forsv: potpourri of thoughts

jest for pun (February'05)

February '05 BlogThoughts

Every calendar's days are numbered.

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird, and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. -Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

He who builds a better mousetrap these days runs into material shortages, patent-infringement suits, work stoppages, collusive bidding, discount discrimination--and taxes.- H. E. Martz

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. - Robert Benchley (My Ten Years in a Quandary, 1936)

geek and you shall find...

Some folks are wise and some otherwise. - Josh Billings (1815 - 1885), American Humorist and Lecturer)

I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough. - M C Escher

east or west India is the best

Journalism is merely history's first draft. - Geoffrey C. Ward

Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these - Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)

In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from the smallest to tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower? - Warren Hutcherson

it's amazing how people take Valentines day to heart.

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. - Robert Benchley (My Ten Years in a Quandary, 1936)

I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow. - Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924)

You can always reason with a German. You can always reason with a barnyard animal, too, for all the good it does. - P. J. ORourke (Holidays in hell, 1989)

Some people love horoscopes to pisces.

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content. - Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)

lost in translation

Utter originality is, of course, out of the question. - Ezra Pound

A cube of cheese no larger than a die May bait the trap to catch a nibbling mie.- Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)

The Secret to Longevity in Tubeworms

With an incredible lifespan of up to 250 years, the deep-sea tube worm, Lamellibrachia luymesi, is among the longest-lived of all animals, but how it obtains sufficient nutrients -- in the form of sulfide -- to keep going for this long has been a mystery. In a paper just published in the online journal PLoS Biology, a team of biologists now provide a solution: by releasing its waste sulfate not up into the ocean but down into the sediments, L. luymesi stimulates the growth of sulfide-producing microbes, thus ensuring its own long-term survival.

From Penn State

The research team includes Erik E. Cordes, a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Charles Fisher, professor of biology at Penn State, along with Katriona Shea, assistant professor of biology at Penn State, Michael A. Arthur, a professor of geosciences at Penn State, and Rolf S. Arvidson, an earth sciences research scientist at Rice University.

The sulfide this worm needs is created by a consortium of bacteria and archaea that live in the cold deep-sea sediments surrounding the seep where the worm lives. These organisms use energy from hydrocarbons to reduce sulfate to sulfide, which L. luymesi absorbs through unique root-like extensions of its body, which tunnel into the sediments. However, current measurements of sulfide and sulfate fluxes in the water near the vents do not match either the observed size of the tubeworm colony or the observed longevity of its individuals, leading Cordes et al. to propose that L. luymesi also uses its roots to release sulfate back to the microbial consortia from which it draws its sulfide. Without this return of sulfate, the model predicts an average lifespan of only 39 years in a colony of 1,000 individuals; with it, survival increases to over 250 years, matching the longevity of actual living tubeworms.

To date, the proposed return of sulfate to the sediments through the roots is only a hypothesis -- albeit one with much to support it -- that still awaits direct confirmation. By providing a model in which this hypothetical interaction provides real benefits and explains real observations, the authors hope to stimulate further research into the biology of the enigmatic and beautiful L. luymesi.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

New Indian drug patent rule hurts poor AIDS patients: US experts

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US law and AIDS experts urged the Indian parliament to reject an executive order that will curb India's ability to sell cheap copies of the newest drugs for the world's poorest patients.

The Indian parliament will debate the new December 26 order, which changed its laws to put India in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on intellectual property rights.

Until its new rule, the South Asian giant had not recognized international drug patents, thereby leaving its pharmaceutical industry with a half-million-strong workforce free to copy foreign products.

India is the world's third-biggest producer and prime exporter of generic drugs, which are cheaper than drugs sold under patent.

The experts said the Indian parliament should either amend the order or let it die when it expires after six months in order to take time to revise it and improve it.

"Hundreds of millions of lives are at stake," said Brook Baker, a law professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and a policy adviser to the Health Global Access Project, an activist organization seeking worldwide access to HIV/AIDS treatment.

"People need access to the newest medicine," Baker said. "This ordinance cannot and should not stand."

The new ordinance could hurt public health programs in Africa, a continent plagued by AIDS cases, experts said.

"This is really about our ability to get these life-saving medicines in the mouths of people that urgently need them," said Paul Zeitz, executive director of US-based Global AIDS Alliance.

African and Indian activists, along with AIDS organizations, will hold a rally Saturday in front of India's embassy in Washington to show solidarity with similar protests to be held in India.

You damned dirty ape

If you're going to work with Koko the Gorilla, the famous talking ape, you've got to know more than sign language. Allegedly, Dr. Penny Patterson insists you've also gotta show your boobs... who knew?

Chimps: fair. Humans:...?

[You humans] [have been around a lot longer than you were thought to have been here] -- [since at least 190,000 years ago]. [In 1967, the Omo ] [fossils were ] [thought to be about 130,000 ] [years old.]

How Stock Market functions

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the remote reservation asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea.

He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is Going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood. A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "It's definitely going to be a very cold winter. The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely, The man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever."

"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, "The Red Indians are collecting wood like crazy."

This is how stock markets work!!!

Career Builder Super Bowl ad

Check out one of the famous Super Bowl Commercials from Career Builder.

Click here all 2005 Super Bowl Commercials

Bud Light Ads

Ads. are becoming intelligent and more funny. Though you may not drink but am sure you will enjoy all the Bud Light ads. My favorite is the Sky diver one.

best way to transfer your music collection

"What's the best way to transfer your music collection to your iPod? It depends on what you value most: your time, money, or sanity."

Bush is Making the world safe

For gynaecologists. Video, Hilarious.