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Saturday, January 28, 2006
Remembering Challenger
Lessons learned 20 years after space shuttle disaster
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Twenty years ago, space shuttle Challenger blew apart in jets of fire and plumes of smoke, a terrifying sight witnessed by the families of the seven astronauts and by those who came to watch the historic launch of the first teacher in space.
The disaster shattered NASA's image and the belief that spaceflight could become as routine as airplane travel. The investigation into the accident's cause revealed a space agency more concerned with schedules and public relations than safety and sound decision-making.
Seventeen years later, seven more astronauts were lost on the shuttle Columbia, leading many to conclude NASA had not learned the lessons of Challenger.
But after last summer's successful return to flight under the highest level of engineering scrutiny ever, many space watchers are more hopeful.
"Don't we all learn as we go?" said Grace Corrigan, who lost her daughter, teacher Christa McAuliffe, in the Challenger accident. "Everybody learns from their mistakes."
Joining McAuliffe on the doomed January 28, 1986 Challenger flight were commander Dick Scobee, pilot Mike Smith and astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis. (Watch widow June Scobee Rodgers talk about her husband's legacy -- 5:01)
"It was one of those defining moments in your life that you will always remember," said Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who flew on the shuttle mission preceding Challenger.
"Because in 1986, the space shuttle was the symbol of technological prowess of the United States and all of the sudden it's destroyed in front of everybody's eyes." (Listen to CNN's Miles O'Brien reflect on the day that changed us forever)
The two shuttle disasters, as well as the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew during a 1967 launch pad test, taught the space agency how to improve the herculean task of launching humans into space, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said recently.
On Thursday, NASA workers paused for their annual Day of Remembrance in honor of those lost in all three accidents. On Saturday, a ceremony remembering the Challenger accident is planned at Kennedy Space Center. (Full story)
Challenger was brought down just after liftoff by a poorly designed seal in the shuttle's solid rocket booster, which has since been redesigned and has performed without problems. It will be used on the next-generation vehicle with plans to return astronauts to the moon and later to Mars.
"We learned how to design solid rocket boosters ... with no further failures," Griffin said. "We got that from the Challenger crew, so that is part of the learning process, I'm afraid."
The Challenger disaster came in an era of tighter budgets, smaller work forces and a constant need for the space agency to justify the shuttle program that followed the heyday of the Apollo moon program. NASA had hoped sending a teacher into space to give a lesson would win back some public interest and show how routine shuttle flights could be.
The success of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs had led NASA to believe that spaceflight eventually could become as commonplace as an airplane ride, said Stanley Reinartz, the former manager of the shuttle project office at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He made the decision not to take engineers' concerns about the Challenger's O-ring seals to the highest reaches of NASA management.
"Things can go wrong," Reinartz said of the decision to launch. "You don't get away from it. It's always there."
Nelson said he is confident that the current NASA leaders have learned the lessons of management hubris from their predecessors. Griffin grounded the shuttle fleet last summer after foam fell off the tank of Discovery during the first shuttle flight after Columbia. It was a chunk of foam debris that doomed Columbia by knocking a hole in its wing.
"The problem that NASA has had that caused the destruction of both space shuttles is the same ... -- arrogance in the management of NASA so that they were not listening to the engineers on the line," Nelson said.
But some critics wonder how long the 2-year-old reforms and attitude changes implemented after Columbia will last until, once again, dissenting opinion is discouraged and NASA managers override the concerns of their engineers.
In a series of telephone conference calls the night before Challenger's liftoff, engineers from NASA contractor Morton Thiokol recommended against a launch because data showed that cold temperatures compromised the O-rings' resiliency. The temperature at launch time was 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 Celsius).
Under perceived pressure from NASA managers, Thiokol managers reversed themselves and went against the recommendation of their engineers not to launch, according to the investigation by a commission appointed by President Reagan.
"The presidential commission made very powerful and strong recommendations on how the system needed to be fixed," said Roger Boisjoly, a former Thiokol engineer who had opposed the Challenger launch during the conference calls. "Initially NASA installed every one of those (recommendations), but in the ensuing years proceeded to dismantle them."
Griffin said he is reminded of the early days of the nation's air transport system when scores of test pilots died in plane accidents during the early part of last century.
"The knowledge we gained was gained only through many, many losses," Griffin said. "That is the perspective through which we must look at our losses in spaceflight."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Remembering Challenger
Lessons learned 20 years after space shuttle disaster
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Twenty years ago, space shuttle Challenger blew apart in jets of fire and plumes of smoke, a terrifying sight witnessed by the families of the seven astronauts and by those who came to watch the historic launch of the first teacher in space.
The disaster shattered NASA's image and the belief that spaceflight could become as routine as airplane travel. The investigation into the accident's cause revealed a space agency more concerned with schedules and public relations than safety and sound decision-making.
Seventeen years later, seven more astronauts were lost on the shuttle Columbia, leading many to conclude NASA had not learned the lessons of Challenger.
But after last summer's successful return to flight under the highest level of engineering scrutiny ever, many space watchers are more hopeful.
"Don't we all learn as we go?" said Grace Corrigan, who lost her daughter, teacher Christa McAuliffe, in the Challenger accident. "Everybody learns from their mistakes."
Joining McAuliffe on the doomed January 28, 1986 Challenger flight were commander Dick Scobee, pilot Mike Smith and astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair and Greg Jarvis. (Watch widow June Scobee Rodgers talk about her husband's legacy -- 5:01)
"It was one of those defining moments in your life that you will always remember," said Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who flew on the shuttle mission preceding Challenger.
"Because in 1986, the space shuttle was the symbol of technological prowess of the United States and all of the sudden it's destroyed in front of everybody's eyes." (Listen to CNN's Miles O'Brien reflect on the day that changed us forever)
The two shuttle disasters, as well as the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew during a 1967 launch pad test, taught the space agency how to improve the herculean task of launching humans into space, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said recently.
On Thursday, NASA workers paused for their annual Day of Remembrance in honor of those lost in all three accidents. On Saturday, a ceremony remembering the Challenger accident is planned at Kennedy Space Center. (Full story)
Challenger was brought down just after liftoff by a poorly designed seal in the shuttle's solid rocket booster, which has since been redesigned and has performed without problems. It will be used on the next-generation vehicle with plans to return astronauts to the moon and later to Mars.
"We learned how to design solid rocket boosters ... with no further failures," Griffin said. "We got that from the Challenger crew, so that is part of the learning process, I'm afraid."
The Challenger disaster came in an era of tighter budgets, smaller work forces and a constant need for the space agency to justify the shuttle program that followed the heyday of the Apollo moon program. NASA had hoped sending a teacher into space to give a lesson would win back some public interest and show how routine shuttle flights could be.
The success of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs had led NASA to believe that spaceflight eventually could become as commonplace as an airplane ride, said Stanley Reinartz, the former manager of the shuttle project office at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He made the decision not to take engineers' concerns about the Challenger's O-ring seals to the highest reaches of NASA management.
"Things can go wrong," Reinartz said of the decision to launch. "You don't get away from it. It's always there."
Nelson said he is confident that the current NASA leaders have learned the lessons of management hubris from their predecessors. Griffin grounded the shuttle fleet last summer after foam fell off the tank of Discovery during the first shuttle flight after Columbia. It was a chunk of foam debris that doomed Columbia by knocking a hole in its wing.
"The problem that NASA has had that caused the destruction of both space shuttles is the same ... -- arrogance in the management of NASA so that they were not listening to the engineers on the line," Nelson said.
But some critics wonder how long the 2-year-old reforms and attitude changes implemented after Columbia will last until, once again, dissenting opinion is discouraged and NASA managers override the concerns of their engineers.
In a series of telephone conference calls the night before Challenger's liftoff, engineers from NASA contractor Morton Thiokol recommended against a launch because data showed that cold temperatures compromised the O-rings' resiliency. The temperature at launch time was 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 Celsius).
Under perceived pressure from NASA managers, Thiokol managers reversed themselves and went against the recommendation of their engineers not to launch, according to the investigation by a commission appointed by President Reagan.
"The presidential commission made very powerful and strong recommendations on how the system needed to be fixed," said Roger Boisjoly, a former Thiokol engineer who had opposed the Challenger launch during the conference calls. "Initially NASA installed every one of those (recommendations), but in the ensuing years proceeded to dismantle them."
Griffin said he is reminded of the early days of the nation's air transport system when scores of test pilots died in plane accidents during the early part of last century.
