Oh wow…now this sucks.
HURRAY FOR 100 POSTS!
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Quiz for monday…under 3 hours
Work, power, energy,pressure,depth, thermal properties of matter, buoyancy,heat,thermal resistance,convection, thermodynamics.
yep…my life sucks when its physics time -_-. not that i am illiterate in the field (mind you, i got a 94 on my prelims, 1.5 in UST’s grading system) its just so irritating that he has to give a quiz about all the topics of the finals in one freaking day, for 3 freaking hours. does he have any idea how many calculations, formulas, and terms we have to remember?! the F*CK is up with that >_> then on friday, we’ll be having a quiz AGAIN on the 6 reports which i barely understood since i really don’t like listening to reports in the afternoon when i’m sleepy and all 😛
the ones i can remember: electric current, sound waves, wavelength, intensity of sound. and the other 2 i just erased from my head >_> and NO i don’t remember ALL THOSE SLIDES (reports were all shown via powerpoint). i just remember the topics…and maybe some of the words but not all of them. about 30% i guess.
update on my student life:
finished my written reports on enzymes and pigments. vitamins will be last (10 pages each >_>)
unfinished homework in calculus concering trigonometric integrals
unfinished homework in food analysis
unfinished article review on food chemistry
almost finished technical writing report on E.Coli (with all the professional format and formalities including a thesis statement and data sheets @_@)
haven’t studied for the quiz on the informal fallacies of logic (from ad ignorantiam upto ad mefailingthequiz)
i actually expected my weekends to be busy…but not CRAMMED with all these subjects @_@ not to mention that my data 2 for the effect of vit.e on the rancidity of corn oils was lost by a classmate of mine who borrowed my manual without my permission. it just so happens that i keep my “scratch” data there in a piece of paper. and damn! it fell wherever >_> i could only theorize the effect on week 2 now T_T and this report was going to be my favorite since it was so easy! guess i’ll be hitting the book shelves…AGAIN.
hope you guys have a better status in life. ’cause mine’s just about to blow up!
Google To Fund Ideas That Will Change the World
“This week, as part of their tenth birthday celebration, Google announced the launch of project ten to the 100th, a project designed to inspire and fund the development of ideas that will help to change the world. They have called on members of the public to share their ideas for solutions that will help as many people as possible in the global community, offering a $10 million prize pool to back the development of those chosen as winners. ‘We know there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition,’ says Bethany Poole, Project Marketing Manager for Google. ‘These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple — but they need to have impact.’ The project’s website asks entrants to classify their ideas into one of eight categories listed as Community, Opportunity, Energy, Environment, Health, Education, Shelter and Everything Else. Members of the public have until October 20th to submit their ideas by completing a simple form and answering a few short questions about their idea.”
MythBusters Viewer Challenge!
Calling the MythBusters YouTube community… submit your myth to Adam and Jamie for the NEXT viral video episode, coming in 2009!
Tell us which YouTube videos you’d like to see debunked by posting the USERNAME and TITLE of the video in the comments section. Or post them as a video response and tell us what you’d like to see Adam and Jamie tackle next.
If you want to submit a clip to be considered for testing on MythBusters, please make sure to review these terms first:
Do not do anything reckless, dangerous or illegal in the preparation of your clip.
Do not do or include anything that is a violation of anyone’s privacy.
By submitting a clip and participating, you agree that you and your participants release, discharge, indemnify and hold harmless Beyond Productions Pty Limited (Beyond), Discovery Communications, LLC. (Discovery) and Discovery’s cable service providers from any and all claims, actions, costs, damages and expenses, including those arising in any way out of your creation of the clip, posting the clip, or Discovery or Beyond’s use of the clip.
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Writer’s note: i wanna submit an entry! but i don’t know what! O_O and LOL on Jamie looks like he has a small head 😀
House Republicans Rebuff Bush on Bailout
WASHINGTON — The seeds of the House Republican revolt over the financial industry bailout were sown in an e-mail message circulated Monday night as internal animosity built quickly over the Bush administration’s request for $700 billion to prevent an economic collapse.
In a message to members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, leaders of the bloc of more than 100 lawmakers solicited ideas, calling for a “free-market alternative to the Treasury Department’s proposal so that, regardless of how individual R.S.C. members vote on final passage, House conservatives have something to be for.”
