Archive
Did Larry McDonald Survive The ‘Shootdown’ Of KAL 007? From Dick Eastman (via ~ BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ ~ (BLOG & EMAIL))
Kidney dopamine regulates blood pressure, life span
The neurotransmitter dopamine is best known for its roles in the brain – in signaling pathways that control movement, motivation, reward, learning and memory.
Now, Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have demonstrated that dopamine produced outside the brain – in the kidneys – is important for renal function, blood pressure regulation and life span. Their studies, published in the July Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that the kidney-specific dopamine system may be a therapeutic target for treating hypertension and kidney diseases such as diabetic nephropathy.
Previous studies had suggested a role for dopamine in regulating kidney function and total body fluid volume, “but how that mechanism works was not clear,” said Raymond Harris, M.D., chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Vanderbilt.
To explore dopamine’s role in the kidney, Harris and Ming-Zhi Zhang, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, eliminated kidney-specific dopamine production in mice (by knocking out a dopamine-generating enzyme only in the kidney) and studied the outcome.
They found that mice lacking kidney dopamine had high blood pressure at baseline and became more hypertensive when they consumed a high-salt diet, suggesting they may be a good model of salt-sensitive (essential) hypertension, Harris said. Alterations in the kidney dopamine system may predispose individuals to hypertension, he noted.
The investigators also showed that elimination of kidney dopamine increased renin production, which activates the angiotensin II system to increase salt and water reabsorption – and produce hypertension.
“These animals retain salt and water when they don’t have sufficient dopamine production in the kidney,” Harris said. “Our studies highlight this whole other hormonal system that appears to balance or put the brakes on the renin-angiotensin system.”
Currently, the renin-angiotensin system is the major target for treating chronic kidney diseases. Discovering another target – the kidney dopamine system – is exciting, the researchers said. They are exploring whether specific drugs that enhance the kidney dopamine system are effective in blocking hypertension and treating progressive kidney diseases.
The investigators predicted changes in kidney function in the mouse model, but they were “very surprised” to discover that the modified mice only lived about half as long as normal mice (15 months versus 30 months). They found increases in stress-related proteins in the kidney, heart and vasculature, suggesting that elimination of kidney dopamine causes systemic effects, Harris said.
“This kidney-specific dopamine system is not only important for kidney function and blood pressure regulation, but also for the overall health of the animal,” Harris said. “If the dopamine system in the kidney is altered, the animals have a markedly shortened life span.”
###
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Vanderbilt O’Brien Center and by the Veterans Administration. Harris is the Ann and Roscoe R. Robinson Professor of Nephrology.
Things On Cars that Will Be Gone by 2025
Things On Cars that Will Be Gone by 2025
Things On Cars that Will Be Gone by 2025: “We’ve seen a lot of advancements in automotive design and technology in the past 14 years, so what’s to come in the next 14 years? We’ve all heard of autonomous cars in the making, and we’ve seen the evolution of hybrids, electrics, navigation, Bluetooth connectivity, and advanced safety features that are capable of stopping a vehicle in its tracks.
Imajerk17 asks us to look into the future to 2025, and debate what things automotive will be phased out in the cars of the future. He thinks steering wheels will be phased out and may possibly be replaced with a joystick, and with the development of aluminum and carbon-fiber-bodied cars, will steel-bodied cars make it to see 2025? Other forum posters are scared manual transmissions will a long-lost memory. What do you think? What things automotive will likely be gone by 2025? Would you go as far to say that human drivers will no longer be needed?”
via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Things On Cars that Will Be Gone by 2025.
White House: we “win the future” by making ISPs into copyright cops
The White House likes the newly announced “six strikes” voluntary agreement announced today between major copyright holders and Internet access providers. That’s no surprise—the US administration helped to broker the deal.
“The joining of Internet service providers and entertainment companies in a cooperative effort to combat online infringement can further this goal [of supporting jobs and exports] and we commend them for reaching this agreement,” said Victoria Espinel, US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, in a statement today. “We believe it will have a significant impact on reducing online piracy.”