"The knowledge we gained was gained only through many, many losses," Griffin said. "That is the perspective through which we must look at our losses in spaceflight."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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CBS News 'Brokeback' Goes Mainstream January 27, 2006�12:04:10
'Brokeback' Goes Mainstream
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2006
(CBS) When "Brokeback Mountain" opened last month, it was universally praised by critics, though the public seemed to think of it as "the gay cowboy movie." But that label seems to be falling by the wayside as the film piles on awards and heads for the top of the box office, according to The Early Show entertainment contributor and People magazine Editor at Large Jess Cagle. He says "Brokeback" was considered a major financial risk, but has raked in close to $45 million dollars so far, more than triple its modest budget. And what's most surprising, Cagle observes, is who's driving the film's ever-growing popularity. "Brokeback" is the story of a doomed love affair between two Wyoming cowboys. Star Heath Ledger was drawn to the role despite the film's sensitive subject matter because "the story was so heavy and beautiful, and (because of) the opportunity to investigate this character, this incredibly complex figure." After winning four Golden Globes last week, including best drama, "Brokeback Mountain" ticket sales soared. You might think big cities are driving the film's success, but it goes much deeper than that, Cagle notes. "What's driving the astonishing grosses for this movie," says Focus Features Co-President James Schamus, "is the numbers coming out of places like Little Rock (Ark.) and Billings, Mont. and Salt Lake City and Columbus (Ohio) and Pittsburgh. The film is doing business in every corner of America." City slickers and country dwellers alike are lining up for "Brokeback," despite concerns that some moviegoers would shun the film because of its untraditional theme. Now, it's arguably become the country's hottest date movie, Cagle says. "It has become," Schamus says, "officially uncool as a guy to say 'No' to your girlfriend to this movie. It's something that you're now in a zone where, if you say 'No,' you just don't look that cool anymore." Cagle concurs: "It's being driven by women. Men will not seek out a love story," whether heterosexual or homosexual, "but they will go with their wives and girlfriends, and that's what's happening here." Moviegoers questioned by The Early Show also agree."I wouldn't have seen it without my wife taking me to see it, but after I saw it, it was a great love story. Fantastic," says one. "The film is a love story. I thought it was a great movie," says another. "If you ask me, it could've been a girl versus a guy. To me, it was just a love story. It didn't matter that it was two guys," added another. Filmmakers believe the "Brokeback" craze is being fueled by the need for such a good love story on the big screen. Says Schamus, "I don't think there's been a screen romance of this scope and scale coming out of Hollywood in years and years. It just hasn't happened. I think people are just responding first and foremost to the emotion and the honesty and intensity of the experience." Cagle adds that the producers "were very smart. They marketed the film as a love story. You look at the poster it looks like the 'Titanic' poster. To cement its place on Main Street, the film has become a favorite topic on the late night comedy circuit. On "The Late Show with David Letterman," the comedian quipped that the movie "sure brings new meaning to the word 'cowpoke.' " Also, a line from the movie is making its way into popular lexicon: "I wish I could quit you." "Brokeback Mountain" gallops into awards season a heavy Oscar favorite, Cagle says. In addition to the Golden Globes it grabbed, "Brokeback" recently received four Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and nine nods for BAFTAs, England's version of the Academy Awards. But Cagle says Ledger is up against tough competition in the best actor category he's expected to become part of. ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
'Brokeback' Goes Mainstream
NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2006
(CBS) When "Brokeback Mountain" opened last month, it was universally praised by critics, though the public seemed to think of it as "the gay cowboy movie." But that label seems to be falling by the wayside as the film piles on awards and heads for the top of the box office, according to The Early Show entertainment contributor and People magazine Editor at Large Jess Cagle. He says "Brokeback" was considered a major financial risk, but has raked in close to $45 million dollars so far, more than triple its modest budget. And what's most surprising, Cagle observes, is who's driving the film's ever-growing popularity. "Brokeback" is the story of a doomed love affair between two Wyoming cowboys. Star Heath Ledger was drawn to the role despite the film's sensitive subject matter because "the story was so heavy and beautiful, and (because of) the opportunity to investigate this character, this incredibly complex figure." After winning four Golden Globes last week, including best drama, "Brokeback Mountain" ticket sales soared. You might think big cities are driving the film's success, but it goes much deeper than that, Cagle notes. "What's driving the astonishing grosses for this movie," says Focus Features Co-President James Schamus, "is the numbers coming out of places like Little Rock (Ark.) and Billings, Mont. and Salt Lake City and Columbus (Ohio) and Pittsburgh. The film is doing business in every corner of America." City slickers and country dwellers alike are lining up for "Brokeback," despite concerns that some moviegoers would shun the film because of its untraditional theme. Now, it's arguably become the country's hottest date movie, Cagle says. "It has become," Schamus says, "officially uncool as a guy to say 'No' to your girlfriend to this movie. It's something that you're now in a zone where, if you say 'No,' you just don't look that cool anymore." Cagle concurs: "It's being driven by women. Men will not seek out a love story," whether heterosexual or homosexual, "but they will go with their wives and girlfriends, and that's what's happening here." Moviegoers questioned by The Early Show also agree."I wouldn't have seen it without my wife taking me to see it, but after I saw it, it was a great love story. Fantastic," says one. "The film is a love story. I thought it was a great movie," says another. "If you ask me, it could've been a girl versus a guy. To me, it was just a love story. It didn't matter that it was two guys," added another. Filmmakers believe the "Brokeback" craze is being fueled by the need for such a good love story on the big screen. Says Schamus, "I don't think there's been a screen romance of this scope and scale coming out of Hollywood in years and years. It just hasn't happened. I think people are just responding first and foremost to the emotion and the honesty and intensity of the experience." Cagle adds that the producers "were very smart. They marketed the film as a love story. You look at the poster it looks like the 'Titanic' poster. To cement its place on Main Street, the film has become a favorite topic on the late night comedy circuit. On "The Late Show with David Letterman," the comedian quipped that the movie "sure brings new meaning to the word 'cowpoke.' " Also, a line from the movie is making its way into popular lexicon: "I wish I could quit you." "Brokeback Mountain" gallops into awards season a heavy Oscar favorite, Cagle says. In addition to the Golden Globes it grabbed, "Brokeback" recently received four Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and nine nods for BAFTAs, England's version of the Academy Awards. But Cagle says Ledger is up against tough competition in the best actor category he's expected to become part of. ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
CNN.com - Cosmic treasure bedazzles scientists - Jan 23, 2006
Cosmic treasure bedazzles scientists
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- Pristine comet samples returned by the Stardust spacecraft after a 2.9-billion-mile journey wildly exceeded scientists' expectations, project managers said last week.
A canister containing particles trapped after the Stardust space probe's 2004 encounter with Comet Wild-2, pronounced as "Vilt," landed on Earth on January 15. The samples were taken to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for inspections.
"This exceeded all of our grandest expectations," Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington-based researcher and the principal Stardust investigator, told a news conference.
The team was still giddy from the smooth landing of the Stardust capsule in the moon-lit Utah desert, but that turned out to be just the beginning.
When the sample canister inside the capsule was opened, scientists could see with naked eyes small black rocks and other particles that had been trapped in the probe's gel-filled collection device.
"We were totally overwhelmed by the ability to actually see this so quickly and so straight-forwardly," Brownlee said.
The samples were trapped in a substance called aerogel, which although it has the same ingredients as a glass window is 99.8 percent air and has the lowest density of any solid substance. (Learn more about aerogel)
The Stardust spacecraft lifted off seven years ago and aimed for a close encounter with Comet Wild-2, a relative newcomer to the comparatively warmer region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. (Stardust mission explainer)
The comet is believed to come from the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune, but had a close approach to Jupiter in 1974 which deflected the icy body into its new orbit. Because Wild-2 has not been circling near the sun for long, the comet is believed to contain most of its original materials.
Scientists say comets contain leftovers from the solar system's creation.
"We've brought back an ancient cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system," Brownlee said.
Researchers are eager to study the comet samples to help answer questions about how the Earth and its sister planets formed and what comprised the original disc of interstellar dust that incubated and fed the early solar system.
Comets, for example, may have seeded Earth with the organic materials and water that eventually led to life. The same process may have happened on other planets, such as Mars, and may be happening today in other solar systems.
The chunks of Stardust's aerogel contain "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tracks" from comet particle impacts, some of which may even end with a few atoms of water ice, Brownlee said.
One hole, which ends with an embedded rock, is so large, you can nearly poke a finger in, Brownlee said.
Once the samples are cataloged, NASA will begin distributing small amounts to researchers worldwide for analysis.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/01/23/stardust.reut/index.html
Cosmic treasure bedazzles scientists
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- Pristine comet samples returned by the Stardust spacecraft after a 2.9-billion-mile journey wildly exceeded scientists' expectations, project managers said last week.
A canister containing particles trapped after the Stardust space probe's 2004 encounter with Comet Wild-2, pronounced as "Vilt," landed on Earth on January 15. The samples were taken to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for inspections.
"This exceeded all of our grandest expectations," Donald Brownlee, a University of Washington-based researcher and the principal Stardust investigator, told a news conference.
The team was still giddy from the smooth landing of the Stardust capsule in the moon-lit Utah desert, but that turned out to be just the beginning.
When the sample canister inside the capsule was opened, scientists could see with naked eyes small black rocks and other particles that had been trapped in the probe's gel-filled collection device.
"We were totally overwhelmed by the ability to actually see this so quickly and so straight-forwardly," Brownlee said.