As the week progressed, it became abundantly clear that one thing conservative Republicans were most certainly not for was the Treasury plan, prompting them to begin searching for an alternative to avoid the perception of strictly being naysayers.
By the end of Friday, at least a portion of their alternative seemed likely to be included in the broader proposal as a sweetener for Republicans, although closed-door negotiations continued into the evening on Friday, and the contours of the final package remained in limbo.
After years of acceding to the White House on a variety of initiatives despite deep misgivings, House Republicans found the administration’s latest proposal to be too much to swallow.
Just as they were trying to reassert themselves as a party of fiscal restraint, President Bush, on his way out the White House door, was asking them to sign off of on a $700 billion bailout built on taxpayer dollars, with very few questions allowed.
“You were being asked to choose between financial meltdown on the one hand and taxpayer bankruptcy and the road to socialism on the other and you were told do it in 24 hours,” Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, head of the conservative group, said. “It was just never going to happen.”
As they dig in against the White House, House Republicans are drawing strength and encouragement from outside critics of the bailout, like former Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Club for Growth, a conservative economic group known for financing primary challenges against apostate Republicans.
Richard Viguerie, the longtime conservative leader, on Friday heralded House Republicans for guarding against “this total cave-in by President Bush and the Senate Republicans.”
The resistance caps two years of frustration among House Republicans after losing the majority in 2006. They believe they have suffered serious mistreatment at the hands of the Democrats and that they have been marginalized in legislative negotiations since they, unlike their Senate counterparts, do not have the procedural weapons to force their way to the negotiating table.
They also complain that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has been too quick to bargain mainly with Democrats, led by the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, and Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, not only on this plan but on the stimulus proposal earlier this year, a subsequent housing bill and other economic measures.
The Monday e-mail message, which led to a statement of principles that many other conservatives embraced, became their manifesto. By Thursday, a legislative alternative was circulating, one centered on federal insurance for mortgage assets combined with tax cuts on investment gains. When Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, put that alternative on the table at the White House on Thursday afternoon, a verbal brawl broke out, scuttling a grand compromise and forcing negotiators back to the table.
With the blessing of Mr. Boehner, the plan was promoted by a troika made up of Mr. Hensarling along with Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, a major fund-raiser and a rising star in the Republican ranks, and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who is seen as one of the sharpest economic minds in the Republican conference.
The legislative alternative, combined with anger at their vastly reduced power on Capitol Hill and fueled by an internal power struggle , has made House Republicans suddenly relevant again. They have become the chief impediment to speedy approval of a bailout plan, because Democrats say they will not push one through on their own.
It represents a risky approach, raising the prospect that Republicans could be blamed if the bailout collapses and the markets plunge. But they could also claim victory if some of their plan is incorporated into the final product and it generates Republican support — still a large question mark as negotiations continued. Democrats and the Treasury Department both say the Republican plan is flawed and unworkable.
Recognizing the prospect that a failure could be attributed to them, Republicans took pains Friday to make it clear they recognized some government intervention was necessary, just not the sort sought by the White House. And Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 2 House Republican, was tapped to serve as an official emissary to the negotiations.
Mr. Cantor acknowledged, “People want to see a deal made, no question about it.”
Yet, at the same time, it was becoming quite obvious that some House Republicans no longer saw themselves as an extension of the Bush White House.
For example, in advance of the president’s speech Wednesday, Representative Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, a member of the Republican leadership, sent out this statement expressing his pique: “Who’s giving the Republican response?”
The revolt surprised many because the Republican leadership of the House and Senate initially appeared to be solidly in Mr. Paulson’s corner. Participants at last week’s meeting between the leadership and administration economic advisers said Mr. Boehner was among those most willing to endorse a drastic intervention, a position he emphasized in a later television interview, calling for speedy action.
But he began rolling back as the negotiations moved ahead and was adamant, after the Thursday announcement of a deal in principle, that there was no deal he had blessed. By Thursday night, he had moved behind the Republican alternative, demanding it get a hearing.
Aides to Mr. Boehner said he was motivated partly by what he saw as a political effort by Democrats to seal a deal before Senator John McCain, the party’s presidential candidate, could have a say in talks when he arrived Thursday.
