bad.

Akeldama wrote:

Even the dog looks embarrassed and disgusted with this...the sister ain't half bad.

LOL!!!! Yeah, the sister is one everyone would want to fuck!!!!!!

Quote :

She added: ‘The bigger I get, the better I feel. I feel more confident and sexy. Why shouldn't I push the limits and see how fat I can get and stay healthy?’

Good Lord. Enjoy feeling confident and sexy UNTIL YOUR FUCKING HEART EXPLODES during one of those eight hour grocery shopping marathons, you crazy skank!!

That's obscene.

S.D. wrote:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/08/fantasia_hollywood_bowl_drugs.php

Fantasia!

Ya know, except for Country Bears, I have seen every other one of those movies under the influence of THC.

DeathCult wrote:

S.D. wrote:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/08/fantasia_hollywood_bowl_drugs.php

Fantasia!

That's cool, cause I actually like all the listed movies.

http://news.yahoo.com/ex-iaea-offici...074625460.html

Quote:
VIENNA (Reuters) - A research center near Tripoli has stocks of nuclear material that could be used to make a "dirty bomb," a former senior U.N. inspector said on Wednesday, warning of possible looting during turmoil in Libya.

Seeking to mend ties with the West, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi agreed in 2003 to abandon efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons -- a move that brought him in from the cold and helped end decades of Libyan isolation.

A six-month popular insurgency has now forced Gaddafi to abandon his stronghold in the Libyan capital but continued gunfire suggests the rebels have not completely triumphed yet.

Olli Heinonen, head of U.N. nuclear safeguards inspections worldwide until last year, pointed to substantial looting that took place at Iraq's Tuwaitha atomic research facility near Baghdad after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.
In Iraq, "most likely due to pure luck, the story did not end in a radiological disaster," Heinonen said.

In Libya, "nuclear security concerns still linger," the former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an online commentary.
Libya's uranium enrichment program was dismantled after Gaddafi renounced weapons of mass destruction eight years ago. Sensitive material and documentation including nuclear weapons design information were confiscated.
But the country's Tajoura research center continues to stock large quantities of radioisotopes, radioactive waste and low-enriched uranium fuel after three decades of nuclear research and radioisotope production, Heinonen said.
Refined uranium can have civilian as well as military purposes, if enriched much further.

"DANGEROUS" MATERIAL

"While we can be thankful that the highly enriched uranium stocks are no longer in Libya, the remaining material in Tajoura could, if it ended up in the wrong hands, be used as ingredients for dirty bombs," Heinonen, now at Harvard University, said.

"The situation at Tajoura today is unclear. We know that during times of regime collapse, lawlessness and looting reign."
A so-called dirty bomb can combine conventional explosives such as dynamite with radioactive material.

Experts describe the threat of a crude fissile nuclear bomb, which is technically difficult to manufacture and requires hard-to-obtain bomb-grade uranium or plutonium, as a "low probability, high consequence act" -- unlikely but with the potential to cause large-scale harm to life and property.

But a "dirty bomb," where conventional explosives are used to disperse radiation from a radioactive source, is a "high probability, low consequence act" with more potential to terrorize than cause large loss of life.

"There are a number of nuclear and radiological materials at Tajoura that could be used by terrorists to create a dirty bomb," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a director at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank.

There was no immediate comment from the IAEA on the Tajoura facility. A document posted on the IAEA's website said it was a 10 megawatt reactor located 34 km (20 miles) east of the Libyan capital.

The Vienna-based U.N. agency has been involved in technical aid projects in Libya, including at Tajoura.

Heinonen said Libya's rebel Transitional National Council would need to be aware of the material at Tajoura. Once a transition takes place it should "take the necessary steps to secure these potentially dangerous radioactive sources."
Fitzpatrick said the looting that occurred at Iraq's Tuwaitha center "should stand as a lesson for the need for nuclear security precautions in the situation today in Libya."

gershom wrote:

DeathCult wrote:

S.D. wrote:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/08/fantasia_hollywood_bowl_drugs.php

Fantasia!

That's cool, cause I actually like all the listed movies.

Oh, it's good. I'm just laughing because it's true.

Fantasia was the very first movie with an actual stereo soundtrack.

Hope everyone on the East Coast is ready for "Irene", looks like it could be a nasty one.

S.D. wrote:

Hope everyone on the East Coast is ready for "Irene", looks like it could be a nasty one.

Fucking a, made sure I parked my car under the most likely to fall big tree branch I could find in my driveway

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/26/underground-river-amazon

Covering more than 7 million square kilometres in South America, the Amazon basin is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world. But it turns out we have only known half the story until now.

Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the Amazon basin – around 4km underneath the Amazon river. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon river but up to hundreds of times wider.

Both the Amazon and Hamza flow from west to east and are around the same length, at 6,000km. But whereas the Amazon ranges from 1km to 100km in width, the Hamza ranges from 200km to 400km.

The underground river starts in the Acre region under the Andes and flows through the Solimões, Amazonas and Marajó basins before opening out directly into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon flows much faster than the Hamza, however, draining a greater volume of water. Around 133,000m3 of water flow through the Amazon per second at speeds of up to 5 metres per second. The underground river's flow rate has been estimated at around 3,900m3 per second and it barely inches along at less than a millimetre per hour.

The Hamza was located using data collected inside a series of 241 abandoned deep wells that were drilled in the Amazon region by the petrochemical company Petrobras in the 1970s and 1980s. Elizabeth Tavares Pimentel and Valiya Hamza of the Department of Geophysics at Brazil's National Observatory led the work and presented their results last week at the International Congress of the Society Brasiliera Geophysical in Rio de Janeiro.

The researchers used a mathematical model to predict the presence of the underground river, based on the measured changes in temperature down the wells. In the presentation, Piementel said that the flow of groundwater was almost vertical through the rocks to depths of around 2,000m. After this, the water flow changes direction and becomes almost horizontal.

According to the researchers, the presence of the Rio Hamza river might account for the relatively low salinity of the waters around the mouth of the Amazon.

Professor Hamza said Piementel's measurements represented preliminary work on the discovery of the new river, but Hamza said he expected to confirm the existence of the flow with additional measurements within the next few years.

That's a wild story, thanks for sharing.

Cool article.

It just goes to show we don't know shit about our own dear planet Earth.

Quote:
The badly burned former nanny of two of Moammar Gadhafi's grandchildren was receiving medical treatment Tuesday in the burn unit of a Tripoli hospital.

Shwygar Mullah says the wife of Gadhafi's son Hannibal poured boiling water on her for failing to keep a child quiet.

She is being treated for an infection with antibiotics. Her burns are dressed.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa...html?hpt=hp_c2

More news on the river beneath the Amazon:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14693637