The samples were trapped in a substance called aerogel, which although it has the same ingredients as a glass window is 99.8 percent air and has the lowest density of any solid substance. (Learn more about aerogel)
The Stardust spacecraft lifted off seven years ago and aimed for a close encounter with Comet Wild-2, a relative newcomer to the comparatively warmer region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. (Stardust mission explainer)
The comet is believed to come from the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune, but had a close approach to Jupiter in 1974 which deflected the icy body into its new orbit. Because Wild-2 has not been circling near the sun for long, the comet is believed to contain most of its original materials.
Scientists say comets contain leftovers from the solar system's creation.
"We've brought back an ancient cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system," Brownlee said.
Researchers are eager to study the comet samples to help answer questions about how the Earth and its sister planets formed and what comprised the original disc of interstellar dust that incubated and fed the early solar system.
Comets, for example, may have seeded Earth with the organic materials and water that eventually led to life. The same process may have happened on other planets, such as Mars, and may be happening today in other solar systems.
The chunks of Stardust's aerogel contain "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tracks" from comet particle impacts, some of which may even end with a few atoms of water ice, Brownlee said.
One hole, which ends with an embedded rock, is so large, you can nearly poke a finger in, Brownlee said.
Once the samples are cataloged, NASA will begin distributing small amounts to researchers worldwide for analysis.
Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/01/23/stardust.reut/index.html
BBC NEWS Health 3D structure of HIV 'revealed'
3D structure of HIV 'revealed' The 3D structure of the virus which causes Aids has been revealed for the first time, scientists say.
The variable size and shape of HIV has made it hard to map, the team said in the journal Structure.
So the UK-German team took hundreds of images of viruses, that are 60 times smaller than red blood cells, and used a computer programme to combine them.
Oxford University's Professor Stephen Fuller said the 3D map would assist in understanding how the virus grows.
Unusual features
He told the BBC: "You say can you show me the structure of the HIV virus and the question is which one.
"HIV is very variable. It varied in diameter by a factor of three."
The way the research team, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, dealt with this was by taking multiple images at different tilts.
Working with colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich, they took about 100 images of 70 individual HIV viruses and then looked at similarities.
Despite the variability, the team found some consistent features.
T cells
This included the finding that the core of virus - which is cone-shaped - spans the width of the viral membrane.
But there are spikes on the outside which bind to human immune cells, called T cells, and allow the virus to invade them.
The significance of this is that whereas most viruses have internal structures which define the size, in the HIV virus it is the membrane which defines the size.
This could inform the development of more effective therapeutic approaches Professor Stephen Fuller Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
This puts constraints on the way it can assemble, the team said.
Professor Fuller said: "Identifying how the virus grows will allow us to address the formation of this important pathogen and how it accommodates its variability.
"This could inform the development of more effective therapeutic approaches," he added.
But Professor Fuller, who continues to work on HIV, acknowledges that a new HIV vaccine or treatment resulting from his research was a long way off.
But he says the research could provide an insight into the way to prevent the virus from assembling.
Like any virus, HIV is not a cell but rather strands of genetic code wrapped in protein.
The virus invades living cells and take them over by usurping the cell's genetic code with its own.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4642940.stmPublished: 2006/01/24 12:26:30 GMT© BBC MMVI
3D structure of HIV 'revealed' The 3D structure of the virus which causes Aids has been revealed for the first time, scientists say.
The variable size and shape of HIV has made it hard to map, the team said in the journal Structure.
So the UK-German team took hundreds of images of viruses, that are 60 times smaller than red blood cells, and used a computer programme to combine them.
Oxford University's Professor Stephen Fuller said the 3D map would assist in understanding how the virus grows.
Unusual features
He told the BBC: "You say can you show me the structure of the HIV virus and the question is which one.
"HIV is very variable. It varied in diameter by a factor of three."
The way the research team, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, dealt with this was by taking multiple images at different tilts.
Working with colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich, they took about 100 images of 70 individual HIV viruses and then looked at similarities.
Despite the variability, the team found some consistent features.
T cells
This included the finding that the core of virus - which is cone-shaped - spans the width of the viral membrane.
But there are spikes on the outside which bind to human immune cells, called T cells, and allow the virus to invade them.
The significance of this is that whereas most viruses have internal structures which define the size, in the HIV virus it is the membrane which defines the size.
This could inform the development of more effective therapeutic approaches Professor Stephen Fuller Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
This puts constraints on the way it can assemble, the team said.
Professor Fuller said: "Identifying how the virus grows will allow us to address the formation of this important pathogen and how it accommodates its variability.
"This could inform the development of more effective therapeutic approaches," he added.
But Professor Fuller, who continues to work on HIV, acknowledges that a new HIV vaccine or treatment resulting from his research was a long way off.
But he says the research could provide an insight into the way to prevent the virus from assembling.
Like any virus, HIV is not a cell but rather strands of genetic code wrapped in protein.
The virus invades living cells and take them over by usurping the cell's genetic code with its own.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4642940.stmPublished: 2006/01/24 12:26:30 GMT© BBC MMVI
Monday, January 23, 2006
THE HISTORY CHANNEL - Digging for the Truth
The Real Temple of Doom.
Airs on Monday, January 23 at 9:00pm ET
Thousands of years before the Inca ruled the nation now called Peru, a strange and unique civilization dominated the region. It was called Chavin, and its story is one of the most bizarre in history. Unlike the other civilizations of the Americas, Chavin's status as a regional superpower wasn't based on its military muscle. Instead, the rulers of Chavin exercised a cult-like control over their subjects with the aid of hallucinogenic plants. Josh Bernstein ventures deep into the miles of tunnels beneath the ruins of Chavin de Huantar, comes face to face with some of the most fearsome animals of the Peruvian Amazon, and investigates a real temple of doom. As he tries to understand this mysterious culture, he takes part in one of the ancient rituals still practiced by the country's powerful shaman-priests. TVPG
The Real Temple of Doom.
Airs on Monday, January 23 at 9:00pm ET
Thousands of years before the Inca ruled the nation now called Peru, a strange and unique civilization dominated the region. It was called Chavin, and its story is one of the most bizarre in history. Unlike the other civilizations of the Americas, Chavin's status as a regional superpower wasn't based on its military muscle. Instead, the rulers of Chavin exercised a cult-like control over their subjects with the aid of hallucinogenic plants. Josh Bernstein ventures deep into the miles of tunnels beneath the ruins of Chavin de Huantar, comes face to face with some of the most fearsome animals of the Peruvian Amazon, and investigates a real temple of doom. As he tries to understand this mysterious culture, he takes part in one of the ancient rituals still practiced by the country's powerful shaman-priests. TVPG
Sunday, January 15, 2006
NOVA The Elegant Universe Smashing Pictures PBS
Search forthe Higgs bosonImage: This image shows a candidate for the associated production of a Higgs boson and Z boson. The candidate Higgs decays to a bottom quark and anti-bottom quark, which in turn decay to the jets denoted by the green and yellow tracks. The Z boson also decays to two jets denoted by the red and blue tracks.
The electroweak symmetry that describes both the electromagnetic and weak forces is not exact at low energy. This symmetry is broken by the Higgs mechanism, which predicts the existence of a new particle with no spin called the Higgs boson. The interaction between Higgs bosons and quarks or leptons provides the mass of these fundamental matter particles. Despite 30 years of searching, the Higgs boson has remained elusive. Indirect evidence suggests that discovery of the Higgs boson should be within reach of experiments that will occur over the next decade at Fermilab and the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
The difficulty in finding the Higgs boson has created a great deal of excitement in particle physics. Whether or not the Higgs exists, the standard model is now known to be incomplete. If the Higgs is found, then a calculation of the Higgs mass implies that the standard model breaks down at energies just higher than the mass of the Higgs itself. By studying the properties of the Higgs boson it is hoped that clues can be found to what lies beyond. An even more exciting possibility is that the particle does not exist. In this case there would be completely new types of matter that have never been seen before. The structure of space and time itself may even be different than expected.
Search forthe Higgs bosonImage: This image shows a candidate for the associated production of a Higgs boson and Z boson. The candidate Higgs decays to a bottom quark and anti-bottom quark, which in turn decay to the jets denoted by the green and yellow tracks. The Z boson also decays to two jets denoted by the red and blue tracks.
