2008 Elections: The Right Hand Knoweth Not

Whose pants the left hand is in. The Keystone Kops are running the military, folks. And with Gee Dumbya in charge, that's probably just one of the things they're running.


The NYT tells us that Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has written an unusual open letter to all those in uniform, warning them to stay out of politics as the nation approaches a presidential election in which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a central, and certainly divisive, issue. Caveat: Login required, it's free. Pertinent snippet:

"the U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times. It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no matter which party holds sway."

"The only things we should be wearing on our sleeves are our military insignia," Mullen wrote.

Did anyone tell him that John McInsane, perennial try-hard for the position of Preznitwit, just released campaign ads with pitchas of General "IPlanToRunForPreznitwitSomeday" Petraeus?

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Another "stumble," Gramps?


Gee, Gramps, you refused to sign the GI Bill authored by Senator Jim Webb because you said soldiers wouldn't keep going back to get shot at if they had better access to education. But you're pretty darn willing to use them to raise a little money, huh? So much for "supporting the troops."

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Health: Alzheimer's Reversal

PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer's courtesy of NIH/National Institute On Aging

This is good news indeed, for those of us with aging parents, or, worse yet, those who are feeling the first touch of Alzheimer's. Nasty, nasty disease. And till now there has been no cure, or even treatment, really.

A new scientific study documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, according to the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

The study shows how a cytokine (soluble protein) known as tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF), which normally regulates transmission of neural impulses in the brain, interferes with regulation when it is present at elevated levels. The brains and cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer's patients show elevated levels of this cytokine.

Injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept shows improvement within minutes. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study.

The study was authored by Edward Tobinick M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA and director of the Institute for Neurological Research, with coauthor Hyman Gross, M.D., clinical professor of neurology at USC.

The study is titled “Rapid cognitive improvement in Alzheimer’s disease following perispinal etanercept administration,” and is available with the accompanying commentary, entitled “Perispinal etanercept: Potential as an Alzheimer’s therapeutic,” on the Web site of the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Let's hope it helps one of our favourite authors, Terry Pratchett.

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Science News, Vol 169

Some items from vol. 169 of Science News ... posting for The Political Cat while she's out of town ...

cancerRoss Cagan, a developmental biologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has shown that cells on a tumor's outer layer that come in contact with healthy cells receive a chemical signal (a protein called cadherin) that causes them to lose the surface proteins that keep them anchored. They then become motile, and while most of them die, those that mutate successfully and stay alive can form tumours elsewhere in the body. Hopefully, this will lead to a way of stopping the motility of these cells and the metastasizing of tumours.

brain development Gail A. Wasserman of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons has shown that water contaminated with manganese can limit the intellectual development of children exposed to it. The WHO (World Health Organisation) standard for manganese contamination is 500 mcg per liter of drinking water. However, contamination in wells in Bangladesh far exceeded that amount. Manganese in water is more readily absorbed in the body than manganese in food. Some U.S. well water exceeds these manganese concentrations. However, because manganese imparts a foul taste to water and stains porcelain, it is more likely that consumers in developed countries will avoid it.

astronomyThe Milky Way is apparently cannibalising nearby collections of stars, according to astronomers who have been combing through distance measurements recorded by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Heather Morrison of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Robert Lupton of Princeton University have both reported such cannibalistic activity on the part of our home galaxy.

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