On Friday, when House Republicans met to review the state of play, Mr. Boehner received a standing ovation at the Republican meeting in tribute to his decision to balk at the plan.
“Republicans say they believe they stand to be rewarded for forcing closer review of the bailout. They say Democrats can always pass the Treasury plan on their own.
“If Democrats believe the only plan that will save the economy is the Paulson plan, they have the power and the moral responsibility to go ahead and pass it,” said Mr. Hensarling. “They don’t have to have Republican votes to get it done.”
Flu-fighting efforts focus on getting kids immunized
Dr. Gerald R. Greene, a pediatrician in Highland, helped coordinate a complicated flu-immunization program for children in San Bernardino County.
With flu season nearly here, the push is on to curtail outbreaks — and the spread of disease. The best place to start appears to be schoolchildren.
THE UPCOMING flu season could be the start of something big.
Not “big” as in the severity of flu. By all accounts, this year’s influenza vaccine should be more successful than last year’s only partly effective one. And it’s too early to tell whether the flu this season will be especially widespread.
Over the last decade, public health officials have been expanding the recommendations on which age groups of children should get the flu shot. This year marks the first time in history that flu vaccination is recommended for everyone age 18 and younger, with the exception of infants 6 months old and younger.
The main question is: Will parents go for it?
Physicians hope that vaccinating kids en masse will not only spare thousands of them from the aches and pains of flu, missed school days and hospitalizations, but also will hinder the spread of illness throughout the rest of society — parents, grandparents, baby-sitters, neighbors, teachers, coaches, office workers, healthcare personnel, bus drivers, and on and on.
“This is the concept of herd immunity,” says Dr. Stephen C. Aronoff, chairman of the department of pediatrics at Temple University in Philadelphia. “The more people you vaccinate, the less likely you are to see infection in people who are not vaccinated.”
For example, a vaccinated child won’t pick up the virus at school, bring it home to Mom and Dad, who then infect their co-workers, clients and any others with whom they come in contact, including elderly people. Children, because of their biology and their not-too-great hygiene, are germy little beings who have the potential to spread flu far and wide.
Flu vaccination guidelines made by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have undergone major revisions over the last 20 years as more evidence points to children as carriers of the disease. In 2004, a recommendation was added that babies age 6 months to 23 months be vaccinated. In 2005, the CDC tacked on vaccination for age 24 to 59 months (with the exception of some children with illnesses such as reactive breathing disorders).
The recommendation to add youths ages 5 through 18, announced earlier this year, is based primarily on the fact that children suffer disproportionately from flu. Roughly 1 in 100 kids with flu is hospitalized, and 75 to 150 children die each year of the disease. Death rates are much higher among those 65 and older, but the rates of hospitalization for children 2 and younger match those of the elderly, and children 2 to 5 have the highest rates of seeing a doctor or visiting the emergency room because of the flu. And overall, young people ages 5 to 18 have the highest rates of infection.
“There is a higher rate of infection with influenza in school-age children — what we call the highest attack rate,” says Dr. Jeanne Santoli, deputy director of the Immunization Services Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC. “We know the vaccine is effective in this age group, and we know it’s safe. So the recommendation is based on the direct benefit to these children. But there’s another reason too. What does it mean to the community if we vaccinate these children?”
Vaccinating children could mean less flu all around, research suggests. From 1962 through 1987, most schoolchildren in Japan were vaccinated, and flu rates and deaths dropped significantly throughout the Japanese population.
In another example, officials in a small town in Michigan vaccinated schoolchildren at the start of the 1968 flu pandemic. The town had one-third the number of flu cases overall of nearby towns where children were not vaccinated.
Studies show that children are especially potent transmitters of the flu, says John Talarico, interim chief of immunization at the California Department of Health Services. Adults transmit flu germs for three to five days after symptoms first appear; children, about 10 days.
Expanding the pool of vaccine recipients is probably only part of the solution to curbing flu outbreaks, says Dr. Peter Szilagyi, a pediatrician and expert in child immunizations at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y.
“We also need more effective vaccines. I think the combination of those two things will really help.”
In the meantime, the CDC will be monitoring outbreaks over the next several years to determine whether its push to immunize children reduces the nation’s flu load.