The electroweak symmetry that describes both the electromagnetic and weak forces is not exact at low energy. This symmetry is broken by the Higgs mechanism, which predicts the existence of a new particle with no spin called the Higgs boson. The interaction between Higgs bosons and quarks or leptons provides the mass of these fundamental matter particles. Despite 30 years of searching, the Higgs boson has remained elusive. Indirect evidence suggests that discovery of the Higgs boson should be within reach of experiments that will occur over the next decade at Fermilab and the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
The difficulty in finding the Higgs boson has created a great deal of excitement in particle physics. Whether or not the Higgs exists, the standard model is now known to be incomplete. If the Higgs is found, then a calculation of the Higgs mass implies that the standard model breaks down at energies just higher than the mass of the Higgs itself. By studying the properties of the Higgs boson it is hoped that clues can be found to what lies beyond. An even more exciting possibility is that the particle does not exist. In this case there would be completely new types of matter that have never been seen before. The structure of space and time itself may even be different than expected.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
i write, why, ive got a kidney stone, so i should be in bed, but then i have to ice my neck, both sides, pain there, woke up without heat on, upper ack in pain, had to get i ec pack out of frssxer, then propted m;yslef up against chair, put tv on, listened to damond ogo,,lssd dog food killing all dogs ine ast coast, wrote e mail to caorl, pryaing there dog is oaky, took pain pils, with juice h,tehn with hot chocolate, so hopefully they willdissove fast and get int my seytem, i have so amany phone calls to acall todya, my teeth are stiill jnot in my month, but in the bathrom, lmos, almost fu nny , i hate cann, prdjuedice, i mean, cnn, CNN, as they mumble, i drink more hot coca listening to the crap on cnn, i shoud just t urnn it off, but i want to write, i want to blog, i have to keep a record of this pain, why, i dont know hy, why
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
Dave Hughes
to bigblkmusc256
More options 11:36 pm (43 minutes ago)
his is the majic, james got to work both saturday and sunday overtime so if you called they never got the phone to me, cause sunday night james was busy with douglas for hours in james g bed room,
well, i did wish for happiness, health, and money, and if base sex if douglas, so be it , as long as james g
needs are met, and he is happy
i continue, pennyless, watching batman at miidnight drinking huge quantities of hot cholocate, that is my sex
love u
and may the energy of the universe continue to bring happiness, health, and money, and healing, and a way to free our selves from those thing that can damage our bodies, as we must live long, to acccomplish the many
ARTISTIC GOALS WE MUST ACCOMPLISH
so be it
blessed be
--
dave hughes
to bigblkmusc256
More options 11:36 pm (43 minutes ago)
his is the majic, james got to work both saturday and sunday overtime so if you called they never got the phone to me, cause sunday night james was busy with douglas for hours in james g bed room,
well, i did wish for happiness, health, and money, and if base sex if douglas, so be it , as long as james g
needs are met, and he is happy
i continue, pennyless, watching batman at miidnight drinking huge quantities of hot cholocate, that is my sex
love u
and may the energy of the universe continue to bring happiness, health, and money, and healing, and a way to free our selves from those thing that can damage our bodies, as we must live long, to acccomplish the many
ARTISTIC GOALS WE MUST ACCOMPLISH
so be it
blessed be
--
dave hughes
Sunday, January 08, 2006
happy nu year and my future book on modern day christianity Inbox
Dave Hughes to bigblkmusc256, dana, hippoluvr1, rodunder
More options Jan 5 (3 days ago)
hi everyone, i sent out e cards from hallmark this year but no one opened any of the e christmas cards, if you would me rather not send any more e cards just let me know, and here's hoping each and everyone of you a happy new year,
i will be researching a book on christianity during the next few years, and decade,
and the historical facts related to this religion, and the many lies behind the current form of christianity in america, and the many fabrications present in the currrent king james version, and information from nationalgeographic series 'science of the bible', and new informaton from the gnostic texts, and the inconsistancies in the gospels of matthew, mark, luke, and john, the gospel of "Q",
so i will be out of communication for quite some time....for example, jesus of nazereth was not born in bethlehem, but the only two gospels that speak of the birth, tell us this to match his birth up with prophecies in the old testiment, (to prove to the first ct jews he was their messiah) .
i have discovered many problems with the men who wrote the four gospels and the extent they went to, to prove jesus was related to king david, all in accordance to prove he was the jewish messiah, in the first century of his birth the early christians were not interested in his birth, so 90 years later those that wrote of his birth created much of what is written in the gospels....for the past two years i have been studying early roman history and the circumstance during the birth of jesus, where even king herod did not in fact kill off the "innocents", there are numerous inconsistances in many of the gospels. I would even venture to say they created lies about his birth to match up with old testiment phophecies.
I have also discovered many problems also with the letters of Paul and the fact that the book of Revelation was written for historical times and has nothing to do with our future as "christians", ie: Nero was the anti christ.....and i think Pauls fight with his own sexuality was because he was a homosexual, there is some proof to this.
I also belive Jesus was more interested in his message that the kingdom of god is here in our hand now, not in a future world or heaven. in fact the jews do not even believe in an afterlife or a heaven. Jesus was interested in how we live our lives now. Jesus did not say he died for our sins so we could go to some future heaven. If modern day christians understood that the message of christ was that the kingdom of heaven is here and now in our hearts, they would understand that their prejudice toward homosexuals and persons of different religions also were already included in the kingdom present here on earth now and in our hearts.....everyone is going to heaven, if there even is one.
I have also discovered that the divinity of christ was a decision made my a man, Constitine, during a gathering of bishops, where he made the official religion christianity, we must also understand that christmas is not the birth date of christ, it was a pagan holiday. jesus was born in the summer., perhaps in march or november....
There are so many false hoods in the king james version in relationship to history I feel a new approach needs to be written in what the true meaning and purpose of jesus was.
I also agree with Issac Newton, that there may not be a triad, that worshiping a god head, a jesus, and a holy spirit, violate the ten commandments in that the jews should worship only one god, not three. i no longer find any validity in the holy spirit concept.
It is amazing how much of the bible was constructed by kings and popes, and each has their own agenda. the popes during the inquistion killed an entire population of persons called the Cathars, and this started the inquistion, then it went onto the witches, and to the knight templars, which were all murdered on friday the 13th by a king, they were accused of homosexuality....
And the extent these individuals went to to put out their version of the christ story, even involved erasing and killing entire communities of people off the face of the earth, like the french Cathars
we much understand how corrupt the bible is historically, in who considered what was divine and should be included in the canons, and what gospels were left out....and what gospels were destroyed and have been discovered in the 1940's. and the gospel of thomas, the birth gospel of james, the gospel of mary of magdelene, etc, the thomas gospel is the only record of the actual words of christ...
the more i study the bible, the more disturbing i find the entire bible to be, the murder and bloodshed behind the bible is horrible, with god allowing only his special people to survive, and where he encouraged the jews, ie: those of judea, to kill whom so ever they wished in the name of their god so they could have their own special peice of land, and how today this horror is the continued war between isreal and their neighbors....i no longer feel the isrealites were special, but mislead by their war monger kings, like king soloman and many others.
jesus was born and grew up in a time of ruthless roman rule, the jewish temple has been destroyed, or was destroyed after his death, and even the fact the mary of magdelene was his most special follower and a women of weath, have all been hidden for 2000 years from all of us, i can no longer believe what i read in the bible, and i no longer trust any minister what so ever!
the majority of christian pastors at this time only value their huge churches and the tax exempt millions they make, on and off tv.
in the following years to come, i doubt our society will ever learn to love one another, present day evangelical christians with their huge tax free churches and their persecution of homosexuals leave me to see that the future of real christianity is in doubt, in the next 25 years christianity in american will be a religion of intolerance, hatred, and it would not suprise me if we see homosexuals some day actually burned at the stake methophorically....it would not even suprise me to see it happen in reality, as homosexuals are murdered daily in our county and it is yet still not a hate crime in many states, and the marriage amendment to the constitution shows me just how much christians hate and dispise homosexuals and to what extent they will go to destroy all homosexuals, we even have a president who want to codify this, and groups like focus on the family who are bocotting companies that support gay causes, the christian right is going to remain a major power in this county, and its only going to get stronger, and take over more of our goverment, and the supreme court
the days ahead of us that are gay, are days were we have and are being prosecuted and killed, like that child in wyoming, where its is still not a hate crime to kill a gay person
It is already happening. We have a president who is a christian and lies. We have churches who are so large they can in no way serve the poor. we have the salvation army that can fire anyone that is gay, and the american government supports that churches can and do discriminate against homosexuals.
the recent new pope has made it all too clear, he want no bishops to be homosexuals, and he calls gay families "roaches"
We have in american churches who preach that abortion should be against the law, that homosexuals should be denied equal rights under the united states consititution, the horrors we will see in the next 25 years will only reinforce this new form of christianity, which is in my mind a kind of anti christianity. i studied sociology in college, and this field studies the present and future of societies.
Jesus Christ would not in any way recognize a current church, he would not understand why the vatican worships sculptures of a dead man bleeding on a cross, he would hate the money changing that is behind the building of churches that are city blocks long, christ would deny
modern day christianity, christ would reject the likes of ministers and pastors that preach hatred toward homosexuals and he would not approve of the modern day chruches intrusion into american goverment.
Christianity is no longer christianity. Christ was a jew, and he did not believe in life after death, in fact, his primary message was that the kingdom of earth was at hand, here in our hands, and that love was the primary message. I really think Christ would not in any way understand the current chruches, for the current christians are not christians at all.
Some of you may be lucky enuff to be in open minded churches, but the majority of churches in american and around the world hate homosexuals to the extent they deny us marriage, deny us equal civil rights, and this is only part of the disease that that corrupted the christian chruch since the early 1970"s.