Espinel is professionally interested in copyright online; Vice President Joe Biden is more of a copyright hobbyist (“piracy is flat, unadulterated theft”) who has convened White House meetings to talk about infringement. It was therefore no real surprise to learn a few weeks ago that the White House had played a behind-the-scenes role (along with New York’s Andrew Cuomo) in bringing together the content owners and ISPs to hash out a voluntary agreement.
While ISPs were for years seen more like the “common carriers” of yore, who ran a network and were generally not responsible for policing the uses of that network, government sentiment in key quarters is changing. And not just in the US—at the recent high level OECD Internet conference in Paris, the concluding document stressed ISPs’ duty to halt bad behavior.
“Sound Internet policy should
via White House: we “win the future” by making ISPs into copyright cops.
America’s Disappeared : Information Clearing House: ICH
But Obama has no intention of restoring the rule of law. He not only refuses to prosecute flagrant war crimes, but has immunized those who orchestrated, led and carried out the torture. At the same time he has dramatically increased war crimes, including drone strikes in Pakistan. He continues to preside over hundreds of the offshore penal colonies, where abuse and torture remain common. He is complicit with the killers and the torturers.
The only way the rule of law will be restored, if it is restored, is piece by piece, extradition by extradition, trial by trial. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice and John Ashcroft will, if we return to the rule of law, face trial. The lawyers who made legal what under international and domestic law is illegal, including not only Rizzo but Alberto Gonzales, Jay Bybee, David Addington, William J. Haynes and John Yoo, will, if we are to dig our way out of this morass, be disbarred and prosecuted. Our senior military leaders, including Gen. David Petraeus, who oversaw death squads in Iraq and widespread torture in clandestine prisons, will be lined up in a courtroom, as were the generals in Argentina, and made to answer for these crimes. This is the only route back. If it happens it will happen because a few courageous souls such as the attorney and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, are trying to make it happen. It will take time—a lot of time; the crimes committed by Bianco and the two former officers sent to prison this month are nearly four decades old. If it does not happen, then we will continue to descend into a terrifying, dystopian police state where our guards will, on a whim, haul us out of our cells to an amusement park and make us ride, numb and bewildered, on the kiddie train, before the next round of torture.
via America’s Disappeared : Information Clearing House: ICH.
Cut, Cap and Balance: A Chicken Tale by Karen Kwiatkowski
The whole debate is moot, because it has been demonstrated from the beginning that Congress has never met a law that it couldn’t ignore, modify, or break, starting with the original Constitution.
It is also moot because these congressmen assume that ¾ of the several states would approve such a balanced budget amendment, then, now, or in the future. The states well understand their fundamental relationship to the federal government, that unwritten law of federalism. States exist to bring home the goodies, ideally paid for by other states or by a collective accumulation of shared debt owed by future voters and future taxpayers, again mostly residing in other states. The very idea of a demand to pay the federal bill in a given fiscal year (even 18 months later, as the proposed language has it, allowing time to “measure” the GDP) would be simultaneously laughable and repulsive to state governors and to the people, because they intuitively understand that it would mean both fewer goodies and higher taxation, for the wealthier states first and eventually for even the poorest and smallest of states.
The states would overwhelmingly reject this amendment, even if it had teeth and claws, which it does not. This proposal is the rohypnol in the Constitutional martini, following the tradition of federal government boorishness of the 16th Amendment and the 1973 War Powers Act. Cap, Cut and Balance should be nicknamed the Roofie Amendment.
via Cut, Cap and Balance: A Chicken Tale by Karen Kwiatkowski.
Is revolution brewing in America? By Michael Webster (via ~ BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984 ~ (BLOG & EMAIL)) (via ~ BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+ ~ (BLOG & EMAIL))
Philadelphia Police Poised To Crack Down On Bicycle, Pedestrian Violations
Philadelphia Police Poised To Crack Down On Bicycle, Pedestrian Violations
Philadelphia Police Poised To Crack Down On Bicycle, Pedestrian Violations: “More like ‘Give Tickets, Get Money‘.
These tickets will be issued to solid citizens who pay tickets without a fuss. Meanwhile, whole segements of society are allowed to remain completely lawless, and the police see nothing.”
