Avoiding Vitamin D may hinder health
Submitted by Vitamin Blog
Written by Michael Vass
With the spring and summer seasons upon us, millions are resupplying their shelves with sunblock and in the process may be increasing their chances of cancer. Surprised? I’m not in principle though the exact danger is different than I thought it might be…
Market Scan for Small Cap Stocks on May 13, 2008
Submitted by Ducimus Plinius
Market Scan for small cap stocks
at the close of the markets on May 13, 2008
The table below identifies the stocks returned on my scan of the US markets for small capitalizations stocks likely to display the characteristics of stocks entering Phase II, as described by Stan Weinstein.
i[2]y in the WSJ - Matchmakers: Patients Meet Clinical Trials
Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog
(Note: i[2]y Chairman Dr. Leonard Sender featured in this piece)
Amid Shortage of Volunteers, Some Programs Aim to Boost Education and Recruitment
Cancer: Delayed Diagnosis Is The New Hotness
Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog
According to the results of a new national survey, “Delayed Cancer Diagnosis: Why?” over half of respondents waited two months to five years to see a doctor for a diagnosis in spite of having symptoms of the disease. In addition, nearly 4/5 respondents were diagnosed with having a form of cancer within one week to two months of seeing a doctor.
Sony’s triple profit
Submitted by Gaming Briefs and Nostalgia Bits
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan’s Sony Corp. said Wednesday its annual net profit almost tripled to hit a record high as brisk sales of digital cameras and laptop computers offset continued losses from the PlayStation 3.
The electronics giant has endured a difficult past few years amid tough competition from rival products such as Apple’s iPod and Nintendo’s Wii, but is now enjoying a strong recovery under its first foreign boss, Howard Stringer.
Sony said its operating profit leapt more than fivefold, helped by asset sales, and is expected to rise further this year. But its bottom line is set to worsen due to a stronger yen and smaller one-off gains.
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SBS Teas Birthday Celebration - Save 15% on May 15th
Submitted by The Cheap Gourmet
SBS Teas owner, Lady Babs, is celebrating her 65th birthday on Thursday, May 15th. She invites you to celebrate in her joy of being eligible for “Senior Discounts” and is offering everyone a whopping 15% discount on their entire purchase.
If you’ve never tried SBS Teas, now would be an excellent time to order. Be careful though… once you try these high-quality loose leaf teas you’ll never settle for anything less. SBS Teas offers a wonderful selection of custom-blended teas including black, green, white, chai, oolong, organic, iced teas and more.
Welcome Finance Students in Romania!!
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Special Carpe Diem Welcome to the Finance Students at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania, and UM-Flint Professor and Fulbright Scholar Dr. Seyed Mehdian.
Progesterone helps to prevent uterine cancer
Submitted by Fitness & Health with Dr. Gabe Mirkin
They’re supposed to prevent pregnancy, and they do, but intrauterine devices (IUDs) also reduce uterine cancer risk by more than 40 percent (Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, May 6, 2008).
An IUD is a small, T-shaped plastic device inserted into the uterus. Only two percent of women who use contraception in the United States choose an IUD, despite the proven safety and effectiveness of this long-term method. Worldwide, however, IUDs are the most widely used reversible contraceptive. Most IUD’s prevent pregnancy by releasing small amounts of the hormone progesterone into the uterus. This is also why they help to prevent uterine cancer.
Bush’s Personal Sacrifice
Submitted by YOUR NEW REALITY
Psychotic Bush haters will scream that President Bush has sealed himself off from the realities of the wars he has launched and that he makes no great sacrifices or endures the kind of suffering that millions of Americans with loved ones in the war zones have to live with everyday.
Toddler power beats drug ring
Submitted by Toddler Blog
Written by Michael Vass
Criminals these days must deal with many factors, especially if they are involved in drugs. Sniffing dogs, DEA, INTERPOL, detectives, narcotics officers, informants and more are just a few of the hurdles they must outwit or avoid. But for those that can clear all these hurdles, there is one more defender of the law that they have to be prepared for. Toddlers….