Its all about "when religion gets sick". the true message of christ is not one of salvation, it is one of love, how we treat each other here and now, it is not about some future in heaven, it is only by studying the actual words of christ, from all the gospels, and especially from the gospels and canons that the church does not approve of, that we might in some future day really understand what jesus was really trying to tell us, for as a jew, he did not believe in life after death, he taught that how we treat each other is what creates heaven, heaven on earth.
jesus hoped we might each look at him, and actually become him, he was not interested in some hoped for streets of gold after death.
and more and more, i do think he was indeed married, and that he was a very different kind of human, but i doubt more and more he was born of a virgin, that is a myth, he has many brothers and sisters.....
and so much of what we all have learned from our sunday school teachers is false
and what is taught today, in the large mega churches, has more to do with mass amounts of money, then anything about love.
and what is taucht today, this hatred of homosexuals, makes it so obvious to those of us that are gay, that the americanized church is a thing of pure evil, not good, and an evil that will spread and is spreading to the current day in every state, as we fight for civil right, rights to be married, and rights to have and adopt children
i ask every christian, why are the chruches, the president of the united states, billy graham, etc, and americanized christians, so obesssesd with homosexuality. ??? why are they so afraid of us, and why are we so hated?
and if you dont believe christians hate homosexuals, then you need to start talking to gay persons that suffer thanks to the likes of george w bush and bobby welch and focus on the family....and it goes on and on.
there is no such thing as hating the sin and loving the sinner, in the message of christ, there is no sin! he welcomed everyone, just as they were, bending over washing his feet, he judged no one, he asked no one to change, but from evil to good.
David Alan Hughes
Dave Hughes to bigblkmusc256, dana, hippoluvr1, rodunder
More options Jan 5 (3 days ago)
hi everyone, i sent out e cards from hallmark this year but no one opened any of the e christmas cards, if you would me rather not send any more e cards just let me know, and here's hoping each and everyone of you a happy new year,
i will be researching a book on christianity during the next few years, and decade,
and the historical facts related to this religion, and the many lies behind the current form of christianity in america, and the many fabrications present in the currrent king james version, and information from nationalgeographic series 'science of the bible', and new informaton from the gnostic texts, and the inconsistancies in the gospels of matthew, mark, luke, and john, the gospel of "Q",
so i will be out of communication for quite some time....for example, jesus of nazereth was not born in bethlehem, but the only two gospels that speak of the birth, tell us this to match his birth up with prophecies in the old testiment, (to prove to the first ct jews he was their messiah) .
i have discovered many problems with the men who wrote the four gospels and the extent they went to, to prove jesus was related to king david, all in accordance to prove he was the jewish messiah, in the first century of his birth the early christians were not interested in his birth, so 90 years later those that wrote of his birth created much of what is written in the gospels....for the past two years i have been studying early roman history and the circumstance during the birth of jesus, where even king herod did not in fact kill off the "innocents", there are numerous inconsistances in many of the gospels. I would even venture to say they created lies about his birth to match up with old testiment phophecies.
I have also discovered many problems also with the letters of Paul and the fact that the book of Revelation was written for historical times and has nothing to do with our future as "christians", ie: Nero was the anti christ.....and i think Pauls fight with his own sexuality was because he was a homosexual, there is some proof to this.
I also belive Jesus was more interested in his message that the kingdom of god is here in our hand now, not in a future world or heaven. in fact the jews do not even believe in an afterlife or a heaven. Jesus was interested in how we live our lives now. Jesus did not say he died for our sins so we could go to some future heaven. If modern day christians understood that the message of christ was that the kingdom of heaven is here and now in our hearts, they would understand that their prejudice toward homosexuals and persons of different religions also were already included in the kingdom present here on earth now and in our hearts.....everyone is going to heaven, if there even is one.
I have also discovered that the divinity of christ was a decision made my a man, Constitine, during a gathering of bishops, where he made the official religion christianity, we must also understand that christmas is not the birth date of christ, it was a pagan holiday. jesus was born in the summer., perhaps in march or november....
There are so many false hoods in the king james version in relationship to history I feel a new approach needs to be written in what the true meaning and purpose of jesus was.
I also agree with Issac Newton, that there may not be a triad, that worshiping a god head, a jesus, and a holy spirit, violate the ten commandments in that the jews should worship only one god, not three. i no longer find any validity in the holy spirit concept.
It is amazing how much of the bible was constructed by kings and popes, and each has their own agenda. the popes during the inquistion killed an entire population of persons called the Cathars, and this started the inquistion, then it went onto the witches, and to the knight templars, which were all murdered on friday the 13th by a king, they were accused of homosexuality....
And the extent these individuals went to to put out their version of the christ story, even involved erasing and killing entire communities of people off the face of the earth, like the french Cathars
we much understand how corrupt the bible is historically, in who considered what was divine and should be included in the canons, and what gospels were left out....and what gospels were destroyed and have been discovered in the 1940's. and the gospel of thomas, the birth gospel of james, the gospel of mary of magdelene, etc, the thomas gospel is the only record of the actual words of christ...
the more i study the bible, the more disturbing i find the entire bible to be, the murder and bloodshed behind the bible is horrible, with god allowing only his special people to survive, and where he encouraged the jews, ie: those of judea, to kill whom so ever they wished in the name of their god so they could have their own special peice of land, and how today this horror is the continued war between isreal and their neighbors....i no longer feel the isrealites were special, but mislead by their war monger kings, like king soloman and many others.
jesus was born and grew up in a time of ruthless roman rule, the jewish temple has been destroyed, or was destroyed after his death, and even the fact the mary of magdelene was his most special follower and a women of weath, have all been hidden for 2000 years from all of us, i can no longer believe what i read in the bible, and i no longer trust any minister what so ever!
the majority of christian pastors at this time only value their huge churches and the tax exempt millions they make, on and off tv.
in the following years to come, i doubt our society will ever learn to love one another, present day evangelical christians with their huge tax free churches and their persecution of homosexuals leave me to see that the future of real christianity is in doubt, in the next 25 years christianity in american will be a religion of intolerance, hatred, and it would not suprise me if we see homosexuals some day actually burned at the stake methophorically....it would not even suprise me to see it happen in reality, as homosexuals are murdered daily in our county and it is yet still not a hate crime in many states, and the marriage amendment to the constitution shows me just how much christians hate and dispise homosexuals and to what extent they will go to destroy all homosexuals, we even have a president who want to codify this, and groups like focus on the family who are bocotting companies that support gay causes, the christian right is going to remain a major power in this county, and its only going to get stronger, and take over more of our goverment, and the supreme court
the days ahead of us that are gay, are days were we have and are being prosecuted and killed, like that child in wyoming, where its is still not a hate crime to kill a gay person
It is already happening. We have a president who is a christian and lies. We have churches who are so large they can in no way serve the poor. we have the salvation army that can fire anyone that is gay, and the american government supports that churches can and do discriminate against homosexuals.
the recent new pope has made it all too clear, he want no bishops to be homosexuals, and he calls gay families "roaches"
We have in american churches who preach that abortion should be against the law, that homosexuals should be denied equal rights under the united states consititution, the horrors we will see in the next 25 years will only reinforce this new form of christianity, which is in my mind a kind of anti christianity. i studied sociology in college, and this field studies the present and future of societies.
Jesus Christ would not in any way recognize a current church, he would not understand why the vatican worships sculptures of a dead man bleeding on a cross, he would hate the money changing that is behind the building of churches that are city blocks long, christ would deny
modern day christianity, christ would reject the likes of ministers and pastors that preach hatred toward homosexuals and he would not approve of the modern day chruches intrusion into american goverment.
Christianity is no longer christianity. Christ was a jew, and he did not believe in life after death, in fact, his primary message was that the kingdom of earth was at hand, here in our hands, and that love was the primary message. I really think Christ would not in any way understand the current chruches, for the current christians are not christians at all.
Some of you may be lucky enuff to be in open minded churches, but the majority of churches in american and around the world hate homosexuals to the extent they deny us marriage, deny us equal civil rights, and this is only part of the disease that that corrupted the christian chruch since the early 1970"s.
Its all about "when religion gets sick". the true message of christ is not one of salvation, it is one of love, how we treat each other here and now, it is not about some future in heaven, it is only by studying the actual words of christ, from all the gospels, and especially from the gospels and canons that the church does not approve of, that we might in some future day really understand what jesus was really trying to tell us, for as a jew, he did not believe in life after death, he taught that how we treat each other is what creates heaven, heaven on earth.
jesus hoped we might each look at him, and actually become him, he was not interested in some hoped for streets of gold after death.
and more and more, i do think he was indeed married, and that he was a very different kind of human, but i doubt more and more he was born of a virgin, that is a myth, he has many brothers and sisters.....
and so much of what we all have learned from our sunday school teachers is false
and what is taught today, in the large mega churches, has more to do with mass amounts of money, then anything about love.
and what is taucht today, this hatred of homosexuals, makes it so obvious to those of us that are gay, that the americanized church is a thing of pure evil, not good, and an evil that will spread and is spreading to the current day in every state, as we fight for civil right, rights to be married, and rights to have and adopt children
i ask every christian, why are the chruches, the president of the united states, billy graham, etc, and americanized christians, so obesssesd with homosexuality. ??? why are they so afraid of us, and why are we so hated?
and if you dont believe christians hate homosexuals, then you need to start talking to gay persons that suffer thanks to the likes of george w bush and bobby welch and focus on the family....and it goes on and on.
there is no such thing as hating the sin and loving the sinner, in the message of christ, there is no sin! he welcomed everyone, just as they were, bending over washing his feet, he judged no one, he asked no one to change, but from evil to good.