Posted by Gunny G at Tuesday, July 19, 2011
via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Philadelphia Police Poised To Crack Down On Bicycle, Pedestrian Violations.
Sustainable Health: Are You Ready to Be Forced into Health Prevention
Did you think that Obama care and Agenda 21 were not interwoven? The word “sustainable” appeared at least a couple of times in the Summary. The document is quite lengthy, 125 pages.
The National Prevention Strategy is not just concerned with addressing the leading causes of death and disability in the United States (heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases, and unintentional injuries), but also with “preventable behaviors—including tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical activity, and excessive alcohol use.” These priorities have to align with Healthy People 2020 initiative:
* Eliminate health disparities (euphemism for spreading the wealth)
* Promote healthy development and healthy behaviors across life stages (who decides what is and is not healthy, sounds very controlling and totalitarian)
* Create social and physical environments that promote good health (are we going to be moved to some Elysian Fields, the land of milk and honey?)
* Interventions will reach beyond the health care and public health sectors to include activities that influence health in areas such as:
o Housing
o Transportation
o In-school and outdoor education
o The workplace
o The environment”
If this is not Orwellian enough, required by the Affordable Care Act, the President established an Advisory Group on January 26, 2011 when he appointed 13 people as members, adding two more members on April 8, 2011. Some of the members are doctors; however, the majority are bureaucrats. This advisory group gives guidance to members of the National Prevention Council.
via Sustainable Health: Are You Ready to Be Forced into Health Prevention.
Who’s Behind Rupert Murdoch’s Fall? | ATLAH Media Network
Who’s Behind Rupert Murdoch’s Fall? | ATLAH Media Network
Who’s Behind Rupert Murdoch’s Fall? | ATLAH Media Network: “Who’s Behind Rupert Murdoch’s Fall?”
Dr James Manning…
Posted by Gunny G at Tuesday, July 19, 2011
via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Who’s Behind Rupert Murdoch’s Fall? | ATLAH Media Network.
The Reich Class: The USA’s Modern Bourbons by William L. Anderson
The Reich Class: The USA’s Modern Bourbons by William L. Anderson
The Reich Class: The USA’s Modern Bourbons by William L. Anderson: “A video by former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has been making the rounds, as Reich (who now is teaching at the University of California-Berkeley) claims to have ‘solved’ our economic problems. What is the problem, according to Reich? Marginal taxes are not high enough.
Indeed, as we shall see, Reich represents a class of people who yearn for the 1950s, when a third of the workforce was unionized, people ‘believed in government,’ tax rates were high, industries such as banking, railroads, airlines, and trucking were tightly regulated, and Americans were fed the kind of news via Progressive newspapers and a regulated broadcast media that the ‘Reich Class’ believed they should have. If one can liken this group to any in history, it would be the Bourbon Dynasty, of which Tallyrand once said, ‘They learned nothing and they forgot nothing.’”
Posted by Gunny G at Tuesday, July 19, 2011
via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): The Reich Class: The USA’s Modern Bourbons by William L. Anderson.
Thank You for Your Service? by Laurence M. Vance
Thank You for Your Service? by Laurence M. Vance
Thank You for Your Service? by Laurence M. Vance:
“And aside from these four things, I’m afraid I must also say: Sorry, soldiers, I don’t thank you for your service.
* I don’t thank you for your service in fighting foreign wars.
* I don’t thank you for your service in fighting without a congressional declaration of war.
* I don’t thank you for your service in bombing and destroying Iraq and Afghanistan.
* I don’t thank you for your service in killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans.
* I don’t thank you for your service in expanding the war on terror to Pakistan and Yemen.
* I don’t thank you for your service in occupying over 150 countries around the world.
* I don’t thank you for your service in garrisoning the planet with over 1,000 military bases.
* I don’t thank you for your service in defending our freedoms when you do nothing of the kind.
* I don’t thank you for your service as part of the president’s personal attack force to bomb, invade, occupy, and otherwise bring death and destruction to any country he deems necessary.
Thank you for your service? I don’t think so.”
via BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984(+): Thank You for Your Service? by Laurence M. Vance.











Recent Comments