China Industrial Output April 2008
Submitted by China Economy Watch Blog
China’s industrial production growth slowed slightly in April. Output was up 15.7 percent in April from April 2007, the statistics bureau said today. This follows a 17.8 percent increase in March.
EMISSIONS TRADING BOOMING
Submitted by New Energy News Blog
In the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), each country is assigned allowances for the amount of emissions it can generate. Each industry within that country and each company within that industry is likewise capped. The companies are allowed to buy more allowances in a general auction.
If a company is unable to conduct business with the total greenhouse gas emissions allowances given and purchased at auction, it can purchase more “credits” in the ETS (1 credit per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, CO2e) from companies that are able to conduct business with less than the allowances they obtained. The value of the credits tends to go up over time as the pressure to cut emissions becomes more stringent. The idea is to create rewards for companies that cut emissions.
(“Tonne” = “metric ton” - 10% greater weight than the U.S. ton. CO2e is used because there are many greenhouse gases, some of which are equivalent to more than a tonne of carbon dioxide - in terms of the harm they have on global climate change - and some of which are equivalent to less than a tonne of CO2.)
The United Nations (UN) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) operates under the terms of the Kyoto Protocols to approve projects that companies in signatory nations, including EU nations but not limited to them, can invest in to offset their own emissions. Purchase of 1 Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) from the CDM offsets a tonne of CO2e.
The international emissions trading market is booming. Most observers expect it to boom bigger (especially after the U.S. comes on board in the 2009 to 2012 period).
Emissions trading is not, however, without problems. Growth depends on the availability of credits. The supply has slowed since the CDM tightened down on its approval process. The CDM did so to protect the quality of the projects it approves. This appears to be a temporary bureaucratic snafu but the trading community, forced to hold ready money, is concerned.
The EU ETS has worked through early difficulties and should be applauded for working out the complexities of the allowances-given-to-allowances-auctioned ratio. The system, though, has yet to prove truly effective at emissions reduction. To do so, its members must face more severe caps without pulling away.
When emissions caps are further ratcheted down, if nations that have invested aggressively in New Energy are able to sustain stable power prices, the system must be considered a complete success. The question is whether EU nations will stay within the parameters of the system until then.
Andrew Ertel, chief executive of Evolution Markets: “Lack of clarity…post-2012 is countering growth of markets such as the EU ETS…The market is truly at a crossroads as participants appreciate the complexity and risks of carbon trading.”
Perhaps only one thing is at a more crucial crossroads than the European cap-and-trade system: The earth it was designed to protect.
TO THE DEFENSE OF TEXAS WIND
Submitted by New Energy News Blog
The cause of New Energy has created an impressive alliance stretching across traditional political lines. In Texas, Thomas Segel, a staunch Republican and former Marine, takes on what he perceives to be “…left-leaning Political Kings and their Environmental Jesters…” in defense of controversial wind installations on the state’s Gulf coast.
Segel: “…A renewable source of energy that requires no coal, gas or oil, has no waste product and creates no greenhouse gases would seem to be the magical solution everyone is seeking. As gasoline tops $4.00 a gallon in many regions, Americans are screaming for a solution to the national attack on family budgets…”
No politics in that observation, just facts.
In Texas, where a Republican Governor is, wisely, a strong backer of the wind energy industry’s U.S.-leading expansion, Segel may not realize how many allies he has on both sides of the political battle lines.
There is a legitimate debate regarding the degree to which any governmental regulation is necessary or proper. It goes back at least to the days of the constitutional conventions in Philadelphia. Americans have fought and died for the right to engage in such debate.
There is nobody, though, who would defend irresponsible, obstructive over-regulation in the service of private interests. That is what is stopping the development of wind installations in South Texas.