David Alan Hughes
Saturday, January 07, 2006
t r u t h o u t - Lou Dubose The Pimping of the Presidency
Go to Original
The Pimping of the Presidency
By Lou Dubose
The Texas Observer
Friday 06 January 2006
(Photo: texasobserver.org)
Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff's lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush "Pioneer," delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove's personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.
Abramoff's White House guests were the chiefs of two of the six casino-rich Indian tribes he and his partner Mike Scanlon ultimately billed $82 million for services tribal leaders now claim were never performed or were improperly performed. Together the six tribes would make $10 million in political contributions, at Abramoff's direction, almost all of it to Republican campaigns of his choosing. On May 9, 2001, when he ushered the two tribal chiefs into the White House to meet the President, The Washington Post story that would end his lobbying career and begin two Senate Committee investigations was three years away. (When the Post story broke in February 2004, however, Abramoff and Scanlon, a former Tom DeLay press aide, were already targets of a U.S. Attorney's investigation in Washington.)
Abramoff brought the Coushatta and Choctaw chiefs to Washington at the request of Grover Norquist. Norquist is founder and director of Americans for Tax Reform, the advocacy group committed to slashing taxes until the federal government is so small you "can drown it in the bathtub." Norquist started ATR in 1985. His power increased exponentially in 1994, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and he collaborated with then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay to launch the "K Street Project" - a coordinated campaign to compel lobbyists to contribute only to Republican candidates and ultimately to hire only Republicans. Like Abramoff and Rove, Norquist considered George Bush's victory over Al Gore the culmination of a project the three Washington insiders started 30 years ago as national leaders of the College Republicans.
(Photo: texasobserver.org)
Since the Post's Susan Schmidt broke the Jack Abramoff story, the media has focused on the stunning $82 million Abramoff and Scanlon billed six tribes for lobbying and public relations work. Far less attention has been paid to the political contributions, by Abramoff's account $10 million, made by the six tribes. That piece of the story involves the K Street Project, which moves the money of corporate lobbyists and their clients into the accounts of Republican candidates, PACs, and issue advocacy groups.
Republican Campaign Accounts
Abramoff advised tribal leaders that the contributions were the cost of doing business in Washington, where he could protect them from other tribes trying to open casinos to compete with those that already had them. He sent orders for the checks to be cut, designating each recipient. On March 6, 2002, for example, Coushatta Tribal Council Chair Lovelin Poncho followed Abramoff's orders and disbursed $336,300 in tribal funds, according to tribal accounting ledgers obtained by the Observer.
The Coushattas, a southwest Louisiana tribe of 837 members, operate a casino that does an estimated $300 million in annual business. The $32 million they paid Abramoff and Scanlon makes the tribe the largest victim of the fraud their lawyers now allege in a lawsuit filed by Texas plaintiff's firm Provost Umphrey. The tribe also contributed what tribal council member David Sickey said was probably "many millions" of dollars to political causes and charities designated by Abramoff.
Since we first reported the White House ATR fundraiser and the $1 million contribution to the Capital Athletic Foundation (see "K Street Croupiers," November 19, 2004), the Coushattas, speaking through Austin attorneys at Hance, Scarborough, Wright, Ginsburg & Brusilow, and through Louisiana political consultant Roy Fletcher, have vociferously denied that tribal Chairman Poncho visited the White House after contributing $25,000 to ATR. They also denied the $1 million contribution to Abramoff's foundation. Recently the story has changed. Or at least the version told by the majority that controls the council has begun to change. Two minority members of the five-seat council have pointed to the pay-to-play meeting with President Bush and the $1 million contribution to Abramoff as examples of the council's financial mismanagement. One of the two members of the minority faction, David Sickey, has regularly made himself available to the press. Normally, press inquiries to the council majority are answered by Hance Scarborough, by Roy Fletcher, or occasionally by sources close to the council majority.
According to a source close to the tribal majority, Chairman Poncho recently "revisited that issue" of his visit to the White House. He had previously denied it because he thought he was responding to press inquiries that implied he had a one-on-one meeting with Bush. He now recalls that he in fact did go to the White House on May 9, 2001. Tribal attorney Kathryn Fowler Van Hoof went with him, although she did not get into the meeting with the President. That meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and was not a one-on-one meeting. At the meeting, Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming. Abramoff was at the meeting - for which he charged the Coushatta Tribe $25,000. The change in Poncho's position is odd in light of the fact that he and his spokespersons have maintained for more than a year that he did not meet with President Bush in May 2001.
Norquist has not responded to inquiries about using the White House as a fundraiser. It is, however, a regular ATR practice to invite state legislators and tribal leaders who have supported ATR anti-tax initiatives to the White House for a personal thank-you from the President. A source at ATR said no money is ever accepted from participants in these events. The $25,000 check from the Coushattas suggests that, at least in this instance, Norquist's organization made an exception. The $75,000 collected from the Mississippi Choctaws and two corporate sponsors mentioned in Abramoff's e-mail suggests there were other exceptions. Norquist recently wrote to the tribes who paid to attend White House meetings. His story regarding that event is also evolving. The contributions, he told tribal leaders in letters that went out in May, were in no way related to any White House event. That doesn't square with the paper trail Abramoff and Norquist left behind, which makes it evident that they were selling access to the President.
The Coushatta Tribal Council majority has also revised its response to questions about the $1 million contribution, which critics in the tribe have insisted was made to Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation in 2001. The foundation funded Abramoff's Jewish prep school in Bethesda, MD, which closed soon after his lobbying scheme unraveled. When the Observer inquired in November 2004 about the $1 million contribution, we had obtained a copy of the Capital Athletic Foundation's tax filing, but the contributor's name was redacted. Following the lead of Lake Charles, Louisiana, American Press reporter Shawn Martin, the Observer last week obtained an un-redacted copy. The $1 million contribution, roughly 95 percent of what the foundation raised in 2001, was attributed to the Coushatta Tribe. A source working with the Coushatta Tribal Council majority said it now appears that the contribution was made in response to a bill sent by Mike Scanlon. Accountants working under the direction of Hance Scarborough found a $1-million Greenberg Traurig invoice that Scanlon sent the tribe. Scanlon routinely sent un-itemized bills for larger sums, which the tribe routinely paid. But as he was not a Greenberg Traurig employee, he billed on his own Capitol Campaign Strategies invoices. On the $1 million Greenberg Traurig invoice Scanlon sent the tribe in 2001, the company name was misspelled.
There will need to be more accounting, probably by different accountants. And perhaps by different legal representation, or at least under a different understanding between the tribe and its lawyers. In the May 28 tribal election on the Elton, LA reservation, a reform slate won a majority on the five-member council. Sickey, who five days before the election maintained that the $1 million contribution was made and that tribal chair Poncho indeed went to the White House in 2001, predicted the new majority will hire forensic accountants to determine where all the money went. (A week before the election he was looking for a tribal newsletter in which, he said, Poncho described his 2001 White House visit.) The shift on the council does not bode well for its Austin law firm. Hance Scarborough had gone to tribal court and successfully blocked a recall election that would have forced the council majority to stand for election a year ago, and David Sickey was a proponent of the recall. "Kent Hance doesn't represent me or [the other minority dissident] Harold John," said Sickey. "He represents Lovelin Poncho."
The White House press office has not responded to our questions about other visits Jack Abramoff might have made to the White House or about Norquist using the official residence of the President to raise funds for Americans for Tax Reform. None of the political contributions Abramoff insisted the tribes make as yet have been returned.
---------
Lou Dubose is a former Observer editor and co-author of The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money and the Rise of the Republican Congress.
Go to Original
The Pimping of the Presidency
By Lou Dubose
The Texas Observer
Friday 06 January 2006
(Photo: texasobserver.org)
Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff's lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush "Pioneer," delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove's personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.
Abramoff's White House guests were the chiefs of two of the six casino-rich Indian tribes he and his partner Mike Scanlon ultimately billed $82 million for services tribal leaders now claim were never performed or were improperly performed. Together the six tribes would make $10 million in political contributions, at Abramoff's direction, almost all of it to Republican campaigns of his choosing. On May 9, 2001, when he ushered the two tribal chiefs into the White House to meet the President, The Washington Post story that would end his lobbying career and begin two Senate Committee investigations was three years away. (When the Post story broke in February 2004, however, Abramoff and Scanlon, a former Tom DeLay press aide, were already targets of a U.S. Attorney's investigation in Washington.)
Abramoff brought the Coushatta and Choctaw chiefs to Washington at the request of Grover Norquist. Norquist is founder and director of Americans for Tax Reform, the advocacy group committed to slashing taxes until the federal government is so small you "can drown it in the bathtub." Norquist started ATR in 1985. His power increased exponentially in 1994, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and he collaborated with then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay to launch the "K Street Project" - a coordinated campaign to compel lobbyists to contribute only to Republican candidates and ultimately to hire only Republicans. Like Abramoff and Rove, Norquist considered George Bush's victory over Al Gore the culmination of a project the three Washington insiders started 30 years ago as national leaders of the College Republicans.