Top 10 Mobile Phone Screwups
Los Angeles (CA) – Mobile phone engineering and marketing is all about compromises, but sometimes these compromises turn the phone into a very expensive paper weight. Sure, you can’t exactly cram every feature under the known Universe into a phone, but at least give us the features that we want.
iPhone: sealed batteries
It’s remarkable that the iPhone succeeded at all with so many weaknesses, but what’s remarkable is that it managed to get away with a non-user-replaceable battery. I mean, how many phones with sealed batteries can you count? But that’s not all, the iPhone battery replacement program slaps you with a $79 service fee for the replacement battery, plus $6.95 for shipping. Now you know why Apple likes iPhone batteries sealed. What’s next? Cars with sealed reservoirs that can be refueled only at Shell gas stations?
Android G: no headphone jack
The first Android-powered Google phone is an excellent device at first sight. On a closer inspection, however, compromises and weird design choices start to show. We were tempted to pick G1’s plasticky appearance and the aesthetics that surely won’t win any beauty contest, but it is the lack of headphone jack that truly amazes us. It’s beyond comprehension how collective design minds of Google, HTC and T-Mobile came to such design. It’s almost as if Apple made cool new iPod with a tiny mono speaker and no headphone jack.
Blackberry Touch: I am the iPhone lookalike
The first Blackberry touch-based smartphone reminds me of Steve Ballmer in this “I am a PC!” video. Touch screams “I am an iPhone lookalike (and proud of it)” and we’re sure that it will do really great e-mail. That’s about it, really, thanks to practically lack of any form of marketing from Blackberry. Underselling itself is the biggest blunder of Blackberry Touch. If you want to compete with iPhone, you just don’t keep your mouth shut.
Garmin Nuvifone: another propriatory operating system
Garmin Nuvifone came out of nowhere. We admit, we are sold on the idea of the GPS focused mobile phone from a compan specialized in GPS navigation systems. Unfortunately, this indicates Nuvifone could suck as a mobile phone. Not that it is short on specifications – on the contrary – but all that hardware is useless without elegant software. Instead for choosing, for example, Android or Windows Mobile, Garmin decided to power Nuvifone with its own operating system used in their GPS gadgets. Now, everyone who has used Garmin’s navigation equipment knows that it comes short of sleek graphics, smooth animation and desktop-like features. It’s the software, stupid!
Motorola Z1: kick-arse kick-slider causes back-bending
Motorola didn’t learn a thing from last year’s problems that plagued Z8 slider-phone. The Symbian-powered Z10 is take-two for the kick-slider concept that hinges the phone as it opens into a curved shape. And what is the reasoning behind this wizardry? It allegedly improves call quality by bringing the microphone closer to the mouth. It wasn’t really necessary to tank the otherwise great handset that has excellent video recording capabilities juts for the sake of wow effect when you kick-slide it open. Do it too many times and you risk back-bending.
Nokia N96: feature beast for geeks
Expected to arrive during the quarter, Nokia N96 is by any measure a feature monster that has it all. But top-notch hardware has no match in software and the end result is actually a concept phone that proves how much can be crammed into a handset. N96 is not perfectly balanced product, although it could have been. It is too heavy, looks bulky and if its predecessor is any indication, clunky user interface and unreliable navigation button will appeal only to geeks. If only we could have the iPhone with N96 hardware.
Nokia Tube: boring, commodity “lifestyle” phone
Finnish mobile phone leader will bring a plethora of touch screen-based devices to the market by year’s end and one of them is going to be called Tube. The device will be aimed at “volume market”, which most likely means a lot of compromises. Why is it taking Nokia so long to come up with a product that can take the iPhone head-to-head? Tube is the biggest blunder because it looks like to be typical underwhelming, cheap phone aimed at average consumers who really doesn’t but the lifestyle that Nokia serves in ads.
Palm Treo Pro: tiny, narrow physical keyboard
I don’t get it… With 50% of Americans with sausage fingers, Palm makes this touchscreen phone with a narrow physical QWERTY keyboard below the screen. Guys, if you bothered to make a real keyboard it’s either landscape-oriented QWERTY keyboard that slides-out beneath the screen or nothing. If Treo Pro had slide-out keyboard like G1, it would have actually been much more interesting smartphone than G1 is. Bar the narrow keyboard, Treo Pro is pretty capable Windows Mobile smartphone.
