This Too Shall Pass

Year 2060: Education Predictions

obront — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:36:52 +0000

Year 2060: Education Predictions

via Year 2060: Education Predictions – YouTube.

vaccine successfully attacks breast cancer in mice

obront — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:32:37 +0000

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona (http://www.mayoclinic.org/arizona/) and the University of Georgia (UGA) have developed a vaccine that dramatically reduces tumors in a mouse model that mimics 90 percent of human breast and pancreatic cancer cases A including those that are resistant to common treatments.

The vaccine, described this week in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org/), reveals a promising new strategy for treating cancers that share the same distinct carbohydrate signature, including ovarian and colorectal cancers.

When cells become cancerous, the sugars on their surface proteins undergo distinct changes that set them apart from healthy cells. For decades, scientists have tried to enable the immune system to recognize those differences to destroy cancer cells rather than normal cells. But since cancer cells originate within the body, the immune system generally doesn’t recognize them as foreign and therefore doesn’t mount an attack.

“This is the first time that a vaccine has been developed that trains the immune system to distinguish and kill cancer cells based on their different sugar structures on proteins such as MUC1,” Dr. Gendler says. “We are especially excited about the fact that MUC1 was recently recognized by the National Cancer Institute as one of the three most important tumor proteins for vaccine development.”

Dr. Gendler says MUC1 is found on more than 70 percent of all cancers that kill. Many cancers, such as breast, pancreatic, ovarian and multiple myeloma, express MUC1 with the shorter carbohydrate on more than 90 percent of cases.

Dr. Gendler and her colleagues are currently testing the vaccine’s effectiveness against human cancer cells in culture and are planning to assess toxicity. If all goes well, phase I clinical trials to test the safety of the vaccine could begin by late 2013.

via Scientists develop vaccine that successfully attacks breast cancer in mice | BreakThrough Digest Medical News.

best coffee i ever had … Sun-Dried Ethiopia Harrar from Starbucks

obront — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:08:48 +0000

Sun-dried to unveil the flavors of dark berry and rummy spice.

This coffee was produced by approximately 50 small independent farms located in the highlands outside of Harrar City in eastern Ethiopia. Unlike most Harrar^™ coffees, these beans come from a single micro-region which produces truly distinct Harrar taste characteristics.

For centuries, the sun-dried method is the only way coffee farmers in Harrar have processed coffee. Leaving the cherry on the bean to dry and then de-husking it captures all of the rich flavors and accentuates the unique, exquisite notes.

This coffee is sweet and syrupy with rich, rummy spice notes and flavors of dried dark berry and rich chocolate flavors.

via Sun-Dried Ethiopia Harrar™ | Starbucks Coffee Company.

The world’s smallest 3D Printer

obront — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:34:01 +0000

desktop sized for $1,500 euro prototype cost … a world changer!

TEDxVienna – Klaus Stadlmann – The world’s smallest 3D Printer – YouTube.

life inside the ikea catalog

obront — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:46:08 +0000

This film was made during the 48 hour filmproject in Utrecht, 2011.

via Page 23 – YouTube.

Come Undone: Kyle Bass redux

obront — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:02:09 +0000

perfect clarity and understanding. kyle bass is my hero

via AC2011 Session 1.2 Come Undone: Kyle Bass redux – YouTube.

We Are All Expendable Now

obront — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:22:35 +0000

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the falling value (and rising price) of a university diploma, and this is part of the reason for it. Much of a contemporary university education is designed to train dot-connectors, to fill students’ heads with established formulas and the received wisdom, but not to teach the kind of creative problem-solving that can only be learned, in my experience, by going beyond the canned knowledge peddled in the classroom and dealing with actual, real-world challenges.

More deeply, what cannot be automated is the conceptual thinking that allows us, not just to fit a new fact into an established mold, but to understand facts that do not fit the established mold. This implies a real challenge to workers in the next century.

There has been a lot of anxiety recently about the supposed “disappearance” of the middle class. Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Decades ago-think Detroit in the 1950s-people still had the illusion that they could earn a prosperous middle-class living just by turning bolts on an assembly line. Now the machines turn the bolts, and those workers’ grandkids are about to discover that they won’t be able to earn a middle-class living any more just by shuffling papers and connecting the dots in pre-established formulas.

via RealClearMarkets – We Are All Expendable Now.

Technology Will Achieve the Goals of Communism

obront — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:08:13 +0000

FORA.tv – Ray Kurzweil: Is the Singularity Near?

US real estate debt is nowhere near fixed

obront — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:36:21 +0000

“the value of the housing stock is only down 30%, equity is down 55% and total debt is only down 3%”

“the primary driver of loan default is not negative equity rather too high of debt-to-income levels, about which far less that can be done to permanently solve the problem.”

via 11/15/11 Mark Hanson – Bank, MBS & MI Co Disappointment / US Housing Debt to Equity Ratio Highest on Record | Mark Hanson Advisers.

Rosenberg Debunks The Stupidity Of The Masses

obront — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:52:19 +0000

While we spend a lot of our time pointing out critical factors driving the reality of our markets and economies, today’s note from David Rosenberg, of Gluskin Sheff, provides a spot-on and unarguable description of what every one of your favorite long-only strategist, sell-side economist, and hope-heavy CNBC anchor told you would happen – and hasn’t!

Hedge funds have not piled into the equity market to play catch-up.
The Super Committee did not come to a compromise (and remember Moody’s has the U.S. debt rating on “credit watch” and Standard & Poor’s still with a “negative outlook”.., shades of August).
The Europeans have not managed to resolve let alone contain their credit crisis.
Germany has not acquiesced and agreed to having poor sovereign credits ride off its AAA rating via a “Eurobond”.
The ECB has not moved towards QE. Nor will it — have a look at today’s WSJ editorial on the matter. Brilliant.
Mr. Market saw through the Q3 earnings season and recognized the lack of visibility in the guidance provided.
China did not start to ease policy just because inflation rolled off the 6%-plus peak.
U.S. recession risks, as per the San Francisco Fed, did not recede and actually stayed above 50% even with the better statistical tone to Q3 and Q4 GDP.

Hardly reassuring and perhaps once and for all, we will see the average talking-head for what they are – a self-aggrandizing marketing toy with the only goal of raising AUM at investor expense – as opposed to providing balanced research, investment advice, and occasionally contrarian perspectives.

via Rosenberg Debunks The Stupidity Of The Masses | ZeroHedge.