Segel’s opponents are true Kings, of the King Ranch. In coming to the defense of Texas wind, Segel’s allies are (ironically) Kenedys (one N, no relation), of the neighboring Kenedy Ranch.
Segel justifiably takes aim at the King Ranch for USING environmentalists to obstruct Kenedy Ranch wind energy installations of enormous value to the region and the state.
Segel: “This is the first of two planned farms on the 400,000-acre South Texas ranch. It is the start of an $800 million project that will eventually provide electricity for more than 100,000 homes, and have no negative emissions…Farmers and ranchers have found wind farms a good source of supplemental income. Some large landowners are considering the development of their own wind farms, while others are content to lease their land…Only about 42 by 42 feet of actual space is used for any single wind turbine, allowing farmers to plant right up to the base of the construction. Because some of these turbines are very high, between 100 and 400 feet, there is little noise, allowing normal conversation right at the base…”
Using environmentalists was a clever ploy by oil baron Jack Hunt, the King Ranch boss. But he failed to see where the blowback would come from. Few things anger Texans more than the violation of their sacred private property rights - except perhaps overzealous violations in the name of environmental impacts.
Segel: “According to a company spokesman, even before construction started it had completed three years of comprehensive wildlife studies. The conclusion of these studies was the farm would be outside the main migratory flight path and no endangered species or birds would be harmed. This failed to satisfy those opposed to the construction… King Ranch President Jack Hunt…claims the turbines will create an eyesore, even though the nearest highway is more than twenty miles away and there is little population to view the operation…A coalition of state and local environmental activist groups [largely funded by Hunt and the King Ranch] started filing complaints early in 2007…State courts and agencies have dismissed all attempted actions saying the King Ranch and the Coastal Habitat Alliance have no standing for action in a case that requires no permits and is on private land…”
Wind energy, not without imperfections, is essentially a good and right idea whose time has come.
BIGGEST U.S. ROOFTOP SOLAR INSTALLATION
Submitted by New Energy News Blog
Solar energy offers a unique opportunity to build widely distributed generation. Even a huge rooftop installation like the 1.7-megawatt system PPL Renewable Energy is installing for Schering-Plough Corporation in New Jersey is dwarfed by the megawatts from a solar power plant and or a wind farm.
But smaller, distributed power sources offer things the giants can’t: Distributed financing, the lack of need for new grid construction and ready development without significant community resistance or environmental impacts.
Local rooftop solar also offers a convenient solution to the threat of brownouts. Rooftop solar systems provide the most extra juice on hot summer afternoons, just when demand for power to run air conditioning systems is hitting the grid the hardest.
While the development of new transmission can take inordinately long, be excessively expensive and meet Not-In-My-BackYard (NIMBY) opposition, rooftop solar installations are usually welcomed or ignored. With transmission bottlenecks in the U.S. (and Europe) imminent, experts like Jigar Shah, SunEdison’s resident maven, believe distributed rooftop solar generation may soon be the only thing between consumers and power failures. (See GRIDLOCK?)
A PPL project. (click to enlarge)
PPL, Schering-Plough Developing the Largest Rooftop Solar Installation in the U.S.
May 12, 2008 (PR Newswire)
WHO
PPL Renewable Energy, a division of PPL Energy Services Group (Paul T. Champagne, president); Schering-Plough Corporation
A PPL project. (click to enlarge)
WHAT
PPL will design, install and operate a 1.7-megawatt rooftop solar system for Schering-Plough, the largest rooftop solar installation in the U.S.
WHEN
- Schering-Plough Corp aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 5% by 2012.
- The solar installation is expected to be operational by the end of 2008.
- PPL has been developing solar and landfill gas-to-electricity projects since 2002. It has $100 million worth of such projects scheduled over the next 5 years.
Remember Their Names: 5 Companies That Look Poised to Make It Big #3: Orb Energy
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
It is only the end of the first year of what promises to be a decade-long revolution in how energy is produced and consumed and investors’ radar screens are already brightly lit with dozens, if not hundreds, of companies that appear to have a chance to hit it big. Which are the contenders, not merely the pretenders? Introducing five firms that look like they are poised to hit it big.