(Photo: texasobserver.org)
Since the Post's Susan Schmidt broke the Jack Abramoff story, the media has focused on the stunning $82 million Abramoff and Scanlon billed six tribes for lobbying and public relations work. Far less attention has been paid to the political contributions, by Abramoff's account $10 million, made by the six tribes. That piece of the story involves the K Street Project, which moves the money of corporate lobbyists and their clients into the accounts of Republican candidates, PACs, and issue advocacy groups.
Republican Campaign Accounts
Abramoff advised tribal leaders that the contributions were the cost of doing business in Washington, where he could protect them from other tribes trying to open casinos to compete with those that already had them. He sent orders for the checks to be cut, designating each recipient. On March 6, 2002, for example, Coushatta Tribal Council Chair Lovelin Poncho followed Abramoff's orders and disbursed $336,300 in tribal funds, according to tribal accounting ledgers obtained by the Observer.
The Coushattas, a southwest Louisiana tribe of 837 members, operate a casino that does an estimated $300 million in annual business. The $32 million they paid Abramoff and Scanlon makes the tribe the largest victim of the fraud their lawyers now allege in a lawsuit filed by Texas plaintiff's firm Provost Umphrey. The tribe also contributed what tribal council member David Sickey said was probably "many millions" of dollars to political causes and charities designated by Abramoff.
Since we first reported the White House ATR fundraiser and the $1 million contribution to the Capital Athletic Foundation (see "K Street Croupiers," November 19, 2004), the Coushattas, speaking through Austin attorneys at Hance, Scarborough, Wright, Ginsburg & Brusilow, and through Louisiana political consultant Roy Fletcher, have vociferously denied that tribal Chairman Poncho visited the White House after contributing $25,000 to ATR. They also denied the $1 million contribution to Abramoff's foundation. Recently the story has changed. Or at least the version told by the majority that controls the council has begun to change. Two minority members of the five-seat council have pointed to the pay-to-play meeting with President Bush and the $1 million contribution to Abramoff as examples of the council's financial mismanagement. One of the two members of the minority faction, David Sickey, has regularly made himself available to the press. Normally, press inquiries to the council majority are answered by Hance Scarborough, by Roy Fletcher, or occasionally by sources close to the council majority.
According to a source close to the tribal majority, Chairman Poncho recently "revisited that issue" of his visit to the White House. He had previously denied it because he thought he was responding to press inquiries that implied he had a one-on-one meeting with Bush. He now recalls that he in fact did go to the White House on May 9, 2001. Tribal attorney Kathryn Fowler Van Hoof went with him, although she did not get into the meeting with the President. That meeting lasted for about 15 minutes and was not a one-on-one meeting. At the meeting, Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming. Abramoff was at the meeting - for which he charged the Coushatta Tribe $25,000. The change in Poncho's position is odd in light of the fact that he and his spokespersons have maintained for more than a year that he did not meet with President Bush in May 2001.
Norquist has not responded to inquiries about using the White House as a fundraiser. It is, however, a regular ATR practice to invite state legislators and tribal leaders who have supported ATR anti-tax initiatives to the White House for a personal thank-you from the President. A source at ATR said no money is ever accepted from participants in these events. The $25,000 check from the Coushattas suggests that, at least in this instance, Norquist's organization made an exception. The $75,000 collected from the Mississippi Choctaws and two corporate sponsors mentioned in Abramoff's e-mail suggests there were other exceptions. Norquist recently wrote to the tribes who paid to attend White House meetings. His story regarding that event is also evolving. The contributions, he told tribal leaders in letters that went out in May, were in no way related to any White House event. That doesn't square with the paper trail Abramoff and Norquist left behind, which makes it evident that they were selling access to the President.
The Coushatta Tribal Council majority has also revised its response to questions about the $1 million contribution, which critics in the tribe have insisted was made to Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation in 2001. The foundation funded Abramoff's Jewish prep school in Bethesda, MD, which closed soon after his lobbying scheme unraveled. When the Observer inquired in November 2004 about the $1 million contribution, we had obtained a copy of the Capital Athletic Foundation's tax filing, but the contributor's name was redacted. Following the lead of Lake Charles, Louisiana, American Press reporter Shawn Martin, the Observer last week obtained an un-redacted copy. The $1 million contribution, roughly 95 percent of what the foundation raised in 2001, was attributed to the Coushatta Tribe. A source working with the Coushatta Tribal Council majority said it now appears that the contribution was made in response to a bill sent by Mike Scanlon. Accountants working under the direction of Hance Scarborough found a $1-million Greenberg Traurig invoice that Scanlon sent the tribe. Scanlon routinely sent un-itemized bills for larger sums, which the tribe routinely paid. But as he was not a Greenberg Traurig employee, he billed on his own Capitol Campaign Strategies invoices. On the $1 million Greenberg Traurig invoice Scanlon sent the tribe in 2001, the company name was misspelled.
There will need to be more accounting, probably by different accountants. And perhaps by different legal representation, or at least under a different understanding between the tribe and its lawyers. In the May 28 tribal election on the Elton, LA reservation, a reform slate won a majority on the five-member council. Sickey, who five days before the election maintained that the $1 million contribution was made and that tribal chair Poncho indeed went to the White House in 2001, predicted the new majority will hire forensic accountants to determine where all the money went. (A week before the election he was looking for a tribal newsletter in which, he said, Poncho described his 2001 White House visit.) The shift on the council does not bode well for its Austin law firm. Hance Scarborough had gone to tribal court and successfully blocked a recall election that would have forced the council majority to stand for election a year ago, and David Sickey was a proponent of the recall. "Kent Hance doesn't represent me or [the other minority dissident] Harold John," said Sickey. "He represents Lovelin Poncho."
The White House press office has not responded to our questions about other visits Jack Abramoff might have made to the White House or about Norquist using the official residence of the President to raise funds for Americans for Tax Reform. None of the political contributions Abramoff insisted the tribes make as yet have been returned.
---------
Lou Dubose is a former Observer editor and co-author of The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money and the Rise of the Republican Congress.
New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - How the universe's first magnetic field formed
Home| News| Solar System| Space Technology| Human Spaceflight| Astronomy| Special Reports
How the universe's first magnetic field formed
15:30 06 January 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee
The first-ever magnetic fields in the universe arose within 370,000 years of the big bang, a new analysis suggests. The work relies on standard physics, unlike some previous theories, and may shed light on how the very first stars grew.
Relatively confined magnetic fields like those in the Earth and Sun are generated by the turbulent mixing of conducting fluids in their cores. But large-scale fields tangled within galaxies and clusters of galaxies are harder to explain by fluid mixing alone. That is because most galaxies have rotated only a few dozen times since they formed.
"The galaxies have not made a lot of rotations during their whole existence, so it's not clear how much amplification one can get," says Dam Thanh Son at the University of Washington in Seattle, US, who was not involved in the new study. "One needs some initial, small magnetic field."
Some researchers have tried to explain the origin of this so-called "seed" field by invoking new physical mechanisms – such as the coupling of electromagnetic fields with exotic particles or gravity in the first instants after the big bang.
"There have been many models in this direction, most of which rely on new physics, and are therefore not convincing," comments George Field of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.
Hot soup
Now, researchers led by Kiyotomo Ichiki of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Tokyo have used standard physics to explain the seed field. They say the field began before the first atoms formed, when the universe was a hot soup of protons, electrons and photons – a state that lasted for the first 370,000 years after the big bang.
Photons exert a different pressure on electrons than protons and also scatter off electrons more often. The researchers found that the differences in the movements of electrons and protons generated a rotating electric current, which produced magnetic fields.
Field says the mechanism's reliance on standard physics would be interesting if confirmed. But he cautions that other models, such as those that generate the seed field in the discs of matter surrounding colossal black holes, cannot yet be ruled out.
Pervasive influence
If the Japanese analysis is correct, it may reveal clues about the nature of the early universe, which was shaped by the very first generation of stars. These are thought to have been extremely massive and short-lived, and to have sowed the space around them with heavy elements when they died.
But according to the new paper, the seed field would have grown strong enough in the first few hundred million years after the big bang to affect the rotation of the discs of matter around these first stars. This would have affected how massive they were able to grow and influence the chemistry and structure of the early universe.
"Magnetic fields, in addition to gravity, play a critical role in the formation processes of various objects and their dynamical evolution in the universe," Ichiki told New Scientist.
The seed field is a million times weaker than the fields in galaxies today, but the team says future space observatories may be able to detect it indirectly. When very massive stars explode, they spew out high-energy electrons that emit photons called gamma rays. But the seed field might deflect these electrons, producing a delay in the arrival of the gamma rays compared to other wavelengths of light at future space telescopes.
Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1120690)
Related Articles
Looking for a creator's signature in space
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825311.600
23 December 2005
Enormous X-ray loop may blast out cosmic rays
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7250
08 April 2005
Young star kicks out X-rays like a grown-up
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7094
03 March 2005
Weblinks
Kiyotomo Ichiki, NAOJ
http://th.nao.ac.jp/~ichiki/
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
http://www.nao.ac.jp/E/
Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/
Close this window
Home| News| Solar System| Space Technology| Human Spaceflight| Astronomy| Special Reports
How the universe's first magnetic field formed
15:30 06 January 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee
The first-ever magnetic fields in the universe arose within 370,000 years of the big bang, a new analysis suggests. The work relies on standard physics, unlike some previous theories, and may shed light on how the very first stars grew.
Relatively confined magnetic fields like those in the Earth and Sun are generated by the turbulent mixing of conducting fluids in their cores. But large-scale fields tangled within galaxies and clusters of galaxies are harder to explain by fluid mixing alone. That is because most galaxies have rotated only a few dozen times since they formed.
"The galaxies have not made a lot of rotations during their whole existence, so it's not clear how much amplification one can get," says Dam Thanh Son at the University of Washington in Seattle, US, who was not involved in the new study. "One needs some initial, small magnetic field."
Some researchers have tried to explain the origin of this so-called "seed" field by invoking new physical mechanisms – such as the coupling of electromagnetic fields with exotic particles or gravity in the first instants after the big bang.
"There have been many models in this direction, most of which rely on new physics, and are therefore not convincing," comments George Field of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.
Hot soup
Now, researchers led by Kiyotomo Ichiki of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Tokyo have used standard physics to explain the seed field. They say the field began before the first atoms formed, when the universe was a hot soup of protons, electrons and photons – a state that lasted for the first 370,000 years after the big bang.
Photons exert a different pressure on electrons than protons and also scatter off electrons more often. The researchers found that the differences in the movements of electrons and protons generated a rotating electric current, which produced magnetic fields.
Field says the mechanism's reliance on standard physics would be interesting if confirmed. But he cautions that other models, such as those that generate the seed field in the discs of matter surrounding colossal black holes, cannot yet be ruled out.
Pervasive influence
If the Japanese analysis is correct, it may reveal clues about the nature of the early universe, which was shaped by the very first generation of stars. These are thought to have been extremely massive and short-lived, and to have sowed the space around them with heavy elements when they died.
But according to the new paper, the seed field would have grown strong enough in the first few hundred million years after the big bang to affect the rotation of the discs of matter around these first stars. This would have affected how massive they were able to grow and influence the chemistry and structure of the early universe.
"Magnetic fields, in addition to gravity, play a critical role in the formation processes of various objects and their dynamical evolution in the universe," Ichiki told New Scientist.
The seed field is a million times weaker than the fields in galaxies today, but the team says future space observatories may be able to detect it indirectly. When very massive stars explode, they spew out high-energy electrons that emit photons called gamma rays. But the seed field might deflect these electrons, producing a delay in the arrival of the gamma rays compared to other wavelengths of light at future space telescopes.
Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1120690)
Related Articles
Looking for a creator's signature in space
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825311.600
23 December 2005
Enormous X-ray loop may blast out cosmic rays
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7250
08 April 2005
Young star kicks out X-rays like a grown-up
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7094
03 March 2005
Weblinks
Kiyotomo Ichiki, NAOJ
http://th.nao.ac.jp/~ichiki/
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
http://www.nao.ac.jp/E/
Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/
Close this window
Friday, January 06, 2006
the morning was straight out of hell, woke up cold here in january in sunny florida with 49 degrees eating into my back, the pain was bone cruching and i would not walk, crawled out of bed headed to the kitchen, and managed to carry, drag, a blue fucing as cold as danta's last day in hell, got it onto my bed and laid down on it, spine upwards with the blue ice crystal matt, and for only a few seconds found relief, even though it has been in there 24 hours the damned thing was not cold enuff to stop the pain from the discs in my spine that no longer want to belong to my body, but yearn to leap from my skin into the air to become ice cystals and run off with the winter......
so with that failed, i got huge ice cubes out of the freezer, the first one broke into a thousand, no a billion, chuncks on the kitchen floor, and her i can not able to bend over in the least, cursing the maker that brought this hell on my body, named kids in distress and their inadequate training methods of restraining emotionally disturbed children
so as my lumbar region hemangioma screams for its first attention, and the disc bulge in my neck pressese firmly on the spinal cord also attempting to make its salient point, and of course, doctors orders, the disc buldges that wont hurt, they just bulge out and dont hit anything, no worry, the pain you feeel mister metallic ape is not real
like fuck mr slomka it is all too very real, im bent over like an old hag, laying down on an ice rack that is not cold enuff to stop the pain, i eat my required dosage of your pain pills, which have no effect, and at some point here, with hot cocolate and a xanax, for one hour i can sit up mad as hell, with an ice pack on my entire back, so if i dont move, it wont slip and fall onto the floor, which if this happens, i am doomed, as i can not bend over to pic up anyting today due to the vertebrae that are not supposed to cause me any trouble
all doctors should have to plug into their clients pain receptors and for one day, just one day, feel like it is like having chronice christ in his thorns to the death pain run up and down your flesh, yes mr michael slomka, it is certainly my wish some day soon, you will experience what i and all your clients know, that pain is real, and is the destruction of our lives
i would rather commit suicide then see you again in your huge office building with the huge floor to celing water fall and your free coffee, and god forbid, not you forget the bed side manner you , mr michael slomka , cultivate
you didnt even tell me the results of the cervical and lumbar back mri, you just said bulges, now what the fuck is that, so i have to wait to see my dear kind female dr pam and she explains why there is so much "discomfort"
so dear mr slomka, since you now want to torture me with physcial therapy for one month to my knees, so be it, i hope you enjoy the inflammation and swelling you directly will cause, and i will make sure i come to your lovely office, in or out of my fucing wheelchair, which you made a point to dislike, i will arive in god awful pain, no doubt in tears, so you can examine your handiwork, well, fuck, pain wont kill me, you will
see you soon mister orthopeadic rich surgeon man, i hope you find please in my pain, because im gonna be around for another two years, AND YOU WILL TREAT ME WITH DISPECT AND YOU WILL HELP ME DIMINISH ANDLEARN TO LIVE WITH THIS GOD AWFUL PAIN
chronic muscle weakness my half, for four year, four fucin years, i can not walk, i can not stand, i can not sit, and i am in pain all the fuin time, im not a fake just cause i was not in a car accident, and too bad, there is no one to sue so i will not bring you riches
perhaps i will bring you the greatest gift of all. LOVE AND COMPASSION
DAVE ALAN HUGHES
so with that failed, i got huge ice cubes out of the freezer, the first one broke into a thousand, no a billion, chuncks on the kitchen floor, and her i can not able to bend over in the least, cursing the maker that brought this hell on my body, named kids in distress and their inadequate training methods of restraining emotionally disturbed children
so as my lumbar region hemangioma screams for its first attention, and the disc bulge in my neck pressese firmly on the spinal cord also attempting to make its salient point, and of course, doctors orders, the disc buldges that wont hurt, they just bulge out and dont hit anything, no worry, the pain you feeel mister metallic ape is not real
like fuck mr slomka it is all too very real, im bent over like an old hag, laying down on an ice rack that is not cold enuff to stop the pain, i eat my required dosage of your pain pills, which have no effect, and at some point here, with hot cocolate and a xanax, for one hour i can sit up mad as hell, with an ice pack on my entire back, so if i dont move, it wont slip and fall onto the floor, which if this happens, i am doomed, as i can not bend over to pic up anyting today due to the vertebrae that are not supposed to cause me any trouble
all doctors should have to plug into their clients pain receptors and for one day, just one day, feel like it is like having chronice christ in his thorns to the death pain run up and down your flesh, yes mr michael slomka, it is certainly my wish some day soon, you will experience what i and all your clients know, that pain is real, and is the destruction of our lives
i would rather commit suicide then see you again in your huge office building with the huge floor to celing water fall and your free coffee, and god forbid, not you forget the bed side manner you , mr michael slomka , cultivate
you didnt even tell me the results of the cervical and lumbar back mri, you just said bulges, now what the fuck is that, so i have to wait to see my dear kind female dr pam and she explains why there is so much "discomfort"
so dear mr slomka, since you now want to torture me with physcial therapy for one month to my knees, so be it, i hope you enjoy the inflammation and swelling you directly will cause, and i will make sure i come to your lovely office, in or out of my fucing wheelchair, which you made a point to dislike, i will arive in god awful pain, no doubt in tears, so you can examine your handiwork, well, fuck, pain wont kill me, you will
see you soon mister orthopeadic rich surgeon man, i hope you find please in my pain, because im gonna be around for another two years, AND YOU WILL TREAT ME WITH DISPECT AND YOU WILL HELP ME DIMINISH ANDLEARN TO LIVE WITH THIS GOD AWFUL PAIN
chronic muscle weakness my half, for four year, four fucin years, i can not walk, i can not stand, i can not sit, and i am in pain all the fuin time, im not a fake just cause i was not in a car accident, and too bad, there is no one to sue so i will not bring you riches
perhaps i will bring you the greatest gift of all. LOVE AND COMPASSION
DAVE ALAN HUGHES