Samsung Instinct: bad marketing cripples a great product
The only iPhone challenger this summer, Instinct sells for $129 with a 2-year Sprint service contract. It’s a great handset with some features that the iPhone 3G lacks, such as camcorder camera, live TV and music downloads over the cellular network and touchscreen that also works with a stylus. Instinct is also a prime example how bad marketing cripples a great product. Samsung was so confident in Instinct that it made ads that pitched key Instinct features against the iPhone, with both handsets shown side-by-side. As if providing free advertising for the iPhone wasn’t enough, the ads became irrelevant when iPhone 3G came out soon thereafter, but it took Samsung weeks to remove videos from Instinct site. Next phase brought trailers and scenes from an imaginary high-tech spy movie starring Instinct, but they were later removed, too. Makes you wonder who exactly is a target customer for Instinct if not a 13-years old kid?
SonyEricsson Xperia X1: comes too late
If SonyEricsson launched Xperia X1 this summer, it could have become a huge hit and practically the only viable challenger to the iPhone 3G. But man is this phone way too late… With G1’s release and other smartphones scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks, Xperia doesn’t look so groundbreaking anymore – its mojo wore off by now. As if bad timing wasn’t enough, SonyEricsson will initially launch the phone across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, but not in the U.S. where it is expected to come possibly by year’s end.
GAO report critical of FDA oversight of produce
The Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of food safety in the fresh produce industry has been hindered by an inadequate budget and staff, according to a study released by the Government Accountability Office.
At the same time the agency has devoted resources to investigate foodborne illness outbreaks and an increased role in counterterrorism efforts, taking away from inspections and other preventative measures, the office said in a report on fresh produce.
The GAO said in the report, released Sept. 26, that FDA spent $20 million — about 3% of its food safety budget — on fresh produce in 2007. The agency in June requested to have its overall 2009 budget increased by $275 million.
The report highlights the previously published fact that less than 1% of the nation’s fresh produce imports are inspected by FDA. Furthermore, GAO found that 92% of samples taken from imports were tested for pesticides rather than pathogens. The report says inadequate funding led the agency to shed 17% of its food safety staff since it peaked at 3,969 workers in 2003.
The report was critical of FDA’s lack of intervention with domestic firms. The report says that 2,002 domestic companies were inspected an average of two times from 2000 through 2007. Though problems were observed in 41% of these inspections, FDA frequently relied on firms “to take voluntary corrective action.”
The report also includes previously unpublished FDA data indicating that from 1996 through 2006 there were at least 96 outbreaks, 10,253 illnesses and 14 deaths linked to fresh produce.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) called for the GAO study after the 2006 E. coli outbreak linked to fresh spinach.
“This report paints a frightening picture of the FDA’s fresh produce safety efforts — insufficient resources and staff, infrequent inspections and a failure to punish known violators,” Boxer said in a statement. “It also offers further proof that the Bush Administration’s disdain for government oversight and regulation has had disastrous consequences in terms of food safety and public health, let alone the financial markets. This report should serve as a wake up call to do more to protect the nation’s food supply.
“I strongly urge the next President to make the necessary administrative changes recommended in this report, and I am committed to working with my colleagues to make sure that Congress passes common-sense legislation to help the FDA achieve its mission of keeping our food safe and healthy to eat,” her statement read.
The GAO reported that the FDA’s Food Protection Plan could significantly enhance the agency’s oversight of the industry. However, since much of that effort remains in the planning stages the report said it is “difficult to assess the likelihood of success.”
The Food Protection Plan includes plans to update guidance on Good Agricultural Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices, and the agency has asked Congress for authority to implement preventive controls for high-risk commodities as part of the plan.
The GAO recommends updating those guidance documents and pursuing preventative controls in the report.
An FDA spokesman could not be reached for comment, but the agency released a statement in response to the report.
“FDA appreciates the Congressional investment in its efforts to implement the Food Protection Plan, which calls for two of the very same authorities recommended in this report,” the agency said. “In addition, FDA will soon be awarding grants to states to further food and feed safety — one of the many steps we are taking to transform food protection.”
The full report is available here.
The 9th Soul 
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