Contender #3 – Orb Energy, a Singapore company that sells backup solar photovoltaic systems in India, where a dilapidated power grid stands in the way of millions of rising-income consumers.
These 9 Companies’ New Nanotechnologies Could Help World Stave Off Peak Oil (Part 2 of 2)
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
It would be momentous news if a giant new oilfield was suddenly discovered, one that raised global output by perhaps 1% to 3%, roughly around one to 2.5 million barrels a day. Such an oilfield would not prevent global oil production from “peaking,” but it would stave off the day when “peak oil” arrived, if it hasn’t already, giving the world more time to get off its oil addiction.
Yesterday in Part 1 of this series, Max Bunger, a nanotechnology expert and research director at Lux Research in San Francisco, detailed the work of four companies around the world whose nanotechnologies should be able to increase output and lower operating costs. Now here are Bunger’s five other companies to watch, beginning with:
ETS Investor Alert 5-14-08
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
Add German automaker BMW to the list of entrants in the great electric car race. blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com
Soaring like a kite tied to the ground
Submitted by 2point6billion.com Blog
India China trade seems to me to be soaring like a kite tied to the ground.
While both countries celebrate having achieved a trade target of US$40billion set for 2010 in 2008, there are still only 120 companies of Indian origin registered wth the Indian embassy in Beijing, and even fewer companies of Chinese origin registered with the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.
While businessmen in both countries express a desire to do business in the other, barriers - social, political and financial seem to be keeping them at bay. Of the difficulties that Chinese firms face while doing business in India, Reuters reported - Chinese firms have found profits in India hard to come by. Tax barriers are everywhere, eroding their cost advantages. Corruption is rampant, adding another layer of difficulty. And Chinese goods have a low-quality image that is very hard to shake.
Einstein On God : What Is He Good For? Absolutely Nothing
Submitted by YOUR NEW REALITY
From a recently unearthed Albert Einstein letter, written in 1954 :
… The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.
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The Food Pyramid Gets A Facelift
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
When the “new” food pyramid was released a few years ago, I have to admit, I found it difficult to sell it to people, especially families. It was hard to follow, bulky and contained too much information. It’s not that the suggestions were not reasonable, they were just too much to take in at once or incorporate into today’s busy lifestyles.
X-Play Exclusive: Cliff Bleszinski Interview
Submitted by videogame2play
Adam sits down 1-on-1 with Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski as they discuss the new features of the highly anticipated Gears of War 2.
Metal Gear Solid 4: new videos
Submitted by videogame2play
Kojima Productions much anticipated release Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots is coming June 12th exclusively for the PlayStation 3. You won’t want to miss the following just released videos.
Watch the first 10 minutes of gameplay:
Competitive Runners Should Do Cross-Training
Submitted by My Fitness Hut Blog
If you are a competitive runner, you should do more than run when you train. You should train like an athlete to avoid injuries and perform at a high level. There is a certain amount of injury risk with any exercise program. Runners and sprinters have to be especially careful because of the intensity associated with the exercise activity or sport. Decrease your risk of injury by doing the following:
“Sports Fitness Hut’s Speed Training For Athletes” eBook
Submitted by My Fitness Hut Blog
It’s here! “Sports Fitness Hut’s Speed Training For Athletes” eBook! Who can benefit from reading this eBook? Athletes, competitive runners, triathletes and those who want a lean and toned body! And, if you want to exercise with power (more efficiently), read this eBook! In other words, everyone can benefit from reading this eBook! It is an ideal guide for coaches, parents and youth. Download the ebook now!
Belly Off Before And After - Amazing Results!
Submitted by Turbulence Training Blog
Michael Corona (at 217 pound before and 189 pounds after), is another person who triumphed over excuses, and changed his life…here’s his Belly Off story…